Survey Says 14 Per Cent Taxpayers Will Miss ITR Deadline Of July 31, 2023

As per the survey, extreme weather conditions across some states have had a severe impact on life and in turn, have impacted people’s ability to file their returns on time

A survey has found that at least 27 per cent of taxpayers are yet to file their income tax returns (ITR) and about 14 per cent of individual taxpayers admitted that they won't be able to meet the July 31 deadline for ITR filing.

LocalCircles, a Delhi-based market research firm, has conducted a survey on 12000 Indians, from 315 districts, on their ITR filing status. The survey has found that about 5 per cent of Indians found it difficult to file their tax returns and ended up not completing their filing process due to this, reported the Economic Times.  They will try to file their returns before the deadline. 

Additionally, about 8 per cent of the taxpayers admitted that they haven't filed their returns but were “comfortable to be able to do so before month end”, the survey revealed.

5 per cent of the survey respondents revealed that they haven’t filed their returns and it will take a lot of work for them to be able to make the deadline. About 9 per cent completely out ruled the possibility of filing their returns before the month-end deadline. 

The survey stated, “In effect, 14% of respondents admitted that they will likely be unable to file their income tax returns by the deadline.”

As per the survey, extreme weather conditions across some states have had a severe impact on life and in turn, have impacted people’s ability to file their returns on time. 

Multiple parts of the country witnessed very heavy rainfall in the monsoon season, including the National Capital Region (NCR), with reports of landslides in Assam, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, and Gujarat, Telangana experiencing floods. Even the Yamuna River caused a flood in NCR, displacing people and disrupting lives. 

“Feedback in community discussions on LocalCircles indicates most people want just a 2-week extension to be able to file their returns as the flood and power outage situation on the ground normalises,”  LocalCircles said in a survey note. 

But last week, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra deemed a deadline extension unlikely and urged taxpayers to complete filing their returns for the fiscal year of 2022-23 before July 31 deadline, the report said. 

Further, there have also been complaints about problems with the tax filing system recently. Some users also raised the issue of their self-assessment tax details missing from the annual information statement (AIS) and the AIS not including their bank savings account interest on social media.