Twitter trends extend income tax filing deadline as Dec 31 looms

With the deadline for filing income tax returns for fiscal year 2020-21 ending in three days, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is looking into requests for extending the filing date.  

No decision for an extension has been taken so far and officials are keeping a close track of the filing status and monitoring the website closely.

The current extended date to file returns is December 31. The government had extended the due date of filing all income tax returns by five months from July 31 due to the ongoing pandemic. Taxpayers have the option to file a late return till March 31 next year on payment of a late filing fee of up to Rs 10,000. 

“Nearly 1 lakh returns are being filed hourly on an average currently. No decision has yet been taken on a fresh extension of the last date to file returns,” a government official told Business Today TV.

An estimated 46.7 million income tax returns were filed till Monday including over 1.54 million on the day itself, the income tax department said in a tweet today. 

In response, a Twitter account under the name of Rahul M. Maheswari, wrote that this was a very low compared to last year, with almost 50 per cent returns lower returns filed due to “constant glitches” and a “non-responsive server”. 

Another user wrote that over 39 million returns were pending as of today. 

The demand for an extension to the filing deadline has trended on Twitter, with several social media users complaining about errors and glitches being faced on the income tax portal. Many users posted screenshots of the error messages they claim to have received during the filing process. Some tax practitioners have also claimed they are facing problems with return forms five, six and seven.