The All Odisha Tax Advocates Association (AOTAA) has issued a legal notice to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on for not extending Income Tax Return (ITR) filing due date of filing returns for the Financial Year (FY) 2020-2021 and imposing late filing fee under the Income Tax Act, 1961, in spite of many technical glitches in the new Income tax portal.
The legal notice issued on 4th January, 2022 stated that “Please take notice that after receipt of this letter if your good office doesn’t extend the due date for filing of Income Tax Returns as well as Tax Audit Reports to 31/03/2022, then our Association would be constrained to file PIL in the Hon’ble High Court of Orissa with a prayer to direct you to extend the due date for filing of return and Tax Audit Reports for the Assessment Year: 2021-2022 and return back the late filing fees collected u/s.234F of the Act.”
Further, beside pointing out many reasons, the legal notice claims, “That although the old portal of the Income Tax Department was working flawlessly and it was user friendly, but the Union Finance Ministry entrusted M/s Infosys Ltd to develop the new portal after the beginning of the Assessment Year:2021-2022. That as per earlier directions of the Hon’ble High Courts CBDT failed to upload schema of the returns forms in the portal in time.”
However, extended ITR filing deadline for FY 20-21 was 31st December, 2021, which was not extended any further by the government. Even though the ITR filing deadline was extended twice for the financial year, many were not able to complete the exercise on time due to many glitches on the newly launched e-filing portal.
Knowledge Source :
Income Tax Refund of Over Rs 1100 Crore Issued During 27th December to 3rd January