What Happens If You Fail To Submit Your Tax Return?
BANGALORE: With just a week away, everyone must be busy filing their income tax returns. In the last one month, the Income Tax department has sent about 1 lakh notices to tax defaulters across the country asking them to file returns and pay up advance tax and other dues. Taxpayers often wait until the last day to complete the process.
The last date for filing of returns is July 31 for salaried individuals and companies. For the financial year 2013-14, Income Tax Returns are to be compulsorily filed by everyone whose income is over Rs 2 lakh. If you have a taxable income of over Rs 5 lakh, you must file the returns online. The process has become less complicated this year with the Income Tax department’s official e-filing site.
Even if you fail to file your return by the due date, you can still file your return of income for the year ended March 31, 2014. There is no penalty if you fail to file your previous year's income tax return by July 31 and file the same by March 31, 2015.
But if you miss the assessment year as well, income tax officer can levy a penalty of Rs 5,000 based on section 271F of I-T Act .The penalty can only be levied after a chance is given to you to explain your side of the case. This way even if all the taxes have been paid in respect of your income, you may still have to file your income tax return.
If income tax returns are not filed by due date you could lose to claim refunds or if you have losses to carry forward to the following assessment years, it can be done only if returns are filed by due date of the appropriate assessment year.
PAN being a necessity in all financial and real estate transactions, it is mandatory to quote PAN on return of income, all correspondence with any income tax authority. And for getting a bank loan, 3years of Income tax returns is needed and even for the visa procedures it is mandatory.
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