Wednesday 25 June 2014

Efiling portal limits one Email ID to 4 accounts !! Headache for tax professionals



Security has always been an issue with tax Department with cases like exactly duplicate webiste of Income Tax being created by fraudsters or hacking of Efiling account of Anil Ambani or crickets or Bollywood stars.

In response to security issues and making the Efiling portal theft-free, it has come up with new feature of updating the Efiling account details of the taxpayer. 

It is a boon for the taxpayer, since it was a pain to retrieve passwords set by old tax professional while handing over the file to new tax consultant.

Generally, the tax professionals would keep the passwords and emails same for all his clients to avoid wastage of time. However, with the new security feature, it would be trouble to update the emails and mobile numbers of the clients. 

With only one month to go for July end due date of tax returns, it is highly advisable to initiate the work a bit in advance to avoid last minute hassles.

BELOW IS THE UPDATE PROVIDED BY INCOME TAX DEPARTMENT REGARDING EFILING PORTAL :



Important announcement for Tax payers for updating contact details in e-Filing Portal

Dear Tax Payers,
Income-Tax Department uses the registered contact details (Mobile number & E-mail ID) for all communications related to e-Filing. It is mandatory that all tax payers must have a valid contact details registered in e-Filing portal.

It is noticed that many registered users are not having authenticated contact details in e-Filing or may have provided details of other persons for convenience. This prevents the Department from interacting directly with taxpayers on their personal email and Mobile.

Further, it has been observed that in many cases taxpayers are not able to reset their password since the email communication from the Department may be sent to their registered email or Mobile which may be different from the taxpayer’s personal email or mobile.

Hence, it is requested that all the e-Filing users may immediately update and authenticate their correct contact details so that the communication can be sent to the valid Mobile number and E-mail ID.

The process of updating and authenticating the contact details are below.

New User

Provide the correct Mobile Number and Email ID during the Registration in
the e-Filing portal, Activation link would be sent to the registered E-mail ID
and a One Time Password (OTP also called PIN) is sent to the registered
Mobile Number. User needs to Click on the Link provided in the E-mail and
enter the OTP received in the mobile number for Successful activation of the
registered user in e-Filing portal

Registered
User

After the user logs in to the e-filing account, there will be a pop-up requesting
the user to update the current Mobile number and E-mail ID. The user should
update their personal Mobile number and Email so that the updated contact
particulars are registered with the Department or confirm that the Mobile
number and email ID already registered is their valid personal contacts.
Upon submitting the details, Department would immediately send OTPs
(PIN1 & PIN2) to new mobile number and Email ID. The respective PINs-
PIN1 and PIN2 received through Mobile number and E-mail ID should be
entered by them in the respective input fields to authenticate that the email
ID and mobile are correct. Upon successful validation the Mobile number
and email ID would be updated in the taxpayer’s profile and the process
would be complete.
The PIN1 and PIN2 would be valid only for the session – so taxpayers are
advised not to close the webpage till PINs are entered and validated. In case
of any difficulty or delay, the taxpayer can log in again and follow the same
process to update the current contact details.

Note:

Taxpayers are advised to follow the process mentioned above in the interest
of the security of their e-filing account and to directly receive communication
from the Department about status of processing and issue of refunds etc.
This is a one-time process to validate the mobile number and email ID.
However, whenever the taxpayer changes the Mobile Number or email ID in
their Profile, the process will be repeated to ensure that the particulars
provided are correct.
One mobile number or email ID can be used for a maximum of 4 user
accounts as the Primary Contact- Mobile Number and Email ID in e-Filing.
This is to ensure that family members (not exceeding 4 separate users) not
having personal email or mobile can be covered under a common email or
mobile, but in general taxpayers should have their own unique email ID and
Mobile registered with the Department.
The taxpayer can enter any other person’s email or mobile number in
addition as a Secondary Contact (without any restriction on the number of
user accounts linked as a Secondary Contact). Using “Profile Settings _
My Profile” the taxpayer can select to include the Secondary Contact to also
receive emails, alerts etc.
Include the emails and SMS from the Income tax Department in the ‘safe list’
or ‘white list’ to prevent the communications from the Department from being
blocked or rejected or sent to Spam folder.
As a best practice, please update and authenticate the current contact and
address details under “Profile Settings _ My Profile” after login to eFiling
portal.


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