Page Contents
- Introduction
- Late Return Filing Fees imposed U/s. 234F
- Time to File Revised / Belated Return Reduced
- Increase in Prosecution for Non filing of Income Tax Return
- Due Date for filing of Income Tax Return for A.Y. 2018-19
- Gujarat High Court Instruction on Timely release of ITR Forms and ITR Utility
- CBDT Notification Releasing ITR for A.Y. 2018-19 and Non-Release of ITR Utility
- Social Media Reactions on non-release of ITR
- Case for Linking of ITR Due Dates with ITR Utility Release date
Introduction
Due date for filing Income Tax Returns for A.Y. 2018-19 are fast approaching. But till date today, CBDT has been able to release Utility for Filing of only ITR 1 even after 36 days of start of new Assessment Year. In this article we will first discuss the penal consequences of Late Return Filing, Return Filing due dates, Social Media Reactions and why CBDT should Link ITR Filing Due date with ITR E-filing Utility Release Date.
Late Return Filing Fees imposed U/s. 234F
As we all know from this year (Assessment Year 2018-19) government has imposed a late fees for delayed filing of Income Tax Return under Section 234F of Income Tax Act, 1961 which ranges from a Minimum of Rs. 1000 to a Maximum of Rs. 10000/-.
Time to File Revised / Belated Return Reduced
Further government has also reduced time limit for filing of belated return by one year with effect from A.Y. 2017-18. Hence the IT Return for Assessment Year 2018-19 can be filed only up to 31.03.2019. Similarly, the time to file revised return also been reduced by one year and now Return for A.Y. 2018-19 (including the belated return) can be revised only till 31.03.2019.
Increase in Prosecution for Non filing of Income Tax Return
It is observed in the last one year that government has started initiating Prosecution U/s. 276CC for late Income Tax Return Filers and Income Tax Act does not provide any immunity to even belated return filers. As per the provisions of section 276CC, a person can be placed behind the bars for a term ranging from three months to seven years. Please note that prosecution is not applicable only if tax payable by the taxpayer (not being a company) on the total income determined on regular assessment (as reduced by advance tax and TDS, if any), does not exceed Rs. 3,000.
For Other consequences of late return filing, readers may read the following article- Consequences of Non or Late Filing of the Income Tax Return
Due Date for filing of Income Tax Return for A.Y. 2018-19
The due dates to file income tax return for A.Y. 2018-19 can be divided into two parts.
| Sr. No. | Category | Due Date for Income Tax Return |
| 1 | Individuals, HUF, BOI, AOP. (Taxpayers with no audit requirement.) | 31st July 2018 |
| 2 | Company, Taxpayers whose accounts need to be Audited, Working partner (whose firm’s books need to be Audited) | 30th September 2018 |
Gujarat High Court Instruction on Timely release of ITR Forms and ITR Utility
Now coming to the topic of ITR Release, Hon’ble Gujarat High Court has in the case of All Gujarat Federation of Tax Consultants Vs CBDT vide its judgment dated 30.09.2015 has instructed CBDT to ensure that the forms and utilities for e-filing of income tax returns are ordinarily made available on the 1st day of April of the assessment year.
CBDT Notification Releasing ITR for A.Y. 2018-19 and Non-Release of ITR Utility
CBDT has vide its Notification No. 16/2018-Income Tax dated 03rd April 2018 has released ITR 1 to ITR 7 for Financial Year 2017-18 / A.Y. 2018-19 but till date it’s been able to release Return filing Utility for only ITR 1, which was released on 14th April 2018. The Income Tax Department has failed to Release Income Tax Return filing Utility for other ITRs even after 36 days of end of Assessment Year 2018-19.
