The due dates for FY 2025-26 have passed for most people — 31 July 2026 for salaried filers, 31 August for business income without audit. If you haven't filed, the door isn't shut: a belated return can be filed until 31 December 2026. It just costs more than filing on time did.
What it costs
- Late fee under 234F: ₹5,000, reduced to ₹1,000 if your total income is up to ₹5 lakh.
- Interest under 234A: 1% a month on unpaid tax from the due date until you file. 234B and 234C add to it where advance tax was short or uneven.
- Refund delay. A refund can't reach you before the return does, and interest on your refund is computed differently for a late return.
If you have no tax payable and your income is below the basic exemption limit, the late fee generally doesn't apply. But if any TDS was deducted, you'll only get it back by filing.
What you actually give up
The fee is the visible cost. These usually matter more:
- Losses can't be carried forward. Business losses and capital losses are lost for future set-off if the return is belated. House property loss is the exception. For a trader sitting on a capital loss, this is often worth far more than the ₹5,000.
- The regime choice narrows. Certain regime options and deductions are tied to filing by the due date — the choice you assumed you had may not be available on a belated return.
- The paper trail. Loans, visas and tenders ask for filed returns. A missing year shows up years later at the worst moment.
Before you file, fix the data
Most late filers rush and file wrong, which invites a notice. Twenty minutes of checking prevents it:
- Download AIS and Form 26AS and reconcile them with your own records. Interest, dividends, share and mutual fund transactions and property deals all sit there.
- Pick the right form. Capital gains, more than one house property, foreign assets or being a company director each push you beyond ITR-1.
- Pay the tax first, then file. Interest keeps running until payment.
- Compare both regimes before filing rather than accepting the default. Our tax calculator gives you the difference in a minute.
- E-verify within 30 days. An unverified return is treated as never filed — and by then the belated window may have closed.
If you miss 31 December too
After that, the route is an updated return (ITR-U), available for up to four years from the end of the assessment year. It carries additional tax on top of the normal tax and interest, rising the longer you wait, and it can't be used to claim a refund or increase a loss. It's a way to regularise, not a way to file cheaply.
How Vitt-Marg helps
We reconcile the return against AIS and 26AS before filing, so a rushed late return doesn't turn into a notice three months later. If a notice has already arrived — a defective return, a 143(1) adjustment or a mismatch query — we handle that too. More on our ITR filing service.
General information, current as of September 2026, not advice for a specific case. GST and income-tax rules change often — check with us before acting on it.