What you need to know about the latest income tax e-filing portal
At last, the Income Tax Department has launched the new e-filing website for Income Tax Returns (ITRs) on June 7. The new e-filing portal can be accessed at http://www.incometax.gov.in. To start off, the name change itself is better because the earlier website address was http://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/home which is quite long. The new portal name is much more relevant and shorter. The portal comes with new features which are expected to make the IT return filing process better. Here is a look at the key features.
Immediate processing
The new taxpayer-friendly portal is integrated with immediate processing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) to issue quick refunds to taxpayers.
Better follow-ups
All interactions and uploads or pending actions will be displayed on a single dashboard for follow-up action by taxpayer.
Do note that the portal will have secure and multiple options for login.
IT return software
Free of cost ITR preparation software is available with interactive questions to help taxpayers for ITRs 1, 4 (online and offline) and ITR 2 (offline) to begin with. Facility for preparation of ITRs 3, 5, 6, 7 will be made available shortly.
The portal has wizard-based assistance in ITR selection.
Info for pre-filling
In the new portal, taxpayers will be able to proactively update their profile to provide certain details of income including salary, house property, business/profession which will be used in pre-filling their ITR. Detailed enablement of pre-filling with salary income, interest, dividend and capital gains will be available after TDS and SFT statements are uploaded (due date is June 30th, 2021).
Better communication
Apart from the new portal, there is a new call centre for taxpayer assistance for prompt response to taxpayer queries. Detailed FAQs, User Manuals, Videos and chatbot/live agent are also provided in the portal.
Seamless addition
Functionalities for filing Income Tax Forms, adding tax professionals, submitting responses to notices in faceless scrutiny or appeals is also available.
New tax system
The Finance Ministry has clarified that the new tax payment system will be launched on June 18th, 2021 after the advance tax installment date to avoid any taxpayer inconvenience. There will be multiple methods to pay taxes on the portal.
Mobile app
The mobile app (iOS and Android) will also be released subsequent to the initial launch of the portal, to enable taxpayers to get familiar with the various features. The significant benefit of using the mobile app is that they can access the portal from anywhere, anytime, and perform necessary activities all by themselves.
Take a look at the video to learn more about the upgraded new portal: https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/sites/default/files/2021-06/The_All_New_e-Filing_Portal.mp4
