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Income Tax Return Deadline for FY21 Likely to Get Extended after Glitches on ITR Portal

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is likely to extend the deadline for filing income tax returns (ITR) for financial year 2020-21 (AY 2021-22), sources told News18.com. The last date for filing ITR for FY21 was September 30. The development came after income tax payers had faced multiple glitches while filing the yearly return via new income tax website www.incometax.gov.in. Various users took to social media platforms to express their difficulties while using new the income tax portal.

On June 7, the Income Tax department had unveiled a new tax e-filing portal to make ITR filing smooth and hassle-free. From pre-filled income tax return forms to quick refunds — the new portal has tons of new features to provide a “modern and seamless experience to taxpayers”. However, there have been several technical issues since its inception. Erroneous report to longer time to file a income tax return, taxpayers and tax professionals had faced many issues on the new portal, according to reports.

“Ever since the portal has been revamped there are technical glitches galore and most taxpayers cannot file return and forms or can do filings only after a substantial time lag which is causing tremendous hardship to taxpayers and tax professionals across the country. Even certain reports which are generated from the portal are erroneous,” said Vivek Jalan, partner, Tax Connect Advisory Services

Describing the glitches faced by the taxpayers, Jalan mentioned, “For example the income tax return acknowledgement generated from the portal post filing ITR had a water mark on it for few days which showed that the ITR was still not filed. Another case in point are the FORM 10A required to be filed by trusts across the Country for re-registration u/s 12A of The Income Tax Act for continuing to avail tax exemption.”

“An instance is when for the same assessee at one time the button for acknowledging that earlier Returns have been filed was de activated in Form 10A. At another point, for the same asessee the balance sheet details were deactivated. Without these details, the form may be rejected by the authorities if they are not diligent,” he further added.

“Since last two months or so, the portal has not been working to even minimum satisfaction of taxpayers. Hence it is important for the ministry of finance to extend all dates for income tax compliance like ITR filing date, Form 10A filing date, etc,” he further added.

Considering the hassle faced by the taxpayers, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to meet Infosys managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) Salil Parekh on Monday to discuss the technical glitches on the income tax portal that is yet to be resolved.

“Ministry of Finance has summoned Salil Parekh, MD&CEO @Infosys on 23/08/2021 to explain to hon’ble FM as to why even after 2.5 months since launch of new e-filing portal, glitches in the portal have not been resolved. In fact,since 21/08/2021 the portal itself is not available,” Income Tax Department said in a tweet on Sunday. Later in the evening, Infosys informed that the new income tax portal had started working.

“Initially it was expected that technical glitches would be done with in couple of weeks. Although much improvement is there in portal, few issues are still persistent. Major issue of time taken in compiling income tax return and submitting it. This is increasing man-hours of tax consultants. Also, due to overall negative perception amongst people, many are postponing filing of ITR.

It’s very natural in part of taxpayers and tax consultants to expects extensions of due date. Early announcement of such extension would help taxpayers clear anxiety,” said Sujit Bangar, founder Taxbuddy.com.

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Source: News18