Efiling Of Income Tax May Become A Purely Online Process Soon

E-Retu
Intermediaries or ERIs are an important part of the process of collecting income tax from taxpayers all over the country ever since the Efiling of income tax returns has gained popularity. These ERIs are closely involved with the process at every step and know exactly how everything works in it. This also makes them a section that is well aware of all the tweaks and changes that could be made to the system in order to make it a more efficient one. The Income Tax Department therefore invited suggestions from this sector to find out more about the probable changes and improvements that could be introduced to the existing process in order to make it one that functions a lot smoother for the benefit of the taxpaying population.

The current process of filing tax returns electronically though projected as an online process is not quite one when one comes to think of it. Though the entire process does take place online and the taxpayers with digital signatures are even able to complete the entire process without as much as picking up a piece of paper, the ones who do not have a digital signature eventually have to get some printing work and posting work done in order to complete the entire procedure. This last step of physically posting the ITR-V form does not do justice to the online tag at all and this is one change that most ERIs are calling for.

The process of Efiling of Income Tax Returns has been picking up pace as the years go by and more and more taxpayers are beginning to see the positives in this system that offers a lot of convenience. The online process has only one hitch that both the Income Tax Department as well as E-Returns Intermediaries have both been noticing for some time now. The hitch is that through taxpayers complete the online process in time it is the physical posting of the ITR-V form that is eventually delayed, thus forcing the IT Department to extend the date of submission time and again.

Suggesting a possible solution to this problem, ERIs have come up with the idea of a One Time Pin or One Time Password (OTP) that will be linked to the Permanent Account Number (PAN) of the taxpayer. The entire idea behind the physical submission of the ITR-V form is to verify the identity of the taxpayer who has filed his tax returns online. With the introduction of the OTP system, the physical verification step can now be completely done away with. The forthcoming Budget session is set to see an announcement to this effect, and both taxpayers as well as E-Returns Intermediaries are hoping that this step will make the Efiling of income tax returns truly an online one.