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This year the number of people filing Income Tax Return (ITR) was very high. A large number of taxpayers have received their tax refund returns, but according to the Income Tax Department, the tax refunds of around 31 lakh people may be stuck. This situation is despite the fact that these people have filed income tax returns before the due date for assessment year 2023-24 i.e. financial year 2022-23, but have not yet verified their ITRs.
The Income Tax department allows 30 days from return filing for verification of ITR. During this period the return has to be mandatorily verified. After the expiry of this period, taxpayers are not eligible for refund of additional tax paid. Not only this, if taxpayers do not verify their returns within the stipulated period, the ITR will be rejected i.e. it will not be treated as filed. In the absence of verification, the Income Tax Department will not process the ITR for refund. In such a situation these taxpayers will have to file the tax return again.
More than 6.91 crore people have filed tax returns
According to the Income Tax Department’s website, over 6.91 crore people had filed tax returns till August 23, but only 6.59 crore taxpayers have verified their ITRs. The remaining 31 lakh people have not verified their returns. For some of these taxpayers, the stipulated period of 30 days for verification is about to expire soon. The Income Tax Department is sending alerts to such people through e-mail, SMS and other means.
Can still file ITR
In a tweet on the X platform (earlier Twitter), the Income Tax department said that after the stipulated period of verification is over, you will have to file the return again and for this you will have to pay a late fee. In this case, late ITR has to be filed with penalty. Taxpayers whose annual income is less than Rs 5 lakh will have to pay a late fee of Rs 1000 and those whose annual income is more than Rs 5 lakh will have to pay a late fee of Rs 5000.
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How to Check ITR: You can easily check your ITR. You can verify ITR by sending OTP to Aadhaar registered mobile number on e-filing portal. Apart from this, ITR can be verified through netbanking and offline mode as well. You have to login to the portal for verification through Aadhaar OTP. After this you have to go to ‘e-verify return’. Now select the medium through which you want to verify and complete the verification process.