Missed the Tax Filing Deadline? Here’s what you can do about it

Several tax payers are often of the opinion that since TDS deduction occurs anyhow, the filing of tax returns is not something that is too important. Several tax payers also often take it easy as the income tax returns for a particular year can be filed by the end of the subsequent financial year.

If you have failed to file your taxes within the mentioned due date despite repeated reminder sent to you by the income tax department, then there are a number of important things that you need to bear in mind to resolve this crisis.

How are Taxes Returns Filed?

As a tax payer you are expected to file returns for your taxes in a timely manner usually at the end of the financial year. It is by the end of the last financial quarter that you are expected to have paid the amount of tax due from you as either a salaried person or a business person.

Filing tax returns is in fact something that you can do a few months after you have carried out your tax payments. It is would be wise not to file returns while having tax dues to clear as the penalties imposed on you are going to be considerably stiff.

Tax filing is something that you can do on your own online. We provide efficient services to our customers for tax return filing services and take every care to ensure that this is carried out in an organized manner so that clients are not hindered by tax liabilities of any kind.

Our services for filing tax returns are very reasonably priced and cater to tax payers of every budget. Our tax return filing services can also be availed at any given time of the year and are provided over a two year time period.

Impact of Tax Returns Filing Provisions being made Available Online

What are the Consequences of Not Filing Tax Returns on Time?

There is a Huge Penalty to Pay

• Unfortunately, if you are not able to file your income tax returns on time, there is a severe penalty that you are going to have to pay to the government.
• There are a good number of prosecution provisions that are listed under the Income Tax Act of 1961 which you will become subject to.
• If returns have not been furnished within the due date by you and you still have tax dues to pay as well then you need to pay the outstanding tax amount with interest.
• A penalty of as much as 5000 INR can be imposed on you if you fail to file your tax returns in a timely manner.
• There are occasions when tax officers could prosecute you as well, but this is rather rare.

 You will end up filing Belated Returns

If you file tax returns after the due date for filing income tax returns has passed, then the tax returns that you file are going to be known as belated returns.  The belated returns can be filed by you prior to the completion of the tax assessment year or prior to the end of any relevant income tax assessment year, whatever comes earlier.

If tax returns have not been filed for a particular financial year, then belated returns can be filed by the end of the following financial year.

Tax Dues need to be paid on Time even if Returns are filed Late

You still need to make an effort to pay your taxes on time, even if you are not able to file tax returns by the specified date. It is always advisable to go ahead and calculate at the first the amount of income tax due and to pay it quickly or at least prior to the deadline for making tax payments, before going ahead and filing income tax returns.

Once you have managed to pay off all your taxes, you will not be inviting the imposition of any penalties, even though you may take yet another year in order to file your tax returns.

The rules pertaining to the filing of belated tax returns have however been very recently changed. The period meant for filing all belated tax returns now has been reduced to one year instead of two years.

Tax payers are now going to have to file their income tax returns before any relevant assessment year comes to an end. So you really need to make it a point to file your income tax returns on time as you are going to be given less of a window to do so henceforth.

Tax Refund Process gets hugely delayed for those Filing Late Returns

• If you are eligible for any kind of tax refund then you are going to be given such a refund without a doubt, but only from the date of having filed your belated tax returns.
• This is not ideal as you are going to end up losing a portion of interest payable on your tax refund amount.
• An interest of at least one and a half percent is paid by the income tax department for each and every month that is calculated from the 1^st of April of an assessment year.
• The refund process is also likely to get prolonged quite a bit in this case.
• When returns are filed late, it will result in the refund process getting delayed by several months.

No Scope for Filing Revised Returns

If you want to make some changes to the tax returns that you had filed for the previous financial year, then you can do so by filing what is termed as revised returns. However, this is something that you are going to be able to do only if you had filed your tax returns on time in the first place and not otherwise.

Revising belated returns is never ever allowed by the income tax department even for the most high profile of tax payers. If you have not taken credits for deductions under Section 80C etc then there isn’t any way that the income tax officials are going to allow that now.

If the Income Tax Department points out to any mistakes that you have made in the filing of your tax returns then you may also be asked to shell out some or a lot of money as penalty.

Huge Interest Imposed on Due Tax Amount

One of the most negative aspects of filing tax returns late while having tax dues to pay as well is the imposition of a considerable amount of interest on the due amount of tax. An interest of one percent will be levied and the calculation of this interest is going to start right from the date after the due date of paying income tax has passed.

No Possibility of Recovering Losses

• The losses that you incur in the course of one financial year can be carried over to future financial assessment years setting these off against future gains.
• The only solution in this regard is to claim your loss by filing tax returns well ahead of the due date.
• Loss except for the loss of house property can be easily carried forward provided the tax returns have been filed within the specified deadline.

Tax Returns Calculator accessible Online to enable filing Returns quickly and easily

There are many tax returns calculators available online which we often make use of to assure our customers that the tax returns we file for them are those that are done accurately. These tax return calculators are those that work on very sophisticated software and are guaranteed to generate the correct returns that a tax payer is supposed to file depending on the income that he earns in every financial year.