Mistakes to avoid when filing ITR

The last day to file Income Tax Return (ITR) without penalty is the 31st of July. With the deadline looming, it is high time you upload the necessary documents and complete the filing! A single error could delay the overall process. Additionally, several revised returns could follow. Here are the mistakes you must avoid when filing ITR. 

Delaying filing the ITR till the last minute: The rate of filing IT returns in July has been underwhelming. Sujit Bangar, the founder of TaxBuddy, said, “The speed of filing has been lacklustre in the first week of July as hardly 69 lakh filings have been done in June and seven crores are yet to be done. Taxpayers aren’t serious about the deadline of July 31, 2022. The deadline has been extended multiple times in the past two years due to COVID-19”.  

An extension to the ITR deadline seems unlikely. Additionally, during the last few days of filing ITR, the website might hang due to an overload of data and users. Hence, you should file as soon as possible and avoid paying penalties. If you have any balance tax left to pay from the previous financial year, the date to do so has begun from April 1, 2022. Any delay is only increasing the amount to be paid. 

Neglecting to report income from your previous employers: High attrition rate in the corporate sector is a norm which is why many tax filers have multiple Form 16. Hiding income from one of your previous employers was possible before. However, a new mandate has made it compulsory for details about each form 16 in a financial year for a taxpayer to be captured by the Annual Information Statement. 

“Those who were just showing one Form 16 earlier to the chartered accountant and hiding the previous employer’s Form 16 now need to understand that AIS contains all details. They tend to gain by showing all the forms as the previous employer may not often collect the proof of investments during the latter part of the year and tends to deduct additional tax,” says Sudhir Kaushik, co-founder of taxspanner.com.

Submitting the incorrect ITR form: Before you file your ITR, ensure that you know the category you fall under. Over time, the income tax department has updated the criteria and issued new ITR forms for different categories depending on the income specification. If you fill and submit an incorrect ITR form, you could receive an intimation or defect notice from the Income Tax department. 

For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at sourabh.dubey@clear.in@clear.in