Order under section 119 of Income Tax Act for extension of due date to 31 October 2015

Income Tax Return and Tax Audit Report due date extended to whole of India to 31st October 2015

Government of India Ministry of Finance Department of Revenue Central Board of Direct Taxes PRESS RELEASE 

 New Delhi, 1st October, 2015 Subject: Extension of date for filing of Income tax returns and tax audit reports to 31st October 2015 - regarding

The issue of extension of last date for e-filing returns of income and audit reports u/s 44AB due by 30th September, 2015 has been the subject matter of litigation in various High Courts across the country. While some High Courts have ruled in favour of the extension of due date, some others have ruled otherwise. In order to avoid discrimination between taxpayers residing in different jurisdictions and to be fair to all, and also in view of paucity of time to approach the Hon’ble Supreme Court by way of Special Leave Petition, the Government has decided that across the country, all the returns of income and audit reports u/s 44AB which were due for e-filing by 30th September, 2015, may now be filed by 31st October, 2015.

Necessary order u/s 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 has been issued by CBDT in this regard

(Shefali Shah) Pr. Commissioner of Income Tax (OSD) Official Spokesperson, CBDT  

Gujarat High Court orders CBDT to extend due date

Judgement on writ petition filed regarding extension of filing of Income Tax Return for FY 2013-14 has been delivered.

CBDT has already extended due date for filing of Tax Audit Report from 30 September to 30 November 2014. However, due date to file tax returns were not extended citing loss of Revenue to the Department.

The Gujarat HC in its judgement has ordered CBDT to extend the due date by arriving at a middle ground stating interest under section 234A would be levied if due taxes are paid after the original due date.

The action of CBDT on this judgement will be awaited with much enthusiasm, whether it provides fair extended due date to taxpayers or goes into Appeal against this judgement!

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

Solution to problems faced in Income Tax India Efiling website

Issue / Problems faced	Resolution/Solution to the problem
Internet service from ISP (internet service provider) is not available or failing intermittently.	The call centre of ISP needs to be contacted for resolving this issue.
The internet connection is working, other websites are opening properly.	You may try the following fixes: Check your Windows HOSTS file - Make sure there’s no entry in the hosts file that maps the website’s URL (incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in) to localhost or 127.0.0.1 or an incorrect IP address – it is a possibility if you have imported some third-party hosts file or it’s modified by some malicious software installed in the computer. Type cmd /k notepad c:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts in the Run window to view hosts file Clear DNS Cache and use Public DNS – The DNS cache keeps a record of sites that you have recently visited on your computer. If that gets corrupted, you may have issues opening sites that were previously accessible without problems including incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. Type cmd /k ipconfig /displaydns in the Run window to see the cache entries. If that unreachable website is listed in the cache, type cmd /k ipconfig/flushdns to clear the cache. Change the DNS of the network connection which you are using in your local PC. You can do this by editing the properties of the internet connection. Two most recommended DNS’ are Google DNS (e.g. 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4, 4.2.2.2) and open DNS. Suspend the Anti-Virus and Firewall – If you are running an external software firewall or anti-virus program (like Norton, ZoneAlarm, etc), exit and restart the web browser. Restart the internet connection
Able to open the website incometaxindiaefiling.go v.in, however not able to upload XML or use Digital Signature Certificate.	Use the instructions mentioned in Help à Browser Settings in incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in website to check that the browser being used is the recommended one. Verify the current configuration of the browser being used and modify if needed.

Efiling contact details updating temporarily suspended

The compulsory updation of contact details which was a tiresome process has been temporarily suspended on the due date itself i.e. 31st July 2014. It must be done to save precious time on the due date itself since lots of pressure was created to postpone the due date of filing of income tax return owning to introduction of new procedure of updation of contacts wherein passwords/OTP would be sent to taxpayers email as well as mobile number.
This resulted in lots of unbudgeted hours used up in this process itself. Thus, for temporary relief, the Income Tax Department has suspended this procedure of contact details updation.

