10 reasons why you should file your tax return timely.

Filing your income tax return on time enables you to declare your taxable income, tax payments, due tax or as well as the tax refund to be claimed from the Income Tax Department. The Income-tax Act 1961, as well as The Income Tax Rules, 1962, compels every person who earns any Income from India to file their income return at the end of every financial year as per the rule. And it has been instructed to complete the process of IT return within the specific period. There are various forms related to IT return is available to the taxpayers at the income tax E filing portal. The different kind of forms is formed as per the source of income of the payer as well as his category.

Income tax forms applicable for difference assesse for the F.Y. 2017-18

Due dates of filing income tax return

• 31 July 2018 for Individuals not requiring an audit under any law.
• 30 September 2018 for Companies or else the operational partner of a firm or any Individuals needing an audit under any law.
• 30 November 2018 for the person who is required to submit a report under section 92E

Late Filing Penalty

A new section 234F has been inserted by the government in the Income Tax Act. As per this section, an
individual would have to pay a fee of up to Rs 10,000 for filing income tax return after the due dates
specified in section 139(1) of the Act.
The fee to be levied is based on the time period of delay which is as follows:
a. A fee of Rs 5,000 in case returns are filed after the due date but before the December 31 of the
relevant assessment year or
b. Rs. 10,000 in case it is filed after December 31 of the relevant assessment year.
Note:- However, as a relief to the taxpayers earning not more than Rs 5 lakh the maximum penalty will be Rs. 1000

Benefits Of Tax Filing

A filled tax return indeed an important and valuable document. It will help you in many ways. It is the most important aspect of your visa processing. You have to show your income tax file return of past years to the relevant country’s embassy for further processing of your file. Your loan processing would also get slow if you fail to file your return on time. So it is always advised to file your return on time to avoid many dilemmas.

Reasons you should not wait until the last moment for filing your income tax return.

• Investment Benifit u/s 80C

It is always advised not to wait till the last date for filing your return. Because of that, you may not be able to claim the tax benefit in the financial year, despite your huge investment.and the reason is you could face all because of your cheque. If it remained unclear, or else get rejected due to some technical failure, then you will be in a big loss. You won’t be anyone to blame, rather than you. And for that silly mistake, you will be unable to claim your tax benefit. The technical problems can appear anytime. So it’s better to file your return within the time, i.e. from 1st of April to 31st March of the financial year.

• Operational Glitches

A large percentage of people having a PPF account with the post offices are almost common nowadays for the high rate of interest. And it is a good way of tax saving investment also. The transactions in the post office are done through cheque or digital transfer. The cash transaction will require the proof of the cash with you. So it is also advisable to use the cheque mode while doing the transaction in the post office. You can use the online medium as per the availability. But at the last minute, you may find the signature mismatch, or else any mistake in writing due to your urgency. And you know the system won’t accept any type of mistake, though it is small or big. At last, you will find your cheque uncleared. You have to issue a new cheque again for the investment, but if there will be any type of internal problem, and less time then it will be presented on the next day, and ultimately you will miss the date. As they always said…..

“If you run into a glitch at the last minute, there’s just not enough time to remedy the situation which may result in your return getting filed late,” – April Walker

• Potential Penalties

By filling in the last date you may face the possibility of penalties. The penalty for late filing, or could be any reason. Sometime there might be the problem from the technical side. You still only have to pay the price. Nobody will heed, you have to be ready for giving the specified penalties for your last moment filing.

• Matching your tax credit or payable

In the process of filing return at the last moment, you probably won’t get time to turn up to the owed money to the Government i.e Income tax refund. And you will be failed to claim the appropriate refund. It is always advisable to match your 26AS statement before you finally submit your tax return.

• Underestimating The Time

The filing of your tax needed some exclusive time. It is not like doing the process while playing a game on your smartphone. So every time you have to make a time for the filing and complete as per the requirement. The planning of filing at the last moment could put you in any trouble. So it is always advised to start the process earlier so that you can have ample time in your hand, in case of any trouble.

• Miss The Form

Every day the systems and process are changing. And you are not that much sure that you can handle everything. There are a lot of tax forms available on the site. You have to search for your specific form. You have to go through it first and then start the filing process. So it’s needed time. You can’t say everything is at your fingertip, and you can finish swiftly. Sometimes you will find the easiest thing in the world is hard to handle.

• System or Internet Failure

Think about the crashing of your laptop or losing your internet connection. It would have irritated, you during the games and movies. But what if it got collapsed during the tax filing. You have to search for the other options but can’t stop the time. And, you may lose the chance to file your return on time.

• Unforeseen Things

Every day is not the same. At some time you may get below par. You even need a good amount of rest to get rid of your illness. So in that case, how about filling the return in your comforts. It’s not advisable to play with the calculator by having medicine in your mouth.

• Give enough time to your tax advisor

You won’t have the time to figure out the best deals during the filing process as you would be in the crisis of the time. The Preparer also won’t have the time to provide you exclusive time. He will make you stand in the queue and ask you to wait for your turn.

“As things come in, we put them in a queue, first in first out,”

“You’ll get more attention from your tax Preparer if you get it in March than if you get it in April.” – Davidoff

• Dependence on your Computer / Laptop

Many people have the disadvantage of keeping everything on their laptop, without remembering by themselves. They are too much dependent on their system. So they get into trouble while filing the return with the new one. It gets quite tough for them to remember old information. And that becomes a huge challenge for them.

The tax return file process should not be a last-minute work. You should start planning for it from the commencement of the new financial year, and make yourself ready for the filing as soon as you can be able to do so. With that, it won’t be stressful like the last minute.

For filing your tax return on time and for best possible tax advise

Contact us

Team R G Consultants

South Delhi, India

011 41086565 | office@rgconsultants.org