ITR Filing Last Date for AY 2022-23 Nears: Will Govt Extend Deadline to File Income Tax Return?

ITR Filing for AY22-23: The Income Tax Department as well as the government have been repeatedly saying that the deadline to file income tax returns will not be extended beyond July 31, despite receiving requests from taxpayers and associations to do the same. The government for the last two assessment years has been extending income tax filing deadline, but it has said this time that there will be no such extension for AY22-23.

ITR Filing: What did the Government Say?

The Income tax department on its Twitter handle has been reminding people to file taxes by July 31 as there will be no extension. “More than 3 crore ITRs for AY 2022-23 have been filed on e-Filing portal till 25th 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,” it said in a tweet on Monday.

Not only the income tax department, revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj has also confirmed that there will be no extension in the deadline to file ITR. He also said that the income tax portal is equipped enough to take load, despite people claiming that there were glitches in the website.

Commenting on extending the ITR filing deadline, Bajaj said, “People thought the routine now is that dates will be extended. So they were a little slow in filling the returns initially but now on a daily basis, we are getting between 15 lakh and 18 lakh returns. This will slightly go up to 25 lakh to 30 lakh returns.” Typically, return filers wait till the last day to file returns, he said.

“So far, there is no thinking of extending the last date of filing,” he added.

Taxpayers, Associations Want Extension

Taxpayers and several associations have already approached the government for an extension in the deadline to file ITR. All India Federation of Tax Practitioners (AIFTPs), an association of advocates, chartered accountants and tax practitioners, urged the union finance ministry and the central board of direct taxes (CBDT) to extend the ITR filing deadline by one month citing various reasons.

The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has also urged finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman to extend the deadline to August 31. “Considering the difficulties faced by the smaller taxpayers, we request that the due date for filing of income tax returns for non-audit assesses be extended to August 31. We also request that the income tax portal issues be looked into at the earliest, so that the assesses can have a hassle free experience in filing their income tax returns,” it said.

Taxpayers in general have been tweeting about the glitches faced by them while filing their income tax returns. They have accused the income tax portal of “not working properly”, “not opening”, “OTP issue”, “taking time, continuous loading then failing”, and demanded an extension.

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