Vikrant Shekhawat : Aug 27, 2024, 08:46 AM
ITR Penalty Fee: If you have not filed your Income Tax Return (ITR) by July 31, 2024 and have filed it after the deadline, then you may be surprised to know that the government has made a great profit on it. According to the new information from the Income Tax Department, the government has collected a huge amount from the taxpayers who filed ITR after the deadline, and these figures may surprise you.ITR Filing After Deadline: Figures and TrendsThe Income Tax Department had declared July 31, 2024 as the last date for ITR filing. By this date, 7.28 crore taxpayers had filed their returns. However, a lot of taxpayers could not file their ITR within the deadline for some reason and are now filing belated ITR after the deadline.According to the latest data from the department, a total of 13.94 lakh ITRs have been filed between August 1 and August 22, 2024. However, the department has not given any clear information about the nature of these ITRs, due to which it is not known how many of these ITRs are such whose last date is 31 October or 30 November.Penalty on late ITRAccording to the rules, if you file ITR after the deadline, then you may have to face a penalty. This penalty depends on your tax liability. Generally, a penalty of up to Rs 5,000 is imposed on late ITR. However, for small taxpayers with tax liability up to Rs 5 lakh, this penalty is only Rs 1,000.Let us tell you that taxpayers have time till 31 December to file normal income tax returns, but the penalty has to be paid even in this period.Estimate of government earningsThe Economic Times has tried to estimate how much the government has earned from the penalty. According to their estimate, if 50% of the 13.94 lakh ITR filers have filed ITR after the deadline, then the government is expected to earn Rs 3,48,74,72,500 as penalty for late filing of ITR. If the number of taxpayers filing ITR late is more than this, then the penalty amount may also increase.ConclusionIt is understandable that the government has collected a huge amount from taxpayers who file ITR after the deadline of income tax return. If you have also filed your ITR after the deadline, then you have to understand that the penalty associated with it is adding an additional amount to the government's treasury. To avoid this situation, it is always best to file ITR on time.