Social Media Reactions on non-release of ITR
Social Media nowadays plays a big role and current Central Government has given a lot of Importance to Social Media Communication especially to Twitter. We have shortlisted few of the tweet reactions on this subject and added them below-
Sahab itr utilities due date khatm hone k baad aayenge kya…
— Mr. Gaurav (@Garvs_92) May 6, 2018
ITR deadline is 31 July for non-audit cases for AY 2018-19 and only ITR 1 filing Utility is available till date.If CBDT charges Penalty for delayed ITR filing, should it not make available all the ITRs Filing Utility on April1 CBDT should extend due date @PMOIndia @FinMinIndia
— CA RAJAT DUBEY (@drajatdubey) May 4, 2018
https://twitter.com/naturefuture/status/992452295487963136
@theicai @NaveenNDGupta @PrafullaCa @catarunghia @NileshVik Requesting to represent the government for providing ITR forms. Only one form is issued. Also already 26.22% (32 days out of 122) has already been passed. Also the due date of TDS return should be preponed.
— Karan Thacker (@ca_karanthacker) May 3, 2018
@IncomeTaxIndia has ignored @DelhiHighCourt decision whereas mentioned that department should provide ITR from 1st April of Assessment Year unless otherwise reasons recorded in writing. Only ITR1 is available. @FinMinIndia @Ish_Bhandari https://t.co/0nStYUBkl3
— Chintan Parekh (@Chintan0890) May 1, 2018
ITR 3,5,6,7 Not released yet. Due date is 31st July. Can we get due date extension equal to delay in release of ITRs?@IncomeTaxIndia @PMOIndia @FinMinIndia @arunjaitley
— CA Vigneshwar Elangovan (@vickyelango) May 1, 2018
@FinMinIndia @arunjaitley one month completed today for filing I T returns for AY 18-19 except ITR1 no other forms are available on Website.due date of filing is fixed by department .so please available all ITR on priority.otherwise extend dates due to unavailability of ITR Forms
— Adv.Pawan Baldi (@PawanBaldi) April 30, 2018
@IncomeTaxIndia,@FinMinIndia No e filing option activated for ITRs except ITR-1 .Sir are you again going to extend the due date of filing.please inform in advance so that , we can plan accordingly. 30days already passed out of 122 days .
— Rajendra Rampuria (@r_rampuria) April 30, 2018
@IncomeTaxIndia Till the time ITR forms are not released extend the 31st july due date https://t.co/ANRyjpHcNM
— CA Shashank Mittal 🇮🇳 (@shashank_ca) April 28, 2018
@PMOIndia @SHALAKHANDI one month completed today for filing I T returns for AY 18-19 except ITR1 no other forms are available on Website.due date of filing is fixed by department .so please available all ITR on priority.otherwise extend dates due to unavailability of ITR Forms
— Adv.Pawan Baldi (@PawanBaldi) April 30, 2018
Case for Linking of ITR Due Dates with ITR Utility Release date
Now I am not talking about lots of Legal Compliances which a taxpayer and Tax Professionals need to Comply in coming months and not making those a basis for due date extension. What I observed since the Introduction of E-Returns and E-forms by Income Tax Department is Consistent Year on Year delay in release of ITR Utility and equally consistent demand from Taxpayers for extension of due date.
Now a few questions which arise are- Why the taxpayer has to ask for extension of due date when delay in release of ITR is not attributable to him? Why is the tax payer made to suffer by reducing time available to him to file his Income Tax Return? Why does the tax payer have to beg for extension of due date? Why is the department not made accountable for delay in release of ITR Utility? Why does the Govt. not provide any incentive for timely filing and timely payment of taxes? Why has the Hon’ble Gujarat High Court’s decision not been followed? Why can’t we make our tax system taxpayer friendly instead of increasing compliance burden and Penal consequences on Regular basis without much improvement in Tax System in which rampant corruption is still prevalent?
In My opinion CBDT should link ITR Filing due date with ITR E-filing Utility Release Date so that taxpayer gets sufficient time to file his Income Tax Returns and do not have to beg for extension of due date for delay in release of Income Tax Return Forms and Utility.
