Income tax return filing deadline extended: Netizens flag THIS major issue amid I-T department backlash

Despite the Income Tax Department extending the ITR filing deadline by one day (to September 16), netizens remain furious, as the e-filing portal still presents glitches.

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Earlier, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had insisted that the e-filing portal was working fine and had given 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).

Many netizens also argued that one day was insufficient to file income tax returns due to the website's issues.

"Is someone facing same issue of payment debited from your account of payable amount and got Http error page and failed to file ITR. Please retweet and tag yourself," a user said, flagging an error in the ITR filing being reflected after payment. A number of users responded in the comments, saying they were facing the issue too.

"It will be a failure of democratic principles and the law of the land, if the ITR deadline is not extended as Portal has not been working since 4 days and it's Dead Today!" a second user wrote, tagging Union Home Minister Amit Shah, PM Narendra Modi, and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

"On the ITR filing deadline: #ITR e-filing site sucks. It doesn’t work. Look at IRCTC, how well it handles the Tatkal traffic thrown at it!" a third quipped.

"Dear Income Tax Department, while denning (denying) our genuine request of date extension you people shamelessly stop portal without any prior notice on very last date," a fourth user wrote angrily.

If the deadline is not extended again, a penalty fee will be levied until the end of the belated return period (December 31, 2025), as per Section 234F of the Income Tax Act. 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.

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If returns are not filed even after the belated return period, (simple) interest of 1 per cent per month (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. 

For AY 2024-25, a record 7.28 crore ITRs have been filed up to July 31, 2024—a 7.5 per cent year-on-year rise compared to 6.77 crore for AY 2023-24, as per a PTI report.