Section 234F: Penalty for late filing of income tax return

Everyone who has paid taxes should assume the duty to file an income tax return timely.

If you are late filing your income tax return or you forget to file it on or before the due date of filing return then you can face a penalty under section 234F of income tax Act 1961.

Section 234F has mentioned the brief details of penalty for late filing if income tax returns.

 

Provision under section 234F: Penalty for late filing of income tax return

Under this section if an assessee is not filing the return on or before the due date of filing tax return then he is liable to pay the penalty.

The amount of penalty is different in following two situations:

If file the late return after the due date but on or before 31st December of the relevant assessment year.

• Eg. If return is for fy 2019-20 and its due date of filing return let’s say 30 November 2020 then penalty will be levied if file the late return between 1 November 2020 to 31 Dec 2020 (31st December of relevant assessment year).

If file late return after 31st December of relevant assessment year

• Eg. If in the above example, file the late return after 31st Dec, 2020 then also penalty levied but the amount is different from situation (i).

Let’s understand from this table:

Situation of late Return	Income is less than rupees 5 Lacs	Income is more than rupees 5 Lacs
After due date but on or before 31st December of relevant Assessment year	Rupees 1000	Rupees 5000
After 31st December of relevant assessment year	Rupees 1000	Rupees 10000

 

Eg. Mr. A has income less than rupees 5 Lacs and the due date of filing return is 31 November 2020.

Then if he files a late return between 1 November’ 2020 to 31 December’ 2020 then the penalty is rupees 1000.

And if he files a late return between 1 Jan 2021 to 31st March 2021 then the penalty is Rupees 1000.

Now if Mr A has income more than rupees 5 Lacs and he files a late return between 1 November’ 2020 to 31 December’ 2020 then the penalty is rupees 5000.

And if he file return between 1 January 2021 to 31st march 2021 then penalty is rupees 10000.

Note: Now due date of filing return for FY. 2019-20 is 31 December 2020 and in this case only 2nd situation applies i.e. if late return file after 31 December 2020 penalty would be rupees 1000 ( in case of income less than rupees 5 Lacs) and rupees 10000 ( in case of income more than rupees 5 Lacs) as per section 234F of income tax act 1961.

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