Important notice for taxpayers: Income Tax Return filing date will not be extended

All those taxpayers waiting for an extension to Income Tax Return last date should know that their dreams of ITR filing online at the last moment has been dashed. The central government has said that there is no proposal to extend the Income Tax Return filing date. It can be noted that the ITR filing date was December 31, 2021. "There is no proposal to extend the date for income tax return filing: Revenue Secretary Tarun Bajaj, Govt of India," ANI tweeted. 

Later on December 31, 2021, the Income Tax Department had informed that more than 5.78 crore ITRs for AY 2021-22 have been filed till 7pm on December 31, 2021. "More than 5.78 crore ITRs for AY 2021-22 filed till 7pm today compared to 5.95 crore ITRs for AY 2020-21 filed till 10th January, 2021 (extended due date for AY 2020-21). This includes 35.74 lakh ITRs filed today with 4.55 lakh ITRs filed in last one hour," the Income Tax Department tweeted.

It can be noted that people were demanding the extension of the income tax return filing due date and the demand reached such an extent that #Extend_Due_Date_Immediately began trending on Twitter on December 31, 2021. The demand to extend the ITR filing due date was mainly due to the Income Tax portal glitches taxpayers were facing.

Taxpayers were complaining of technical problems with the ITR portal and hence were further demanding for date extension. It can be noted that the central government had extended the ITR filing due date to December 31 from July 31 earlier in the year.

One of the Twitter users tweeted, "3 reasons enough to extend ITR due date :- 1. New portal made avlbl. late 2. Though late, but a mess taking away sevrl. man hours. Just a mon. back its added some sense 3. Sudden AIS & TIS derailed evrythg." While another user wrote, "Thank you Infosys and Income Tax India for such a wonderful portal, new errors and new glitches every day."

What is Income Tax Return

Income tax return is a form filed by an individual to report his/her annual income. The form enables you or any taxpayer to declare your income, expenses, tax deductions, investments, among others. ITR can be filed in online and offline mode. For filing it online, you will have to visit the official website of Income Tax Department at incometax.gov.in.