The last date for the filing of the income tax return for the financial year 2019-20 is November 30. The Finance Minister had extended the deadline in May, as part of the COVID-19 relief package. Typically, the last date to file ITR is July 31.

If you miss the deadline to file ITR, or mistakenly under-report earnings, you will have to pay a fine as mentioned below:

Late filing of Income Tax

If a taxpayer fails to furnish the income tax return before the deadline, a penalty of Rs 5,000 will be imposed if the return is furnished on or before December 31 of the assessment year.

The fine increases to Rs 10,000 if ITR is furnished after December 31 of the assessment year. However, if the taxpayer falls in the income bracket of up to Rs 5 lakh, the fine will be Rs 1,000.

Under-reporting and misreporting of income

If found to have under-reported income, the taxpayer will have to pay a fine of 50 percent of the tax payable on under-reported income. This is in addition to the tax, which the person will have to pay on the misreported income.

If under-reported income is in consequence of any misreporting, the penalty will increase to 200 percent of the amount of tax payable on under-reported income.

Misreporting of income includes the following: suppression of facts, not recording investments in books of account, claiming an expenditure not substantiated by any evidence, recording a false entry in the books, not recording receipts in the books having bearing on total income and failure to report an international transaction.