Income Tax Return ITR Late Filing Penalty

1. Penalty for ITR Filing: Taxpayers who have not filed their IT returns by July 31 can still file them till December 31 as belated return. However, that comes with a price. The late filing of tax return attracts a fee under Section 234F of the Income Tax Act and the penalty payable by assesses filing a late return increases depending upon the degree of delay. As per Section 234F, a penalty of Rs 5,000 needs to be paid if one files belated ITR after July 31 by taxpayers with total income of Rs 5 lakh and up. For taxpayers with less than Rs 5 lakh total income, the fine amount is Rs 1,000 while those who are exempt from paying income tax do not have to pay any penalty.

Author,

Ganesh