New income tax portal levies late fees on tax filers despite September 30 deadline

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Tax filers have been complaining about not being able to file income tax returns (ITR) on the new website. This is because of a glitch on the website which is still showing the old due date of July 31, 2021, instead of the extended deadline of September 30, 2021. Social media has also been abuzz with complaints of people flagging the glitch in the new e-filing portal requesting to resolve the issue.

“Penalty is showing for late filing of ITR …change the last date of ITR filing. It is 30th Sep 21 instead of 31st July 21, as announced by Gov” complained S S Pandey on Twitter.

Penalty is showing for late filing of ITR in https://t.co/FLYHOTLHMH change the last date of ITR filing. It is 30th Sep 21 instead of 31st July 21, as announced by Gov.

And pre-filled data not available in ITRs. So do the needful immediately. @Infosys

— S S PANDEY (@SSPANDEY18) August 2, 2021

Last Date of Filing ITR is 30Sept 2021 But ITR new portal adopted old date(31st July) Charging 1000₹ as penalty Pls update new date in portal so that Tax payers can fill ITR We r the only one who really support economy n getting nothing@nsitharaman @IncomeTaxIndia

— Ankur Srivastava (@ankur0424) August 1, 2021

New-Delhi based chartered account Tarun Kumar also confirmed that tax filers are not able to submit ITR currently. “We are not able to file income tax because the new website has not captured the extension of date. The new website is allowing to file ITR after levying a late fee of Rs1,000.”

Extended deadline

Every year the due date to file the ITR is July 31 each year. However, if one files it after the due date, then under sector 234F of the Income-tax Act, a late fee of Rs 5,000 is levied. However, if your total income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh, the maximum penalty could only be Rs 1,000. For the financial year 2020-21 (and assessment year 2021-22), the due date has been revised to September 30, 2021, due to the ongoing pandemic. Apart from the penalty, you also have to pay 1% interest on the tax liability as per Section 234A of the I-T Act. The interest starts immediately after the due date till the taxes are paid. The longer you delay the payment, the higher will be the tax liability.

“Though the due date for filing of ITR for the AY 2021-22 has been extended, no relief shall be provided from the interest chargeable under Section 234A if the tax liability exceeds Rs1 lakh,” added Kumar.

New website

The new portal, http://www.incometax.gov.in/, was launched on June 7 with an aim to make it taxpayer-friendly. But since its launch users have been complaining of technical issues. Earlier chartered accountants complaint that taxpayers are unable to view past e-filed returns and many features continued to be marked ‘coming soon.

Following the inconvenience, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman herself had asked Infosys – the vendor which created the portal – and its Chairman Nandan Nilekani to fix the technical glitches.

The new e-filing portal will ease the filing process and enhance end user experience. @nsitharaman ji, we have observed some technical issues on day one, and are working to resolve them. @Infosys regrets these initial glitches and expects the system to stabilise during the week. https://t.co/LocRBPCzpP

— Nandan Nilekani (@NandanNilekani) June 8, 2021

Till the glitch gets resolved tax filers are advised to wait, “We are waiting for the issue to be resolved so that people are able to file ITR again,” said Kumar.