Taxes paid by you will only be officially recognised if you've filed your return. ITR filing is mandatory for every individual whose income exceeds the maximum exemption limit.

"Amounts paid as advance tax and withheld in the form of TDS or collected in the form of TCS will take the character of your tax due only on completion of self-assessment of your income. This self-assessment is intimated to the Department by way of filing of the return of income. Only then the Government assumes rights over the taxes paid by you. Filing of return is critical for this process and, hence, has been made mandatory. Failure will attract levy of penalty," as per the IT department's official website.

So, you should file your ITR even if all your taxes are paid and no refund is due. Further, even if it's not mandatory for you to file, it’s advisable to still do it as your ITR acts as income proof and can be essential while applying for loans or visas. It is also needed to claim refunds and carry forward losses.

Yes, you need to e-verify your ITR even if you're filing a revised or a belated return. Remember that without e-verification, the process remains incomplete. If you fail to e-verify within 30 days of filing, your return will become invalid, and you will need to file again.

If you're filing ITR-2 this year, as it is the go-to for many salaried individuals and others, here are some common mistakes you should avoid:

• Incorrect capital gains reporting

• Failing to report foreign assets

• Wrong residential status

• Skipping Schedule AL

• Mismatching dividend income and schedules

• Incorrect reporting of carry-forward losses

• Mismatch in income and AIS/26AS

• Address update/change

Income tax refunds are usually credited within 4–6 weeks after filing. However, sometimes, it can take longer as well. Legally, the tax department has up to nine months from the end of the financial year to process refunds.

"While many people get their refunds earlier, delays can happen if there are errors in your return, mismatched details, or a heavy processing load during peak season. So, taxpayers can expect their refunds anytime within this nine-month period,” said Abhishek Soni, CEO & Co-founder, Tax2win.

No, you can't switch your tax regime after September 15. So, if you fail to file your ITR before the due date, you may get stuck with higher taxes and receive lower refunds.

Moreover, salaried individuals can change/choose their tax regime every year while filing ITR before the deadline.

However, individuals with businesses or professional income need to submit Form 10-IEA to change their tax regime. Further, once they switch to the new regime, they can go back to the old regime only once in their lifetime.

Yes, you can file a revised return even if you have received a refund. When you file your ITR, it gets processed by the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC), which only checks basic math and TDS at first. This is why you must have received a refund after filing your return.

A return is considered defective if the IT department believes that the information in the ITR is incomplete or inconsistent. If your return is found defective, the IT department will send you a defective notice under section 139(9) of the Income Tax Act.

If you receive the notice, you must rectify the defect in the return within 15 days from the date of receiving the notice, or the specified date in the notice.

In case you fail to respond within the stipulated time period, your ITR may become invalid and you can face penalties, interest and other charges while filing another return.

Yes, you can claim a refund while filing a belated return after the due date. However, you can't change your tax regime after the deadline. This means that after the due date, you might be stuck with a higher tax liability and receive lower refunds.

Further, penalties and other charges are also applicable to belated returns. So you must file before September 15.

Many taxpayers still believe that there is no tax on income up to ₹12 lakh, so they don't need to file an ITR. However, this is wrong, as for the current assessment year (AY26), income up to ₹7 lakh is tax-free (under the new regime).

"This tax season, there’s a dangerous myth doing the rounds: 'No tax if your income is under ₹12 lakh," Cleartax said in a mail to its users.

With less than 30 hours remaining before the end of the ITR filing deadline, a number of taxpayers and tax professionals are complaining of many glitches on the e-filing portal. One taxfiler complained of seeing a "Service Unavailable" message when trying to log in to the e-filing portal.

I also got the 'Service Unavailable' message when trying to log in to the ITR portal at around 6.30 pm today.

If you fail to submit your within the due date then as per section 234F, late filing fees of ₹5,000 will be payable if return is furnished after the due date specified under section 139(1). However, the amount of late filing fees to be paid will be ₹1,000, if the total income of the person does not exceed ₹5 lakh.

