Income Tax Department sends reminder to update contact details

Dear Taxpayer,

As per our records, it is observed that you have not validated your contact details yet. In order to alleviate any difficulties in submission of Income Tax Return, the Department had temporarily relaxed the requirement of validating the contact details prior to login so that taxpayers could submit their returns before the due date – July 31st 2014. However, now the Income Tax Department advises you to validate the Email ID and Mobile Number registered with e-filing account immediately. In case you have already validated the same, kindly ignore this email.

Please refer https://incometaxindiaefiling. gov.in/eFiling/Portal/StaticPDF/Update_Contact_Details.pdf for more details.

Validation of email and mobile numbers has been introduced to facilitate taxpayers as in many cases incorrect emails and mobile numbers have been provided and taxpayers did not receive important communication from the Department.

Further, it has been observed that in many cases taxpayers are not able to reset their password since the new temporary password from the Department may be sent to their registered email which may be different from the taxpayer's personal email, e.g. email of their intermediary.

The Department will send separate One Time Passwords (OTP) also referred as PIN on the mobile and email provided by the taxpayer. The OTPs have to be entered by the taxpayer after logging into their e-filing account to authenticate the same. The OTPs will remain valid for 24 hours within which the taxpayer has to complete the process. For 'Foreign/ NRI' taxpayers, the OTP validation of the email ID would be sufficient.

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. Further, this validation will ensure that Department can send an OTP for resetting the password used for Login in case the taxpayer has forgotten the password.

You may enter the email of any other person designated by you, in addition, as a Secondary Contact (without any restriction on the number of user accounts linked as a Secondary Contact) to also receive emails, alerts etc.

The Department requests your cooperation for completing this validation process at the earliest for a smooth and convenient return filing process.

Regards, e-Filing Team, Income Tax Department