Feature of New Income Tax Portal

NEW INCOME TAX E-FILING PORTAL TO BE LAUNCHED FROM JUNE 7- NEW UPDATES

• The IT department is in communication with the Government, to launch their new e-filing portal www.incometax.gov.in, and the same be operational from 7^th June 2021. The existing portal will be non-operational or Taxpayers and government between June 1-6.
• The aim of the new portal is at providing taxpayer convenience and a modern, seamless experience for ITR filing. It is integrated pre filing ITR software and fast and easier refund systems.
• All interactions, documents uploaded or pending actions will be displayed on a single dashboard for follow-up action by the taxpayer. Apart from this, a new call centre will be instituted, for taxpayers, assisting them with immediate answers to their queries. Also, a mobile app will be provided for access to Tutorials, Videos and chatbot or live agent, for all key functions and working of the new portal.

SUMMARY OF NEW PORTAL:

NEW INCOME TAX E-FILING PORTAL FOR TAXPAYERS TO BE LAUNCHED FROM JUNE 7, PAY TAX VIA CREDIT CARD

• Launching of new portal would lead to Non-availability of e-filing services from 01.06.2021 to 06.06.2021 on the Income Tax portal.
• New portal will be operational from 7th June, 2021.
• The aim of the new portal is at providing taxpayer convenience and a modern, seamless experience for ITR filing.
• It is a taxpayer friendly portal equipped with immediate processing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) and issuance of quick refunds to taxpayers.
• All interactions and uploaded documents along with any pending actions will be displayed on a single dashboard for follow-up action by taxpayer
• The department provides free of cost ITR preparation software for use either online and offline. Included in this, are interactive questions to help taxpayers fill ITR even without any tax knowledge, with pre-filling, for minimizing data entry effort.
• Commencing a call centre service for taxpayers, to get assistance for immediate answers to taxpayer queries with FAQs, Tutorials, Videos and chat box/live agent.
• Mobile app be launched, to provide all key portal functions performed on desktop.
• The new portal comes with multiple new payment options using net banking, UPI, Credit Card and RTGS/NEFT from any account of the taxpayer in any bank, for easy payment of taxes.
• Income tax department has decided not to fix any compliance during the period of blackout.
• It is further proposed that the hearing of cases or complaints by the department shall commence from 10^th June 2021 onwards, to provide taxpayers with enough time to accommodate the new
• The Department also comes with external entities including Banks, MCA, GSTN, DPIIT, CBIC, GeM, DGFT and the taxpayers can avail services of PAN verification etc. and request 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 required to patiently and steadily switch over to the new e-filing portal and give time to get familiarized with the new system.
• The new portal will provide free of cost ITR preparation software available online and offline with interactive questions to help taxpayers fill ITR even without any tax knowledge, with pre-filling, for minimising data entry effort.

INCOME TAX RETURNS FOR AY 2021-22

• As per the amendments in Income Tax rules, the sub-clauses mentioning “is a person in whose case tax has been deducted under section 194N; or in whose case the TDS payment has been deferred under sub-section (2) of section 191 or sub-section (1C) of section 192.” has been inserted after sub-clause (vi) in the Income Tax Act, 1961.
• Apart from this, changes have been made in Appendix-II, for Forms SAHAJ ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3, SUGAM ITR-4, ITR-5, ITR-6, ITR-7, and ITR-V.
• SAHAJ ITR-1 applies to people who are resident (not ordinarily resident) having total income of up to Rs 50 lakh constituting Income from Salary, one house property, income from other sources, and income from agricultural activities maximum up to Rs 5000.
• This ITR form does not apply to a Director in a company or made investment in unlisted equity shares or even in cases where TDS got subtracted as per section 194N or where the ESOP taxation aspect has been deferred under new relaxation.

COMPONENTS OF FORM

• Part-A: General Information of the taxpayer.
• The Part-B: Gross total income as computed under different heads of income.
• Part-C: Deductions under Schedule VI and net taxable income.
• The Part-D: Computation of Tax liability or refund due.
• Part-E: Some other Information, as may be required by the department.

The forms also provide information on Advance Tax paid and Self-Assessment Tax payments, along with TDS/TCS details.

In order to combat with the ongoing COVID pandemic, the IT department, have not made any significant changes to the ITR Forms, as compared to last year’s ITR Forms, to make things easier for taxpayers,.

The assessment year shall be 2021-22, for income earned during the financial year 2020-21. Thus, the ITR to be for income earned in FY 2020-21, be made with the last date being July 31 of the relevant assessment year (provided the same is extended by Government).

Other Update on ITR Filling

1 time relaxation for verification of all e-filed ITR’s for Assessment Year 2020-2021 that are still pending verification & processing – reg.

Due date for filing TDS return for the 4^th quarter of the financial year 2020-21 is 31^st May 2021 and for TCS return, the due date is 15^th May 2021.