Individuals who filed their income tax returns (ITR) after July 31 were charged with a late filing fee of Rs, 5000, LiveMint reported. The penalty was charged despite the extension of the due date to September 30.
Gautam Nayak, Partner, CNK & Associates LLP told LiveMint, “The due date for individuals not subject to audit has been extended from 31st July to 30th September 2021. If due to an error in the system, you have been charged a late filing fee of ₹5,000 under Section 234F, you should file a rectification request for the return online. This can be filed up to 4 years from the date of the assessment order or intimation. On a practical level, the new portal is not currently accepting rectification requests. Hence you should wait until the glitch is fixed and then file the rectification application.”
The new income tax portal was launched on June 7. Multiple technical faults, including erroneous penalties, were reported, according to LiveMint.
According to CNBC, the late filing fee was introduced in 2017. Section 234 says that taxpayers can be penalized with a maximum sum of Rs 10,000 if they fail to file their ITR before the deadline. It seems that the extension of the deadline to file ITR has not been updated in the portal.