Late fees for default in filing of Income Tax Return

Amount of late fees payable under section 234F of the Income Tax Act

As per section 139 of the Income Tax Act, every taxpayer, whose total income exceeds the basic exemption limit, on or before the due date, has to furnish a return of income in the prescribed form and prescribed manner that is defined as per the law.

In case when the taxpayer fails to the file the income tax return within the prescribed time limit, he would be liable to pay late fees for such default as per provisions of section 234F of the Income Tax Act.

Late fees under section 234F was introduced with the aim to ensure timely filing of income tax return by the taxpayers

Applicability of section 234F of the Income Tax

Provisions of section 234F get attracted if the following conditions are satisfied –

• The assessee is mandatorily required to file the income tax return as per the provision of section 139; and
• The assessee has either not filed or has delayed in the filing of the said income tax return.

In nut-shell, provisions of section 234F apply to all the categories of persons, like an individual; HUF; AOP; BOI; company; firm etc., in case the income tax return is filed after respective due dates.

Amount of late fees payable under section 234F of the Income Tax Act

• Late fees payable in case the total income of the assessee is more than INR 5 Lakhs –

• Late fees payable in case the total income of the assessee is less than INR 5 Lakhs – the maximum amount of fees payable is INR 1,000.

Important Points

• How do I pay late fees u/s 234f .?

The defaulter can make payment of applicable late fees through challan 280 by selecting ‘Type of Payment’ as ‘Self-Assessment Tax’ and mentioning late fee amount in column ‘Others’.

• Late fees U/s 234F is not applicable on any assessee who is not liable to file income tax return as per above provision.

If the income of any person is not chargeable to tax as per the provisions of income tax Act and who is not liable to file income tax return u/s 139 then section 234F is not applicable on that person even though income tax return filed after due date. In short if a person filed nil return where no tax is chargeable in that case no late fees is applicable.