Are you worried that you might not be able to file your Income Tax Return on time this year now that September’s almost over? This year (2021), the due date for filing your ITR is 30 September. Hold on, there’s good news! Read on to find out the extended dates for filing your ITRs this year.
With all the glitches at the new income tax portal, by now, it is evident that the portal is not operating at its optimum capacity yet. And even though the Infosys team is working on it, it’s also true that around 5 crore returns are to be filed at the portal this year, and the time limit is just not enough. But wait. Now, you will get more time to prepare and file your ITR.
Earlier, they extended the due dates, via circular 9/2021, to 30 September 2021. The CBDT (Central Board of Direct Taxes, Government of India), along with the finance minister, Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman, has now released circular 17/2021 on September 2021 to further push the due dates.
The New Extended Due Dates for Filing ITR: How will this affect me?
So how will these changes impact you? What will be your new due dates? According to circular 17/2021 by the CBDT, these will be the new due dates:
- Extension 01- This pertains to ITR filing for non-audit cases. If you are an individual/HUF/Partnership firm/LLP where a tax audit (or a statutory audit in case of LLP) is not mandatory, originally, your due date for filing your ITR was 31 July 2021. This had previously been extended to 30 September 2021 and has now been further pushed to 31 December 2021.
Original Due Date: 31 July 2021
Previously Extended Due Date: 30 September 2021
New Due Date: 31 December 2021
- Extension 02- Regardless of whether you are a company/firm/partnership/HUF/LLP, if a statutory/tax audit or any other audit is applicable to you, originally, your due date for filing your ITR was 31 October 2021. This had previously been extended to 30 November 2021 as per circular 9/2021 and has now been further pushed to 15 February 2022. So if a tax audit is applicable, or if you are a company and company audit is applicable, or if you are an LLP and a statutory audit is applicable because your turnover is more than 40 lakhs, your due date now is 15 Feb 2022.
Original Due Date: 31 October 2021
Previously Extended Due Date: 30 November 2021
New Due Date: 15 February 2022
- Extension 03- This one pertains to tax audit reports. Originally, your due date for filing your ITR was 30 September 2021. This had previously been extended to 31 October 2021, and has now been further pushed to 15 January 2022. So all tax audit reports need to be filled before that. That is unless the income tax portal rolls out another extension seeing that it’s not perfectly functional yet. In fact, at the time of writing this blog, the income tax portal has not even started accepting tax audit reports yet.
Original Due Date: 30 September 2021
Previously Extended Due Date: 31 October 2021
New Due Date: 15 January 2022
So here’s what you need to do: If a tax audit is applicable, you first need to file your tax audit report by 15 January 2022. After that, you get 1 month to prepare and file your ITR by 15 February 2022.
What if a transfer pricing audit is also applicable?
If you are a company that has transactions with internation, related parties, and a transfer pricing audit is applicable to you, originally, your due date for filing your ITR was 31 October 2021. This had previously been extended to 30 November 2021 and has now been further pushed to 31 January 2022. So unless the income tax department decides to roll out yet another extension, all transfer pricing audit reports need to be filed by then.
And if there are more extensions, we will keep you posted on this blog. Keep checking this space for a breakdown of all the new circulars you need to be aware of.
Let’s take another scenario. Suppose you are a company with both tax and transfer pricing audits applicable. You would have to file your tax audit report by 15 January 2021. Then, you would get another 15 days to prepare and file your transfer pricing audit report- by 31 January 2022. If you are a company or an entity such that you have to mandatorily file a transfer pricing audit report, the due date for filing your ITR is 28 February 2022. So, by 31 January 2022, you will need to file your transfer pricing audit report, and from that date, you will get another 1 month to prepare and file your income tax return. If a transfer pricing audit is applicable to you, originally, your due date for filing your ITR was 30 November 2021. This had previously been extended to 31 December 2021 and has now been further pushed to 28 February 2022.
What if I missed my due dates?
Now, if you missed any of these due dates, can you file a belated return? If you made a mistake in the return, can you revise the return? If yes, what would be the due date for that?
Originally, for FY 2021, the due date for filing revised and belated ITRs was 31 December 2021. This had previously been extended to 31 January 2022 and has now been further pushed to 31 March 2022. So even if you missed any of the due dates for filing your ITR, you can file a belated ITR. And if you have made any mistakes while filing your ITR, you can revise your ITR up to 31 March 2022. Remember that if you are filing a belated return, you will also have to pay the penalties levied. There are no penalties for filing a revised return, though. You can correct errors and file a revised return at any time.
In the explanation provided with and pertaining to the circular, it is seen that these extensions in filing your income tax return do not apply if there is any tax due after adjusting your advance tax and TDS, and your tax due is more than Rs. 1 lakh. Because then, the due date for filing is the due date for payment as well. And if you pay that balance amount afterwards, under Section 234A, you will be liable to pay interest at a rate of 1% per month for every month of delay. If your tax liability is more than Rs. 1 lakh, this is after adjustment of your advance tax and TDS. Any payment you have made leading up to this point in time will be considered towards your advance tax payment.
So while you have been given relief in filing your income tax returns, you still have to pay your income taxes on time, there are no extensions on that. And if you are in the process of preparing your ITR, don’t forget to get a hold of our free checklist that will help you save a lot of time and make fewer mistakes.
