News Detail

image

SFT Returns: Income Tax Dept Gives 2 More Days for Filing

Technical glitches on the income-tax (I-T) portal continue to give a hard time to taxpayers as well as tax professionals. Citing heavy traffic, the I-T department announced providing a couple of days for filing the statement of financial transactions (SFT), erstwhile annual information return, or AIR. The last date for filing SFT for FY22-23 ended on 31 May 2023. However, as per the information shared by the tax authorities, there is no extension for filing SFT as of now. 

In a tweet, the I-T department says, "Due to heavy traffic on the reporting portal, some filers may have encountered difficulties in filing SFT returns. It is informed that the functionality for filing of SFT returns will remain open for a couple of days more to enable smooth filing of SFT returns.

Only a few days ago, the department warned taxpayers to file SFT by 31st May, failing which they would have to pay a penalty of Rs1,000 per day of default. "Non-filing or filing inaccurate statement may also lead to levy of penalty.…," it had warned.

According to the I-T department, sub-registrars, financial institutions, including banks and non-banking finance companies (NBFCs), postmaster general, issuers of bonds, debentures or shares, trustee of a mutual fund (MF) or those managing affairs of MFs, foreign exchange dealer, supplier of goods or services, a company paying dividend and company buying back its shares are mandated to file SFT. They need to file SFT in form 61A for transactions entered with third parties during FY22-23, as per rule 114E of the I-T rules.