Income Tax Return: Deadline to file ITR for financial year 2018 ends today

The last date of filing an Income tax return or ITR for the assessment year 2018-19 (the financial year 2017-18) is March 31 i.e. today. But taxpayers will have to pay a late fee of Rs 10,000, according to a tweet by Income Tax Department. "You can still file your Income Tax Return for AY 2018-19 (FY 2017-18) by 31st March, 2019 with late fee if you have not filed yet," a post by the taxman on microblogging website Twitter reads.

To facilitate taxpayers, the government has ordered tax offices to remain open today, despite it being Sunday.  In an office order, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) asked its field offices to facilitate filing of tax-returns by the taxpayers by opening additional receipt counters, wherever required.

"The last date for filing belated/revised tax-returns for assessment year 2018-19 is March 31, 2019. The financial year 2018-19 also closes on (March) 31. In view of the closed holidays March 30 and 31, being Saturday and Sunday, Income Tax Offices throughout India (including the ASK Centres), shall remain open on March 30 and 31 during normal office hours," the CBDT said.

Those who want to file their return can do so in three easy steps:

STEP 1: Register on income tax departments' e-filing portal - incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in - using your PAN.

STEP 2: File your return either in online or offline mode. Income-Tax and interest, if there is any, will be automatically calculated. 

STEP 3: After successful filing of the return, the last step is to verify it. The user can verify the uploaded return by three methods- using Electronic Verification Code (EVC) or Aadhaar one-time password (OTP) or digital signature certificate.

The government has pegged goods and services tax (GST) collection target at Rs 11.47 lakh crore in the current fiscal, while the same for direct tax mop up is Rs 12 lakh crore.

GST collections in the current fiscal till February totalled Rs 10.70 lakh crore.

With regard to direct taxes, the CBDT had collected only Rs 10.21 lakh crore as on March 23, which is 85.1 per cent of the revised estimate of Rs 12 lakh crore. The apex policy making body for income and corporate taxes has asked its field offices to ‘take all possible actions’ to achieve the collection targets.

The Reserve Bank of India has also asked banks keep their branches open on March 31, so that all government transactions for financial year 2018-19 are accounted for within the same financial year. All electronic transactions, including RTGS and NEFT, will continue for the extended time on March 30 and March 31, 2019.

With PTI Inputs