Over 4.67 Cr ITRs For AY 2021-22 Filed On The New e-filing Portal Till 27.12.2021

According to the Ministry of Finance, a record of 4.67 crore income tax returns was filed on the new e-filing portal as of December 27. The Income Tax Department has said in a Tweet that "Over 4.67 crore Income Tax Returns for AY 2021-22 filed on the new e-filing portal till 27/12/2021. More than 15.49 lakh ITRs filed on 27/12/2021. Over 3.91 crore ITRs have been verified."

The Ministry of Finance has clarified that out of 4.67 crores ITRs filed for AY 2021-22, 53.6 per cent (2.5 crores) of these are ITR-1, 8.9 per cent (41.7 lakh) is ITR-2, 10.75 per cent (50.25 lakh) is ITR-3, 25 per cent are ITR-4 (1.17 crore), ITR-5 (5.18 lakh), ITR-6 (2.15 lakh), and ITR-7 (0.43 lakh). The online ITR form on the new income tax portal has been used to file over 48.19 percent of these ITRs, with the other ITRs being uploaded using the ITR generated using the offline software utilities.

The Ministry of Finance has also said that over 3.91 Cr returns have been validated, with over 3.35 Cr of them being authenticated using an Aadhaar-based OTP. On the new e-filing portal, 27.7 lakh Aadhaar-OTP applications have been submitted in the previous three days only. Over 2.88 Cr e-verified ITRs have been processed, with over 1.07 Cr refunds granted for AY 2021-22.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has allowed a one-time relaxation until February 28, 2022, for the verification of all e-filed income tax returns for Assessment Year 2020-21 that are still pending for verification and processing on December 28, 2021. As a result, taxpayers in pending cases should complete e-verification as soon as possible before the deadline.

The ITR for AY21-22 must be filed by December 31st. The deadline for reporting ITRs was extended by the Ministry of Finance from July 31 to December 31 this year. It also recommended taxpayers who have not yet filed their Income Tax returns for the AY 2021-22 (financial year ending March 2021) to do so as soon as possible to avoid a penalty of Rs. 5.000.

The ministry has been delivering out alerts to taxpayers via email, SMS, and social media campaigns, advising them to not wait until the last minute to submit their Income Tax Returns (ITRs). As a result, all taxpayers who have yet to file their Income Tax Returns for AY 2021-22 are urged to do so as soon as possible to avoid any penalty, late fee, and a last-minute rush.