Further CBDT should extend due date for ITR of A.Y. 2018-19 based on release date of ITR i.e. As ITR 1 for A.Y. 2018 been released on 14th April 2018 so due for those liable to file ITR 1 should be extended from existing 31st July 2018 to 14th August 2018 and in the same way it should extend the due date for Other Return Forms based on due date applicable to Assessee for filing of Return and ITR Utility Release date.
Author Bio
I have to upload ITR 2 in excel format for AY 18-19. But this format is not available, In the IT website only pdf formats are available. In utilities I have to have Java platform. I use Chrome for net activity and chrome had disabled java program.
What is the remedy. Can any one help me how to upload the ITR2. You may send me your suggestion to mail address or on this site since it would be more useful like me.
The assessee will get their TDS certificates in June & ITR utilities also so far has not been released by the department so the department will “definately” extend the due date or relax the penal action. So we should concentrate our job as per the statute.
It is disheartening to note that the Government /CBDT is resorting to regressive methods of penalizing taxpayers for delays or inabilities of taxpayers in filing their tax returns. The Govt should come out of the British era mindset where they used to practice such archaic penal provisions in collecting their revenue. The concept of late fees is stupid as if the Govt is providing some sort of service in filing the returns and shows the regressive mindset of the babus in the Govt department.
Sir you are correct, but this is happening every year and till now no such extension have taken place, our trade bodies and professional association also have lost the voice individual can not do anything
Our corrupt Govt is un-holistically resorting to PENALTY RAJ by reducing the time limits, increased meaningless compliances. whether Our FM is in agreement with PM on ease in doing business?
We CAs do not file ITR of any client unless we see his Form 26AS because many times the assessee either deliberately or un knowingly do not disclose all incomes to CAs. So, to make sure that at least all incomes reported in 26AS are considered in ITR we do not file ITR before seeing 26AS. So technically ITR filing will commence only after 1st week of June 18.
the cbdt should be held responsible for delays in releasing the ITR forms
no one is accountable in CBDT
In such case delay in filing returns should be condoned. No penalty is leviable for the delay
The Government has prescribed late fee for the returns filed after the due date. The due date for filing the returns not covered by audit is 31st July. The problem is the final TDS will appear in 26AS in the first week of June as due date for filing TDS return by the Deductor for last quarter is 31st May. If the Deductor files return late or file revised TDS return after June, then how a person can file a correct return before the correct TDS appear in 26AS. Hence filing of return by persons not covered by audit should be atleast 30th September and not 31st July
CBDT has vide its Notification No. 16/2018-Income Tax dated 03rd April 2018 has released ITR 1 to ITR 7 for Financial Year 2017-18 / A.Y. 2018-19 but till date it’s been able to release Return filing Utility for only ITR 1, which was released on 14th April 2018. The Income Tax Department has failed to Release Income Tax Return filing Utility for other ITRs even after 36 days of end of Assessment Year 2018-19. The CBDT to release income tax return filing utility for ITR-2 immediately.
OFFHAND
The write-up , so also the views of the participants in the discussion , refer to the penal consequences of filing tax return beyond the ‘due date’.
There is, however , one more consequence closely related. That needs to be of concern to anyone who, having failed to make payment of the tax due , by way of advance tax, wants to pay up the balance by way of self-assessment, before filing the return. Any such short fall in advance tax, though made good on self-assessment, as per mandate of the law, entails levy of interest from the first day of April of the assessment year ; that is, for AY 2018-19 from I st April 2018.
As pinpointed repeatedly earlier, and lastly in the published article – [2018] 91 taxmann.com 39 (Article), there have been points of grave doubt likely to be faced with by a taxpayer, in the matter of computing LTCG ; particularly, in respect of a capital asset acquired before the new ‘BASE YEAR’ of FY 2001-02, a transfer of which happens to have been be made in FY 2017-18 , hence taxable in AY 2018-19. And, in the absence of any clarity, not forthcoming till date, the above indicated interest consequence might have to be not ignored but be made a conscious note of, for all [purposes.
