The Income Tax Department is set to launch a new ‘taxpayer friendly’ income tax filing portal on June 7 as the Central Board of Direct Taxes said earlier this month that the existing portal will be phased out after a ‘blackout period’ of six days beginning next month.
An IT Department communique on May 19 said the ‘transition’ from the old website – www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in – to the new – www.incometax.gov.in – will be completed and made operational from June 7. It further stated, “In preparation of this launch and for migration activities, the existing portal of the department www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in would not be available for a brief period (taxpayers as well as external stakeholders) of six days from June 1 to 6.”
The Central Board of Direct Taxes urged the taxpayers to be patient during this transition, adding any compliance dates won’t be fixed during this time to ensure ‘no inconvenience to taxpayers’.
Features and benefits of the upgraded ITR website
- All the important functions of this portal on the desktop will be available on a mobile app which will be enabled subsequently for access on a mobile network.
- Integrated with immediate processing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) to issue quick refunds to taxpayers and all interactions and uploads or pending actions will be displayed on a single dashboard for follow-up action by the taxpayer.
- Free ITR preparation software available online and offline with interactive questions to help taxpayers fill ITR even without any tax knowledge, with options like pre-filling
- Systems like call centre, tutorials, videos and chatbot or live agent will be there to address any taxpayers’ queries.
- To ensure easy payments, the new ITR website will also have a new online payment system with multiple payment options like net banking, UPI, credit card and RTGS or NEFT from any account of the taxpayer in any bank
- Taxpayers can not only file ITRs under individual and many other categories but also raise complaints seeking refunds and other works with the tax department
- The IT Department will utilise this website for filing tax returns but also for responding to queries and to give out orders like assessments, appeals, exemption and penalties.