Why Filing Your ITR Before June 15 May Lead to Tax Notices and Mismatches

Why Filing Your ITR Before June 15 May Lead to Tax Notices and Mismatches

The Income Tax Department has started the ITR filing season for AY 2026-27 by releasing the ITR-1 and ITR-4 filing utilities. Many taxpayers have already started to prepare for the filing just to avoid the last-minute rush.

Over the past few years, income return filing has evolved into a data-driven compliance exercise.

Nowadays, income tax returns are continuously matched with data flowing from employers, banks, financial institutions, registrars, mutual funds, brokers, and multiple reporting entities through TDS statements and SFT reporting. This is also why filing a return early can create problems.

The release of ITR filing utilities does not mean that all tax data is updated. Many taxpayers often overlook the disclaimer to AIS, Form 26AS, and prefilled ITR data.

At the start of the filing season, several important statutory filings relating to the last quarter of FY 2025-26, relevant to AY 2026-27, are still pending. So, the Annual Information Statement (AIS), Form 26AS, and prefilled return data may not yet reflect the complete financial picture.

This also becomes important for salaried taxpayers who also earn other taxable income such as rental income, interest income, professional receipts, capital gains, and dividend income.

In such situations, filing returns early may result in incomplete disclosure of income, reporting mismatches, or denial of tax credit.