The Income Tax (I-T) department will launch a new ‘taxpayer friendly’ income tax e-filing portal- www.incometax.gov.in, on 7 June. “In preparation for this launch and for migration activities, the existing portal of the department at www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in would not be available for a brief period of six days from June 1 to 6,” the order said.
“The new e-filing portal (http://incometax.gov.in) is aimed at providing taxpayer convenience and a modern, seamless experience to taxpayers. It is another step by CBDT to provide ease of compliance to its taxpayers & other stakeholders,” the Income Tax department tweeted from its official handle.
Check out the features of the new income tax e-filing portal:
1) The new taxpayer-friendly portal shall be integrated with the immediate processing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) to issue quick refunds to taxpayers
2) All interactions and uploads or pending actions will be displayed on a single dashboard for follow-up action by the taxpayer.
3) Free of cost ITR preparation software available offline and online with interactive questions to help taxpayers file ITR even without any tax knowledge, with pre-filling, for minimum data entry effort.
4) New call centre for taxpayer assistance for immediate answers to taxpayer queries with FAQs, Tutorials, Videos etc.
5) All key portal functions on the desktop will be available on the mobile app which will be enabled subsequently for full access on the mobile network.
6) New online tax payment system on the new portal will be enabled subsequently with multiple new payment options such as net banking, UPI, RTGS, NEFT and other modes.
The e-filing portal is used by the taxpayers to file their individual or business category income ITRs and also to raise complaints seeking refunds and other works with the tax department.
The government on Thursday extended I-T return filing deadline for 2020-21 for individuals till September 30 to ease taxpayer compliance burden amid the raging second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has also extended the ITR filing deadline for companies by a month till November 30.
Various due date relaxations will reduce the compliance burden for businesses that have been struggling in the current crisis. This also emphasises how critical it is for businesses to move their tax compliance fully online. The extension of due dates for various compliances for employers as well extension of tax filing due date for taxpayers is important in the current situation as the second wave of covid is raging through several states in India.
