Filing your ITR at the last minute? Don't make these mistakes

Today is the last day to file your income tax returns for AY 2024-25, without having to pay a penalty. Starting tomorrow, you will be able to file your ITR, but you'd have to forego several benefits, like not being able to choose the old tax regime, or paying a penalty of Rs 1,000 (if your annual taxable income is less than Rs 5,00,000).

As per official data, about 6 crore ITRs have already been filed so far, and around 70% of them have opted for the new tax regime. But if you have left your ITR filing to the last minute, and will rush to meet the deadline today, here's a handy list of mistakes you should avoid while filing your ITR:

1. Do not miss out on reporting on your income from other sources. Generally, we only account for our salary, income from business/profession and capital gains (if any) while calculating our tax liability. However, there is one crucial segment we tend to forget-income from other sources. This includes interest income from your savings account, fixed deposits, recurring deposits and bonds.

2. Income from other sources also includes any dividend income you've received throughout the year through stocks, mutual funds, and any monetary gifts with value of over Rs 50,000 you've received from friends, acquaintances, or anyone but your relatives. Don't forget to account for those as well.


3. In case your total annual income exceeds Rs 50,00,000, you have to disclose all details of your properties, both movable and immovable under Schedule AL. This should also include any liabilities you have incurred on these assets.

4. If you are an NRI, or an Indian holding foreign assets, you will have to share details of all your foreign income, assets, accounts and stocks under Schedule FA, along with your ITR. This needs to be done, irrespective of whether your income is taxable in India or not.

5. If you are filing your ITR as per your AIS (Annual Information Statement) and see erroneous entries, don't ignore them. File your ITR as per Form 26AS, which is a condensed version of AIS, and Form 16A and B, which is provided by your employer (both previous and current). But remember to go back and flag errors in AIS, otherwise the IT department could penalise you for willful misreporting of your income.


6. Do not forget to e-verify your ITR within 30 days of filing it. If you do not do this, your ITR filing will be considered invalid. If 30 days have passed since you filed your ITR post today, it will be seen as filing ITR post deadline, and you'll have to pay a fine.

So, get going on your ITR filing, right away!