ITR filing FY 2023-24 deadline extension: Will Income Tax Department extend the July 31, 2024 deadline for filing tax returns?

ITR Filing FY 2023-24 deadline extension: The Income Tax Department has advised taxpayers to file their income tax returns for the financial year 2023-24 before the July 31, 2024 deadline.
According to an ET report, the Income Tax Department has issued an alert to the public regarding erroneous information published in media about the extension of the ITR filing deadline.”The department has stated that this is false, and that the deadline for filing ITR for FY2023-24 is July 31, 2024.” .

Will ITR filing deadline for FY 2023-24 be extended?

Going by the past record, it is highly unlikely that there will be an extension to the ITR filing deadline this year, as over 5 crore ITRs for AY 2024-25 have already been filed as of July 26th, compared to July 27th last year, the ET report said.. By July 31, 2023, 6.77 crore income tax returns (ITRs) were filed, and it is expected that the current figures will soon surpass the previous ones.
Despite numerous technical issues on the e-filing portal, such as problems with Aadhaar-based OTP authentication, slow page loading, and upload errors, it is improbable that the deadline will be extended unless there is a significant technical issue on the website.
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The All-India Federation of Tax Practitioners (AIFTP) has urged the CBDT to extend the deadline for filing Income Tax returns for the assessment year 2024-25 by one month to August 31, citing the impact of floods and landslides on tax return filings in several states, as well as persistent issues with the Income Tax portal and software, and time-consuming processes for paying self-assessment tax.
With just a couple of days left for this year’s ITR filing last date, tax filers are still facing issues with the e-filing portal. The CBDT chairman has stated that they are closely engaging with their service providers Infosys, IBM, and Hitachi to address the issues, and has been assured that the website will function properly.