Anyone with more such thoughts to share ?!
what is the harm if the old system is restored i.e one can file the return upto 31st march of the assessment year with levy of interest and levy of interest for late filing. why late fee of rs 5000 or 100000 . it is draconian provision unreasonable . why an assessee feels looted when filing belated return. what the gove looses if a person files belated return without such a huge penalty. he will file below taxable return or below 5lac for lesser late fee.
HOW THIS IS POSSIBLE TO FILE ALL ASSESSEE’S ITR BEFORE 31 JULY FOR A ADVOCATE OR CA, THERE IS HAVING MANY CLIENTS TO EVERY ADVOCATE OR CA, HOW COULD BE COMPLETED ON TIME FOR ALL THOSE ASSESSEE’S WORKS, THERE IS MORE INFORMATION ATTACHED IN ALL ITR FORMS, WHERE IS NOT POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE ALL DETAILS WITHOUT MAINTAINING BOOKS OF ACCOUNTS, WHAT USE OF SECTION 44AD ETC. WHEN ALL DETAILS SHOULD BE GIVEN IN ITR, THERE ARE MORE HARRISMENT OF TAX PAYER’S AND TAX RETURN PREPARE’S
I T RETURN FILING DATE MUST BE EXTEND ,FINANCE MINISTER SAHAB PURE BHARAT KO BEWKUF SAMAJHTE HAI.
DEAR SIR,
1) WHAT IS SANCTITY FOR FILING RETURNS BY 31ST JULY SINCE FORM 26 AS WILL BE AVAILABLE ONLY AFTER 15TH MAY ?
2) FURTHER IF RETURN IS FILED BELATED, THEN U ARE CHARGED INTEREST U/S 234-A,B,&C. THUS I.T. DEPT. GETS EXTRA AMOUNT. THEN WHY SO MUCH
STRICTNESS !! & PENATY
3) FURTHER EVEN TOTAL INCOME IS BELOW TAXABLE-LIMIT, THEN WHY PENALTY ?
4) IN SOME CASES IT MAY BE A REFUND , THEN WHY A PENALTY ?
5) IN MY OPINION TIME SHOULD BE GRANTED TILL 31 ST MARCH, AS BEFORE.
3)
pl.extend the date by i monthupto sep.18 for filing return
Yes I endorse the views that ITR filing due date must be linked with 26As and ITR forms avaiabiliity.
“Link ITR Filing Due date with ITR E-filing Utility Release Date”
Further 26AS must must be available to to the assessee latest by 31-05-2018.
with the department issuing notices for discrepancies in the return filed and form 26AS figures, the TDS return filing date for the 4th qtr along with the due date for payment/deposit of tds for the 4th qtr should be suitable modified to synchronise with the due date for filing of the july 31st due returns
All machinery of the govt is busy for winning the election of 2019, Now god will save our country.
GOD BLESS THE ASSESSES UNDER INDIAN INCOME TAX.
there is no time limit for issuing form . due date fix penalty amount fix but issuing of form time no fix.
Linking may be done not only with the date of release of the concerned Form, but also with reference to the due date for filing 26 AS.
It is contempt of the respective Honourable High Courts when ITR are not released by 1.4.2018. Moreover, now Tax deducters will file TDS returns by 31.5. or may be late. When the Tax payer will get TDS Certificates ? They will probably get it by 30.6. by which already 3 months are over. When they will file the Returns ? Hence, it is suggested that Govt. should make Calender Year as financial year and assessees get full 3 or 4 months to file their returns. It is high time Dept. must think & act over it instead of public facing the tune of late filing & late fee. I think all the trade bodies and other interested parties make representations to Govt. in this matter and find a peaceful permanent solution.
Due date of ITR filing be linked with Finalisation of 26AS as return can be finalised only after knowing our TDS & TCS.