No. The Income Tax Department has not yet announced any further extension of the Income Tax Return deadline. If you haven't filed your return till now, then you should try to submit it as soon as possible to avoid late fees and other penalties

You can file either of ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3 and ITR-4 for AY 2025-26. However, you should check other eligibility conditions for these forms before proceeding to file your return.

Selecting the correct tax regime while filing your income tax return (ITR) is more important than some might think: It directly affects how much tax you will pay, what deductions/exemptions you can claim and save taxes.

If you’re unsure of which regime to choose, you can calculate how much tax liability you’ll have under both regimes and decide for yourself. The income tax calculator can help you in doing this.

No. The deduction under Section 80TTA is not available to any person other than an Individual or HUF. If interest income is earned from the savings account held by or on behalf of a firm or AOP or BOI, no deduction is allowed to the partner or member in such firm or AOP or BOI, as the case may be. (Source: Incometax.gov.in)

Yes, you should file a return.

The Income Tax department says that i​If you have sustained a loss in the financial year, which you propose to carry forward to the subsequent year for adjustment against subsequent year(s) positive income, then you must make a claim of loss by filing your return before the due date. ​​

Yes. In one situation, it is possible.

This situation arises when you upload your return before the due date, but complete the e-verification or submit the ITR-V more than 30 days later, causing the verification date to fall beyond the due date. In such cases, the date of submission of ITR-V or e-verification is treated as the actual date of furnishing the ITR. If this date falls after the ITR due date, all the consequences of late ITR filing can apply to the taxpayer.

You may either lose your refund or the amount of refund may become less due to late fees/penalty and interest on tax, or inability to switch the tax regime. However, taxpayers can still get the remaining refund on filing their ITR after the due date.

As the deadline approaches, refund processing will be delayed even further as the IT department receives many filings near the due date.

Many taxpayers make the mistake of not verifying their Income Tax Return (ITR) after filing it. This not only delays refunds but also invalidates the filed return. The Income Tax Department has made it compulsory for taxpayers to verify their ITRs within 30 days of filing. This new rule came into effect on August 1, 2022, making it compulsory for taxpayers to complete the return filing process within 30 days. Earlier, the deadline was 120 days.

The Income Tax Department says that an incorrect claim apparent from any information in the return means a claim based on an entry in the ITR:

• Which is inconsistent with another entry of the same or some other item in such return;

• In respect of which, information required to be furnished to substantiate such claim, has not been furnished;

• In respect of a deduction, where such deduction exceeds specified statutory limit, which may have been expressed as a monetary amount or percentage or ratio or fraction. (Source: Incometax.gov.in)

Over the past 5-10 years, the Income Tax Department has extended the due date for filing Income Tax Returns (ITRs) on a few significant occasions.

• For FY 2024–25 (AY 2025–26), the ITR deadline for non-audit taxpayers, originally set for July 31, 2025, was extended to September 15, 2025. This extension was attributed to delays in notifying new ITR forms and necessary system updates.

• The most notable extensions occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the financial year (FY) 2019–20 (assessment year 2020–21), the original ITR filing deadline of July 31, 2020, was extended multiple times, eventually to January 10, 2021.

• The Government, through multiple notifications in 2020 and early 2021, extended the due dates for filing Income Tax Returns and audit reports for AY 2020–21 in light of COVID-19 disruptions and stakeholder challenges. Read full story

The Income tax intimation under Section 143 (1) refers to the processing of returns by the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) of the Income Tax Department in Bengaluru.

Under this section, all Income-tax returns filed under Section 139 or in response to a notice under Section 142(1) are processed to verify and fix the arithmetical errors, apparent errors, tax calculation, and tax payments.

However, at this stage, no verification of the income is undertaken. Source: Incometax.gov.in

The 'Filing type in ITR' refers to the category or manner in which you are filing your Income Tax Return. Some common filing types include: Original Return, Revised Return, Belated Return and Updated Return (ITR-U).

