New Income Tax Portal – Intro & Key Features of the e-Filing Portal

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has launched the new income tax e-filing portal on 7th June 2021. The new portal ‘www.incometax.gov.in’ has replaced the existing e-filing portal ‘www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in’. The taxpayers will now have to file their income tax returns (ITRs) and do all other tax-related tasks through the new portal. The portal is being redesigned for the convenience of the taxpayers that will provide the facility of income tax return filing and other tax-related services in a modern and seamless manner.

Features of the New Income Tax e-Filing Portal

• ITR Processing: The new user-friendly portal will immediately process the income tax return filed by a taxpayer. The fast processing of the income tax returns will enable quick refunds to the taxpayers.
• Free ITR Preparation Software: The taxpayers will benefit from the free ITR preparation software. Currently, ITR-1 and ITR-4 software are available online and offline, and ITR-2 is available online. Other ITR preparation software for ITR-3, ITR-5, ITR-6, ITR-7 will be available soon. The interactive questions available in the software will make the e-filing process simpler.
• Call Centre Services: The new web portal is integrated with a ‘new call centre’ for immediate response to queries. Additionally, detailed faqs, tutorials, videos and chatbot/live agents address the taxpayers’ issues.
• Single Dashboard Interaction: A taxpayer can see all the interactions, uploads, and pending actions in a single dashboard along with the follow-up action.
• Multiple Payment Options: The new portal will come with multiple payment options for a taxpayer. These options include RTGS/ NEFT, credit card, UPI and net banking via any account of a taxpayer in any bank. It will enable easy payment of taxes. The income tax department will enable such facility after 18th June 2021 to avoid any difficulty to the taxpayers to pay 1st instalment of advance tax.
• Mobile Application: A mobile application with all the essential functions of the new portal will be launched subsequently. The taxpayer can access the app via a mobile network at any point in time.
• Pre-filled ITRs: The new portal allows pre-filling of some details related to certain incomes. It can be related to Salary, house property, business/profession, etc. In addition to that, it enables the detailed pre-filling of details of Salary income, interest, dividend and capital gains. The pre-filling will happen when the concerned entities upload the TDS and SFT statements.

Existing Features of the Income Tax e-Filing Portal 

The income tax e-filing portal, www.incometaxidiaefiling.gov.in, was created by the department to provide e-filing related services to the taxpayers. The users use the existing income tax e-filing portal to file their income tax returns and other forms. In addition to income tax return filing, they can do the following tasks on the portal:

• E-verify income tax returns.
• View and respond to an outstanding income tax demand.
• File audit reports and certificates.
• View tax credit statement (Form 26AS).
• View tax credit mismatch.
• Request for refund re-issue.
• Request for intimations.
• Request for change of ITR particulars.
• Link Aadhaar with PAN.
• Lodge grievance online.
• Respond to e-proceedings.

The income tax department uses the portal to access the uploaded income tax returns and other forms for further processing, issue notices, receive a response from the taxpayers and communicate the final orders such as assessment, appeals, exemption and penalties.

Things to do by Taxpayers-

• Re-register their Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) as the old registered DSCs are not migrated due to security issues.
• They are advised to update the user ID and mobile number under primary contacts in their profile,
• Link Aadhaar and pre-validate bank account if not done previously and
• Reset e-Filing Vault Higher Security Options.

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