The Income Tax Department has also requested to "Save" its Email ID from where the communication with the taxpayer takes place. The Email ID is "DONOTREPLY@incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in" 
Since the Email sent by Department can remain hidden in Spam folder and thus get deleted later, and never come to notice of the taxpayer, the Department has requested to store/save its email id in contacts list.

Income Tax Department to be open on coming Saturday and Sunday

For due date of Income Tax Return being 31st July 2014, the Department will be kept open to accept returns on 26th and 27th July, 2014 being Saturday and Sunday respectively. 
Also, an arrangement of special counters will be made from 26th July for facilitating filing of Tax Returns!

Income tax Efiling portal maintenance break!

The Income tax india efiling website i.e. www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in will be inactive for maintenance break between 00:00 hrs to 02:00 hrs of 25th July 2014

new JAVA utility for Income Tax

NEW ITR UTILITY

 These ITR utilities are developed using the latest JAVA technology and effort has been made to make it user friendly, simpler and faster preparation/submission of tax returns. It is recommended to stay connected to internet to experience the refreshingly new utility. Please check for new updates before starting to enter the data. This utility can run on operating system like Windows 7.0 and above and latest Linux, where Java Runtime Environment Version 7 Update 6 (jre 1.7 is also known as jre version 7) or above is installed.

New Features

Pre-Fill

You have the option to pre-fill Personal, Address and Tax information without going to e-Filing portal. To make use of this feature, you're to be connected to the internet. To pre-fill, open the latest downloaded utility and click on “Pre-fill” in the menu. You should type in the e-Filing portal credentials, User ID, Password and DOB, select the Address you want to pre-fill and click SUBMIT and the details are pre-filled. This will help in minimizing the errors, specifically in tax information. Make sure you complete this activity before you start putting together the data in utility. Please validate the content,  post import of details.

Open

Using this option, you can import the XML of the respective AY. You're required to validate the content imported. This will help in updating/editing information, if you want to submit a revised ITR form on a later date.

Save Draft

This option will help you tosave the unfinished work, should you want to continue later. The XML saved as “Save Draft” cannot be used for submission, as the XML might be incomplete.

Submit

You can generate and submit the XML using this option. After you have entered the data completely (no errors displayed in the right hand pane), you'll be prompted to type in the e-Filing credentials. You'll be required to type the details and click OK to submit the ITR data. On successful validation and submission, you'll see a success screen with the ITR-V link (if you have e-Filed without a Digital Signature Certificate). To use this feature, you should be connected to the internet.

Errors and Suggestions

User friendly tips on various errors and suggestions on the right hand pane are provided. You may click these links and the cursor will be taken to the field where there is an error. Please note, you'll be able to submit only after correcting all the errors.

Help

Instructions, short keys and various settings are explained in this section. Please read them carefully to understand and complete the activity with ease.

Efiling account password validity

The PIN / passwords received on email and mobile number of taxpayer will be valid for 24 hours unlike it was valid for just one login session earlier.

Please take note of the above while updating your/client's Efiling Account.

Important announcement for Non-filers of Income tax Returns

In 2013, Income Tax Department issued letters to 12,19,832 non-filers who had done high value transactions.

In 2014, Income Tax Department has identified additional 22,09,464 non-filers who have done high value transactions. You may be one of them. Act Now!

Log on to e-filing portal at https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in

• If you are not registered with the e-filing portal, use the ‘Register Yourself’ link to register.
• You can view ‘Information Summary’ under the ‘Compliance’ module and submit whether it pertains to you or any other person you know.
• If you have already filed the return, you should submit the details under ‘Filing of Income Tax Return’. If not, you should pay your taxes and file the return.
• You can keep a print out of submitted response for record.

CBDT EXTENDS TAR / TAX AUDIT REPORT AND INCOME-TAX RETURN FILING DUE-DATE!!!!!