Income Tax Department To Refund Late Fees Amount, Excess Interest To Taxpayers

The Income Tax Department has said that it will refund all late fees amount and excess interest paid by taxpayers while filing returns for 2020-21 due to the software error. This was informed by the department through a tweet.

The department had earlier extended the deadline for filing returns till September 30, 2021 from the usual deadline of July 31, 2021, owing to the pandemic.

The statement issued by the department came in the aftermath of complaints by several taxpayers that interest and late fees had been charged from them while filing returns after July 31, 2021.

The department in a tweet said the ITR software was rectified on August 1 itself to remove the error due to incorrect computation of interest under section 234A and late fee under section 234F of Income Tax Act.

"Taxpayers have been advised to use the latest version of the ITR preparation software or file online. If, by any chance, someone has already submitted the ITR with such incorrect interest or late fee, the same will be correctly calculated while processing at CPC-ITR and the excess amount paid, if any, will be refunded in the normal course," the I-T department tweeted.