Income tax returns: Site crashes as taxpayers rush to file taxes on the last day

Income tax department made it mandatory for all those who earn more than 10 lakh per annum or own assets abroad to file their returns online. This created a rush causing the department's website to crash several times due to increase in the number of income tax applications. 

The official site of the income tax department remained inaccessible on Monday which was the final day of filing the returns. 

According to Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the number of income tax returns being e-filed saw an unprecedented increase this year. 

The Income Tax PRO told media that those who have no outstanding taxes may file their returns after the date but those who owe tax will have to pay interest on the outstanding amount.

The department tried making tax returns easy for people. They set up tax kiosks across the city in 12 locations to help people fill forms. 

People took to twitter to express their anger post the crash.

Trying to help someone filing their income tax returns. Site crashing frequently today. Last minute rush.

— Cinema Special (@CinemaSpecial) August 31, 2015

Looks like the income tax site has a hell of a lot of load. Very slow..

— Amit Prabhu K (@amitprabhu) August 31, 2015

I finally managed to fill the difficult ITR 4, only to find out that the #IncomeTax e-filing site has crashed :-( https://t.co/ecSN6pNxqe

— #FreePalestine (@MHK90) August 31, 2015

when on the last day of return filing, the income tax site is down, you tend to realise that @digitalindia is a distant dream

— Amit Sharma (@amitca) August 31, 2015

They even requested the department for an extension as they were unable to file in their returns on Monday.

Extend the due date please.... Income tax site not working properly @arunjaitley @KiritSomaiya

— Nikhil Jain (@Jainniks) August 31, 2015

Income Tax site has crashed. Extension tomorrow?

— The Storyteller (@chemingineer) August 31, 2015