Income Tax Dept relaxes time limit for processing justifiable ITRs filed after due date

Ziraat Times News Desk 

Srinagar: The Income Tax Department has relaxed the time limit for processing Income Tax Returns (ITR) filed after the due date on account of illness, technical glitches, or court cases, and authorities have condoned that delay. This will help the assessee get refunds.

The board “directs that valid returns of income filed electronically on or before march 31, 2024 pursuant to condonation of delay under section 119(2)(b) of the Act by the competent authority, for which date of sending intimation under sub-section (1) of section 143 of the Act has lapsed, shall be processed now. Accordingly, intimation in respect of processing of such ITRs shall be sent to the assessees concerned by March 31, 2026,”  a circular received by Ziraat Times said.

The circular said that relaxation in the timeline for processing will not apply to cases where any proceeding for assessment or reassessment or recomputation or revision of income under the Act has been completed for the relevant assessment year subsequent to filing such income returns. In those cases where PAN-Aadhaar linkage is not found, a refund will not be made. “The Director General of Income-tax (Systems), Benglauru shall specify the procedures for the processing of such returns filed u/s 119(2)(b) of the Act to ensure that intimation u/s 143(1) of the Act shall be sent to assessees on or before March 31, 2026,” the circular said.

The powers of acceptance/rejection within the monetary limits delegated to the tax officials in case of returns claiming refund and supplementary claims of refund would be subject to some conditions. One such condition is that the income of the assessee is not assessable in the hands of any other person. Second, no interest will be admissible on a belated claim of refunds. And third, the refund has arisen due to excess tax deducted/collected at source and/or excess advance tax payment and/or excess payment of self-assessment tax.