The Income Tax Department has announced the launching of its new e-filing portal www.incometax.gov.in on 7th June, 2021. The new e-filing portal aims to make the process of filing income tax returns and getting refunds easier for taxpayers. It includes free of cost ITR preparation interactive software and a new call centre for assisting taxpayers.

The following are the highlights of the new portal :

·         New taxpayer portal integrated with immediate processing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) to issue quick refunds to taxpayers;

·         All interactions and uploads or pending actions will be displayed on a single dashboard for follow-up action by taxpayer;

·         Free of cost ITR preparation software 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;

·         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);

·         New call centre for taxpayer assistance for prompt response to taxpayer queries. Detailed FAQs, User Manuals, Videos and chatbot/live agent also provided;

·         Functionalities for filing Income Tax Forms, Add tax professionals, Submit responses to Notices in Faceless Scrutiny or Appeals would be available.

The Income Tax Department clarified that the new tax payment system will be launched on June 18th, 2021 after the advance tax instalment date to avoid any taxpayer inconvenience.

The mobile app will also be released subsequent to the initial launch of the portal, to enable taxpayers to get familiar with the various features. Familiarization with the new system may take some time, so, the Department has requested the patience of all taxpayers/stakeholders for the initial period after the launch of the new portal and while other functionalities get released since this is a major transition.

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