The Income Tax Department’s ITR filing portal faced huge traffic in the days leading up to the September 15 (Monday) deadline for the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Netizens across India complained online about facing glitches on the website while trying to file their income tax returns, blaming the website's inability to handle increased traffic.
They have also urged the department to extend the deadline.
According to Section 234F of the Income Tax Act, a penalty fee will be levied until the end of the belated return period (December 31, 2025). For those earning Rs 5 lakhs or less annually, the penalty fee is Rs 1,000. For those earning more, the fee rises to Rs 5,000.
If returns are not filed even after the belated return period, (simple) interest of 1 per cent per month (or or part of a month), will be levied on the unpaid amount till the ITR is filed, as per Section 234A of the same Act.
The department, however, said that the e-filing portal was working fine and gave no indication of extending the deadline for ITR filings by individuals, HUFs and those who do not have to get their accounts audited for the financial year 2024-25 (AY 2025-26), as per a PTI report.
The I-T department also warned netizens against believing fake news. In an X post, it also called out a fake statement from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which claimed that the ITR filing deadline for Assessment Year (AY) 2025-26 had been extended to September 30.
"The due date for filing ITRs remains 15.09.2025. Taxpayers are advised to rely only on official @IncomeTaxIndia updates," the fact check post read.
Notably, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has already extended the ITR filing deadline from July 31 to September 15.
At the time, officials had said that the extension was done to give taxpayers more breathing space in view of revisions to ITR forms and utilities, delays in the reflection of TDS (tax deducted at source) credits, and backend reconciliation of data.
"The e-filing portal is working fine. Please clear your browser cache or try accessing the portal through a different browser," the I-T department wrote on X, in response to a user complaining of a portal error (the site opening blank).
"We've checked with our team. The AIS/TIS facility is functioning without any issues. May we request you to please try accessing it again," they wrote on X in response to another user complaining of a network issue with the AIS compliance portal (with a screenshot attached).
ITR filings have shown consistent growth over the years, reflecting rising compliance and widening of the tax base. For AY 2024-25, a record 7.28 crore ITRs were filed up to July 31, 2024, a 7.5 per cent year-on-year rise compared to 6.77 crore for AY 2023-24, the PTI report added.