Late-minute tax filing runs the risk of incorrect filing or defaulting on deadline. For one, you may not gather all documents on time and miss reporting incomes. Or, on finding a discrepancy between Form 26AS and TDS forms or between pre-filled information and the forms available with you, there might not be enough time left to seek a clarification from the income tax (IT) department before the deadline.

The penalty for filing a tax return after the deadline is ₹5,000 for taxpayers with total income above ₹5 lakh and ₹1,000 for those with an income below this limit. Not to forget the 1% monthly interest that needs to be paid on tax liability above ₹1 lakh after deducting TDS and advance tax paid.

To take the stress out of last-minute tax filing, Mint lists out the major changes in tax filing introduced for the current year and the important aspects to watch out for.

 

Dividend income: Until last year, only dividend income above ₹10 lakh had to be declared and was taxed at 10%. This year onwards, this threshold is removed and dividend income will be entirely taxed at slab rates.

“Since all dividend income will now be taxable, the column for disclosure of dividend income under the exempt income schedule has been removed. Quarterly breakup of dividend income is to be given under ‘income from other sources’ head," said Shailesh Kumar, partner, Nangia & Co LLP.

Deductions available under new tax regime: This is the first assessment year where taxpayers have to choose between new and old tax regimes. The new regime forgoes 70 tax deductions and lowers tax liability for incomes between ₹5 lakh and ₹12.5 lakh. However, the new regime still allows certain tax deductions.

One, you can claim deduction on the entire interest amount paid on a home loan taken for a rented-out property, said Karan Batra, found