41% income taxpayers yet to file I-T return, 10% facing tech glitches

NEW DELHI: As the deadline to file Income tax returns inches closer, 41 per cent of Indians who qualify to file the return are yet to file their papers for FY 2021-22, 22 per cent say it is difficult to file it by the July 31 deadline, and about 10 per cent were facing technical glitches, a new report showed on Thursday.

However, 59 per cent respondents said they already filed their tax returns, which is a considerable improvement on the findings from a week ago on July 20, according to data provided by community social media platform LocalCircles.

In an earlier survey, LocalCircles found that 54 per cent of the respondents were yet to comply with the requirement to file tax returns by this month’s end, of which 37 per cent remained uncertain if they will be able to meet the deadline.

The new survey revealed that 13 per cent respondents require “significant effort” to meet the deadline and 9 per cent admitted that it would be impossible to meet the deadline, which the government has indicated would not be changed.

Of those still striving to file their ITR, 10 per cent of respondents complained of “difficulty in filing” but expressed keenness to do so.

The Income Tax department, through a tweet, informed the public that “more than 3.4 crore ITRs for AY 2022-23 have been filed on e-Filing portal till 26th July, 2022. The due date to file ITR for AY 2022-23 is 31st July, 2022. We urge you to file your ITR at the earliest, if not filed as yet. #FileNow!”.

During the pandemic, the government had extended the deadline for filing ITRs for two consecutive fiscal years to ease taxpayers’ hardship.

In the last fiscal year (2020-21), the filing date was extended till December 31, 2021.

The government this year warned that those who will miss the July 31 deadline for filing their returns will have to pay fine-cum-late fee of Rs 5,000 if their taxable income is more than Rs 5 lakh and Rs 1,000 if the taxable income is less than Rs 5 lakh.

The survey included 11,000 responses received from citizens across 306 districts in the country.