The Income Tax Department's e-filing portal data on September 14 shows 6,29,95,670 returns have been filed till September 13, 2025. This is around 30 lakh more returns than the 6 crore returns reported by the Income Tax Department on Saturday (September 13).

Of the 6.29 crore returns filed, taxpayers have verified over 5.70 crore returns, while the Income Tax department has processed more than 3.88 crore verified returns.

Nearly 8 crore taxpayers are expected to file their returns in 2025. This means around 1.5 crore returns are still pending, while only 36 hours are left before the deadline ends. This leaves a case for another due date extension. But nobody knows what the IT department may be thinking.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has not yet announced any further extension of ITR filing due date or tax-audit dates. The latest return filing data shows that the Board may have a reason to extend the due date, as around 1.5 crore returns are yet to be filed before the deadline.

If you haven't filed yet, or have been waiting for a due date extension, you should stop doing that. Instead, you should rush to file your return now to avoid last-minute glitches.

The following posts will guide you on how to file your ITR, avoid errors, income tax return FAQs and more.

Yes, it's possible. According to the Income Tax Department, the non-payment of tax can attract interests, penalty, and even prosecution. The prosecution may lead to rigorous imprisonment from 3 months to 2 years. If the tax sought to be evaded is over ₹25 lakh, then the punishment could be 6 months to 7 years. (Source: Incometax.gov.in)

Before heading to the Income Tax e-filing portal, you should prepare yourself for ITR filing with the following details:

1. Find out which tax regime is beneficial for you

2. Find out which ITR form is right for you

3. Find a tax expert fast if you can't file correctly on your own (It's already too late for this, as most experts will be occupied with the heavy workload, but you can still try).

4. Find out all documents related to your financial transactions, including tax-saving investments, in FY 2024-25 handy.

5. Find and download Form 16, AIS and Form 26AS

The following are some easy steps you can follow to file/submit your income tax return on the e-filing portal before the deadline ends:

• Log in at incometax.gov.in using PAN/Aadhaar & password

• Go to → e-File > Income Tax Return > File Income Tax Return

• Select AY 2025–26

• Choose your applicable form

• Review pre-filled details (salary, TDS, bank interest)

• Add missing income/deductions & select tax regime (Old/New)

• Submit return

• Complete e-verification

If you are salaried, you will be allowed to switch from the new tax regime to old regime or vice versa. However, in case you have income from business and profession, you will not be allowed to change tax regime without submitting Form 10-IEA.

The Form 10- IEA can be filed by an individual, HUF, AoP, BoI, AJP having Income from Business or Profession.

"You will be required to submit Form 10-IEA if you want to opt out / re-enter new tax regime and have Income under the Head “Profits and Gains of Business and Profession,” the IT Dept says.

This forms should be filed on or before the due date of filing of return.

No. Under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, you cannot claim a deduction for your employer's contribution to your Employee Provident Fund (EPF) account. The deduction under 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961 is available only for your own contributions towards EPF. Employee's contribution to EPF is fixed at 12% of actual basic salary or ₹1800.

The following are some steps to check your ITR filing status on the Income Tax e-filing portal

Step 1: Log in to the e-filing portal

Step 2: Go to the e-file section. Under Income Tax Returns, choose View Filed Returns.

Step 3: On the View Filed Returns page, you can use the Filter option to choose the ITR by Assessment Year or Filing Type

Step 4: Click on View Details. Here you can see all the details and your return’s life cycle, including whether there is any action pending from your side.

In May 2025, the CBDT extended the ITR filing due date from July 31, 2025, to September 15, 2025, for non-audit filers. While announcing the extension, CBDT said it will provide more time due to major revisions in ITR forms, system development needs, and TDS credit reflections. As the extended deadline is here, there seems to be no chance of another extension.

The following are six consequences of not filing ITR before the deadline or a delay in filing the return of income/loss (other than house property loss:

(Source: IT Dept)

It seems the Income Tax Department is not in the mood to extend the due date again. It had already extended the ITR deadline in May this year.

If you haven't filed yet, there are still over 36 hours left. Use this time file your returns now.