ITR Deadline July 31: Who Must File and Who Can Skip

The July 31 deadline for filing income tax returns sits two weeks away. The basic rule: file if your total taxable income before exemptions and deductions exceeds the exemption limit. That limit depends on age. Individuals under 60 face a ₹2.5 lakh threshold. Those aged 60 to 79 get ₹3 lakh. For residents 80 and older, it is ₹5 lakh.

Filing is required even when income falls below that line in several cases. A resident individual who holds or is a beneficiary of any asset outside India must file, regardless of income. The same goes for anyone with signing authority over a foreign bank account. Another trigger: spending 60 days or more in India during the financial year and 182 days or more over the preceding four years meets the ordinary resident test, which demands worldwide income disclosure.

Taxpayers who had tax deducted at source (TDS) exceeding ₹25,000 in the year, or ₹50,000 for senior citizens, also need to file, even if total income is below the exemption limit. The logic: the government already collected the tax, and a return is the only way to claim a refund. Similarly, if you paid advance tax or self-assessment tax on income that later turned out to be exempt, the refund sits in the system until you claim it via a return.

Filing is also smart in other cases. Bank interest or dividend income often has TDS deducted even when total income is below the threshold. Filing a return is the mechanism to get that money back. Losses incurred during the year can be carried forward only if you file a return declaring them. Without a return, those losses expire.