Govt has no timetable and policies for itself machinery and imposing various late fees etc on indian public unnecessary and saying more tax collection will help to economic growth
Hats off to CA Sandeep Konoi. This delay which easily can be termed as harassment to tax payers has been boldly highlighted finally. However the rest of general print as well as electronic media is totally indifferent to this sad plight because it affects only the large middle class folks who any way rarely turn out to vote, and don’t have a unified voice to protest their grievance on the streets.
Once the annual budgets are passed by parliament the tax due computation algorithm is more or less final. Income tax dept should immediately thereafter work on the ITR forms and the utilities and release them in 3 months time so roughly by September we should have everything known to tax paying public. this can be used by the public to test as a Beta version of the utilities and then by December the forms and utilities should be frozen, Why should the tax payer wonder when the forms would be available ? Due dates should be sacrosanct. In April there are no floods ! those areas prone to floods and disaster need not wait till July to expect the lord & Master to extend the due dates.Our country needs to think from basics . High courts and Lawyers are not needed for such matters. It is pathetic for us to think of automatic extension of due dates .
After verifying entries with 26AS report only Assesses are going to file their return. The due date for filing tds return is up to 31/5/2018. The complete details can expect in 26AS report by middle of June only. Hence, actual time available for filing return is about 45 days only for non 44AB cases.
Utility of filing of all ITR for A.Y. 2018-19 is yet to be released except only utility for ITR 1 which has been released earlier. when last date of filing of most of the ITR which are not in the grip of audit is 31st july , second issue is last date of filing of TDS return in 31st may , Form no. 26 AS would be mostly updated after 10 days. One can imagine how all return can be filed in time when a lot of information is required to be disclosed in ITR. Sir it ‘s kind request from CBDT that due date of filing of ITR may be extended at least one month
Dear Sir
income tax filling period is very short. because there is many issue in our country.
like army man and teachers and contractor can not filled income tax return due to conditions of hill areas in our country. Many people come down from hill area after one year. kindly think about this conditions
Efiling itr utility has not been released till today, so C.B.D.T.. may be extend/ fixed the last due till 15-08-2018
2.IF C.B.D.T. MAY EXTEND/RELIEF IN A.Y. 2017-18 THEN GOVT. MAY RECEIVE A BIG BENEFIT OF TAX RECOVERY BECAUSE MAY ASSESSEE CANNOT FILE THE I.TAX RETURN THEY THOUGHT 31 MARCH IS NOT DUE !AISE TO PEHLE V CHALTA REHTA HAI!
Not only ITR release-date but also dates on which Form 16/16A are signed and given to assessees needs to be linked. Though Record Offices of Army say that they signed on 15 June the units usually deliver it to soldiers only around middle of August. A person in siachen is punished badly by the Govt..
By the way the GST for April is 1.00 lakh crore. It means an average of Rs8,000/-per individual Indian per month. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sir, I am salaried person and doing a job in private company. I also disclose my income which get from other sources & from house Property and agriculture income also. I get agriculture income at the time of product sell and it is not fixed time. I pay advance tax at its due date. But due to uncertainity of agriculture income, I have to pay tax more than Rs.10000/- at the time of self assessment. But I can’t file my return in April due to ITR 2 not uploaded by IT Department & also for not getting Form No.16 & TDS Certificates till 31/05/yyyy.
Only due to above reason, I don’t file my return in April, I can file it in June month.
My question is :
Due to tax above Rs.10,000/-, IT Department calculate interest u/s.234 for 3 month(April, May & June). Why I have to pay interest for April. May & June Month when it delays only for not getting Form 16 & TDS Certificates from employer?
Why IT Department don’t calculate interest from issuance date of Form 16 & TDS Certificate?
IT Department has to take interest from employer or from TCS Sources only and not from employee.
Why employee has to pay interest on fault of employer?
When TDS return q4 due date itself is 31st may,
26as will be updated only after 7th june,
how can u expect to file a return with in 31st july
ie, hardly 53 days ,
Also web site is cable of handling 5 crores return in 53 days?
I. T. Return filling must be extended as Forms have not been provided yet