ITR Filing Deadlines & Common Mistakes to Avoid

Every filing season, we see the same pattern: a rush of clients in the final week before the ITR deadline, most of them missing at least one document, and a handful who've made a mistake in a previous year's return that's now generating a notice. Almost none of it is necessary. Here's what actually goes wrong, and how to avoid it.

Why the deadline keeps sneaking up

The income tax return deadline for individuals isn't fixed on a memorable date, and it can shift from year to year depending on government notifications. The safest habit is to stop treating "the deadline" as a single date you look up once, and instead treat ITR filing as something you start as soon as your Form 16 is available — usually a couple of months before the due date. That buffer gives you time to gather missing documents, query your employer about discrepancies, and file calmly instead of under pressure. If you're ever unsure of the current due date for your case, our team will confirm it for you — it varies by whether you're a salaried individual, a business requiring audit, or filing late.

The most common mistakes we see

1. Mismatched income figures

Your Form 16, Form 26AS, and the Annual Information Statement (AIS) don't always agree — interest income, dividend income, or a second employer's TDS can go missing from one of them. Filing based on Form 16 alone, without cross-checking AIS, is the single most common trigger for a follow-up notice.

2. Choosing the wrong ITR form

Salaried individuals with only salary and interest income use ITR-1. Add capital gains, rental income, or more than one house property, and you likely need ITR-2. Business and professional income pushes you into ITR-3 or ITR-4. Filing under the wrong form is a common and entirely avoidable error that can delay processing or attract scrutiny.

3. Missing deduction proof, or claiming without proof

Claiming 80C, 80D or HRA without organised proof isn't illegal at the filing stage — the trouble comes later, if the department asks for it during assessment and you can't produce it quickly. Keep rent receipts, insurance premium receipts, and investment statements together as you go, not scrambled together after a notice arrives.

4. Forgetting to e-verify

An ITR that's filed but not e-verified within the window is treated as not filed at all. This is a surprisingly common and completely avoidable mistake — verification takes under a minute via Aadhaar OTP or net banking, and should be the very last step in your checklist, not an afterthought.

5. Not reconciling capital gains statements

If you trade stocks or hold mutual funds, your broker's capital gains statement needs to be reconciled against what actually gets reported — corporate actions, bonus shares and switches between funds can all create small discrepancies that are easy to miss without a proper review.

A simple pre-filing checklist

• Form 16 from every employer you worked for during the year
• Form 26AS and AIS/TIS downloaded and compared against Form 16
• Bank interest certificates and capital gains statements
• Rent receipts, insurance premium receipts and investment proofs if claiming deductions under the Old Regime
• Home loan interest certificate, if applicable
• Bank account details for refund credit, pre-validated on the portal

What we do differently

Our CA team cross-checks Form 16 against AIS and 26AS as a standard step — not an optional add-on — before we file anything. Every return is reviewed by a qualified Chartered Accountant, and once filed, we confirm e-verification is complete before we close the file. That's the difference between filing and filing correctly.

If you'd rather not track deadlines and reconcile statements yourself, our ITR Filing service handles the entire process for you. Get in touch and we'll tell you exactly what you need before you send a single document.