Income Tax New Portal- A New Journey to Begin!

An Article by CA Manpreet S. Taneja

Hope you all are doing wonders in your respective fields or wherever you are.

Income Tax as we all know is taxes on income earned by us which we as a citizen of India, pay to the sovereign government as a share of our responsibility towards nation building.

Income Tax is governed by the provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961, and the Income Tax Rules 1962 as amended from time to time and circulars/notifications issued by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the body constituted by Ministry of Finance, Government of India for monitoring the income tax matters in the country.

As we are in the world of digital era, majority of compliances are online, be it any institution of the country. 

Computerised processing of returns all over the country was introduced in the year 2002 and the national website of the Income Tax Department (www.incometaxindia.gov.in) was launched to provide a vital interface between the Department and taxpayers.

This national website of Income Tax Department aims at facilitating governance along with the ease of user and it got evident during the year 2003, as the national website of the Department (www.incometaxindia.gov.in) won the Silver Medal in the category of the ‘Government Websites ‘under the National e-Governance Awards.

During 2014, New National Website of the Income Tax Department http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in launched with enhanced new features and content.

Going forward with the pace of the growth in information technology and increasing widespread use of computer systems and mobile applications, the Income Tax Department recently announced launch of new e-filing Portal of Income Tax Department.

Vide Press Release dated 20^th May 2021, department has informed all its stakeholders that the Income Tax department will be launching its new portal e-filing 2.0 on June 7, 2021 for the taxpayers.

The new e-filing portal (www.incometax.gov.in) is aimed at providing taxpayer convenience and a modern, seamless experience to taxpayers.

Few of the expected changes are as follows:

1. Seamless Processing of Income Tax Returns;
2. Adaption of JSON file format in place of earlier JAVA and Excel Utilities;
3. Faceless Assessments will be given more user-friendly interface;
4. Income Tax Mobile App will be enabled subsequently;
5. New Online Tax Payment System will be enabled;
6. Multiple Payment Options such as Credit Card and RTGS/NEFT;
7. New Regime for replacing erstwhile Income Tax Settlement Commission will be enabled;
8. New Look for all the forms like 26AS, Form 34BB and other compliance Forms;
9. Revamp of Appeals and Communication Structure between Department and Assessee;
10. Adaption of Technology and more synchronisation of Income Tax data of Assessee with various other agencies like Banks/Financial Institutions, GST website and other regulatory websites on Real-Time basis.

In preparation for this launch and for migration activities, the existing portal of the Department  http://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in would not be available to taxpayers as well as other external stakeholders for a brief period of 6 days i.e., from 1st June, 2021 to 6th June, 2021.

In order to avoid any inconvenience to taxpayers, the Department will not schedule any compliance dates during this period. Further, directions have been issued to schedule hearing of cases or compliances only from 10th June, 2021 onwards, to give taxpayers time to respond and get familiar to the new system. If, any hearing or compliance which requires submissions online has already been scheduled during this period, the same will be preponed or adjourned and the work items would be rescheduled after this period.

The Department has also intimated other governing bodies/entities including Banks, MCA, GSTN, DPIIT, CBIC, GeM, DGFT, who are availing services link to Income Tax website like PAN verification, PAN allotment etc. about the non-availability of the services and has requested them to make arrangements to ensure that their customers/stakeholders are apprised, so that any relevant activity can be completed prior to or after the blackout period.

Taxpayers are encouraged to complete all their urgent tasks involving any submission, upload or downloads before 1st June, 2021 to avoid any difficulty during the blackout period.

The Department has urged all taxpayers and other stakeholders to be patient during the switch over to the new e-filing portal and also during initial period till they get familiarized with the new system. This is another initiative by CBDT towards providing ease of compliance to its taxpayers and other stakeholders.

We all should acknowledge the fact that changes in any system does not happen overnight, it always started from scratch and then only paced with support of the countrymen, so we should embrace this technological upgradation and look forward to it.

About Author:

Hi, this insightful article was penned down by Mr. Manpreet S Taneja. A brief about him is discussed hereunder.

He is an associate member of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, popularly known as CA Manpreet.

He is passionate about managing Finance and Investment and love to explore new avenues. Numbers and formulas have always lured him and now auditing and taxation has become his expertise.

Tax advisory, Financial Reporting, Secretarial compliances and other Managerial considerations are his other prowess one can count on. After working with reputed firms and renowned banks, he has gained rich experience of over 5 years and successfully ventured into CA practice.

He believes in what Winston Churchill has rightly said “Success is not final; failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” and that is the motivation that drives him towards excellence.

Qualification: Chartered Accountant, B.Com (Hons.)

Specialization: Audit, Taxation, Finance, Bank Audit

He can be reached at: Camintu266@gmail.com