Income Tax Filing: Didn’t meet the taxman’s July 31 deadline? Better late than never (2024)

By Arun K ShanmugamBL Research Bureau

We are two weeks past July 31, and the e-filing website has been breathing easy ever since. However, though most of the lot would have met the deadline to file income tax returns (ITR), there ought to be a few of us who might have missed the deadline due to unavoidable reasons.

Are you in this category? Else, have you found an error in the ITR you filed? No worries. You can still salvage your case. The taxman has a few provisions precisely for these scenarios and we try to simplify the same for you here.

Belated Return

You can still file your return if you missed the July 31 deadline, albeit with minor consequences.

The law allows you to file a ‘belated return’ between August 1 and December 31, for the latest concluded financial year. So, for the FY2023-24, the deadline to file your ITR is July 31, 2024. If you have missed the deadline, you have an option to file the belated return on or before December 31, 2024.

But, a late fee would be imposed upto ₹5,000, based on your gross total income. This is accompanied with interest, if there is a tax liability.

In addition to the above, any losses incurred during the financial year, except for losses under the head house property, cannot be carried forward to subsequent years.

Another drawback of missing the deadline is that the taxpayer will not get the option to choose between the old tax regime and the new tax regime, and income can be offered for taxation only under the new tax regime.

Revised return

Found an error? You can file a ‘Revised Return’ to set it right

Revised return is filed to correct an error or missed reporting in the original return. And a revised return can be filed even for a belated return.

As was the case with belated return, the timeline to file a revised return is also available up to December 31 for the latest concluded financial year, and for this FY 2023-24, it is December 31, 2024.

A revised return replaces the original return and will be considered for all future purposes. The taxman imposes no fee for filing revised return. However, any changes in tax liability will result in a refund or additional tax payment along with interest thereon, as every specific case warrants. There is no limit to the number of revised returns that can be filed.

For taxpayers who do not have business income, revised return provides the flexibility to change between tax regimes, provided the original return was filed before the July 31 deadline. However, taxpayers with business income, who filed their original return under the new tax regime, cannot opt for old tax regime when they file their revised return, while the other way round is allowed.

Updated return

Taxpayers who wish to file ITR or want to update their returns, beyond the timeline to file belated and revised returns, can file their returns as an updated return. Budget 2022 introduced ‘Updated Return’, wherein taxpayers can file, or revise returns within three years from the end of the relevant financial year, for which ITR is to be filed or revised. This could be utilised for taxpayers who might require historical returns for the purpose of obtaining loans or visa or any other purpose.

Taxpayers can file updated returns for FY 2021-22 until March 31, 2025, while updated return for FY 2023-24 can be filed until March 31, 2027.

Filing an updated return attracts additional tax, if there is a tax liability, upto 50 per cent of tax liability and interest thereon, apart from the penalty of up to ₹5,000 which depends on the gross total income.

Unlike revised return, updated return can only be filed once for a particular financial year and one cannot reduce the tax outgo, claim refunds, or increase losses through an updated return.

Best practice

With the taxman correlating an increased amount of data to verify our ITRs, with every year passing, it is essential to file our ITR both correctly and preferably within the deadline. Missing the deadline might in itself warrant increased scrutiny, in the case of a belated or revised or updated returns.