Income Tax Return: The Income Tax Department has extended the deadline for filing ITR for the financial year 2020-21 till September 30, 2021, in view of the coronavirus epidemic, but increasing the deadline does not mean that you will be penalized. Relief from interest charge, which is required to be paid in case of self-assessment tax or outstanding tax liability in case of advance tax.
Interest will be charged on outstanding tax
According to the news published on Times Now News, in fact, under three sections 234A, 234B, and 234C of the Income Tax Act 1961, the taxpayer is required to pay interest on the outstanding tax if there is a delay in filing the income tax return. As per section 234A, interest is levied on delay in ITR filing. Suppose the last date to file ITR is 31st July 2021 and you filed on 6th August 2021. Then in such a case, interest will be charged at the rate of 1% every month on the outstanding tax amount. In this case, the interest charge for a full month will have to be paid, that is, a delay of 6 days will be considered as a delay of one full month.
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Who will attract interest penalty?
However, under section 234A, those taxpayers get relief, whose self-assessment tax is up to Rs 1 lakh. But if the tax liability is more than Rs 1 lakh, they will have to pay interest on the delay. So even though the deadline for filing income tax returns is September 30, if your tax liability is more than Rs 1 lakh, you will have to pay interest at the rate of 1% for August and September. Suppose the deadline extends beyond September 30, then interest will continue to accrue accordingly.
Interest will have to be paid on delay in advance tax
Similarly, under section 234B, if a taxpayer has not paid advance tax or has paid less than 90% of the tax liability, then he will also have to pay interest at the rate of 1%. Let us tell you that according to section 208 of the Income Tax Act 1961, if a person’s tax liability for a year exceeds Rs 10,000 or more, then he has to pay advance tax. If he fails to do so, he will have to pay interest at the rate of 1% every month under section 234B or from April till the date of actual tax payment.
Interest is levied on defaulters of payment of advance tax installments under section 234C. Let us tell you that the taxpayers have to pay 15 percent, 45 percent, 75 percent, and 100 percent of advance tax by the 15th of June, September, December, and March. If there is a shortfall in advance tax payment, an interest of 3% is charged in that quarter.
