Income tax filing: 27% of taxpayers yet to file returns, monsoon blamed for delay: Survey

Floods and related power outages have been cited as top reasons for taxpayers' inability to file their returns by the July 31 deadline.

About 27 percent of individual income taxpayers are yet to file their returns for the financial year 2022-23, purportedly due to the monsoon mayhem ravaging several parts of the country, according to a survey.

Social media platform LocalCircles, which conducted the survey, stated that it received over 12,000 responses from citizens across 315 districts of India.

The results come amid widespread disruptions caused by heavy monsoon rain and floods in several parts of India, including Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Telangana, parts of Gujarat, Maharashtra and Delhi NCR.

These extreme weather conditions have impacted the lives and work of hundreds of thousands of people.

Also read: ITR Filing: What happens if you miss the July 31 return-filing deadline?

Floods and related power outages have been cited as top reasons for taxpayers' inability to file their returns by the July 31 deadline.

Despite these challenges, Revenue Secretary Sanjay Malhotra last week stated that an extension of the filing deadline is unlikely.

The survey asked respondents about their ability to file their income tax returns for FY 2022-23 within the current deadline.

The findings show that while 70 percent have already filed their returns, 5 percent of respondents have tried but faced difficulties. Another 8 percent said they would file by the end of the month.

Also read: ITR filing: Will the July 31 due date for filing tax returns be extended?

However, 14 percent of the respondents said that they would likely be unable to file their income tax returns by the deadline.

According to a statement shared with Moneycontrol, community discussions on LocalCircles reveal that most people want a two-week extension to be able to file their returns as the flood and power outage situation normalises.

Also read: New income-tax regime is now the default regime. Here’s how to navigate the switch

Alternatively, the government could consider extending the deadline for residents in states affected by the floods, the discussions from LocalCircles survey indicated.

LocalCircles said that it would share the findings with the Ministry of Finance.