ITR deadline: Has income tax return deadline for audit cases been extended?

The Income Tax Department has not extended the November 15, 2024 deadline for filing income tax returns (ITR) by taxpayers subject to audit and also for other designated ones.

The department had earlier, extended the deadline by 15 days from the original deadline of October 31, 2024.

Who all had to file ITR by November 15, 2024?
Income taxpayers whose accounts were required to be audited under any law (For example, the Income-tax Act, the Limited Liability Partnership Act, Co-operative Societies’ Act, and so on).
Partners of a firm whose accounts have to be audited under any law.

A company (Could be an Indian company, a foreign body corporate including a foreign company, for example) not having specified domestic transactions or transfer pricing transactions.

What is the penalty for not filing ITR on time?
If a taxpayer hasn’t filed an ITR by now, despite the deadline having gone past already, he/she can still file it, but it will be called a belated ITR.

However, even the belated ITR has a deadline. It has to be filed by December 31, 2024.

Filing a belated ITR also requires a penalty to be paid, known as a late filing fee, according to the ET report which added that it can go up to ₹5,000 under Section 234F, depending on the taxable income.

Apart from the penalty, the taxpayer will also be subject to other consequences including penal interest under sections 234A and 234B.

Also the taxpayer will not be allowed to carry forward losses while filing a belated ITR.

What about the tax audit report?
The deadline for submitting the tax audit report was September 30, 2024. This was later extended to October 7, 2024.

When it comes to penalties for filing the tax audit report late, it can go up to ₹1.5 lakh or 0.5% of total sales, whichever is lower.

A November 30 deadline for some taxpayers
Certain taxpayers like those engaged in transactions with overseas group companies have to file their ITR by November 30, 2024, but by submitting Form 3CEB by October 31, 2024.

Not submitting the form by this deadline makes a taxpayer liable to a penalty of ₹1 lakh plus 2% one the transaction value. Apart from this, carrying forward losses also can’t be done.