New Portal For Income Tax E-filing To Be Taxpayer-Friendly: Check All Features

The Income Tax (I-T) department will launch a new 'taxpayer friendly' income tax e-filing portal- www.incometax.gov.in, on June 7, 2021, aimed at providing a hassle-free and comfortable experience to taxpayers. In a recent statement, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex body which heads the I-T department said that the existing income tax e-filing portal will be phased out after a 'blackout period' of six days beginning next month, between June 1 - June 6, 2021. (Also Read: Deadline For Filing Income Tax Returns Extended Till September 30 Amid COVID-19 )

The Central Board of Direct Taxes, which frames policy for the I-T department, urged taxpayers to complete all their urgent tasks involving any submission, upload or downloads before June 1, in order to avoid any difficulty during the blackout period - June 1-June 6, 2021. The transition from the old e-filing portal - www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in, to the new one - www.incometaxgov.in, will be done and implemented for regular operations on June 7. (Also Read: New Income Tax E-filing Portal To Be Launched For Taxpayers On June 7 )

According to a statement released by the Ministry of Finance on Thursday, May 20, the new taxpayer-friendly features and benefits offered by the new income tax e-filing portal are as follows:

• The portal will be integrated with the immediate processing of the income tax returns to issue quick refunds to taxpayers
• All interactions and uploads or pending actions will be displayed on a single dashboard for a follow-up action by the taxpayer
• A free-of-cost ITR preparation software will be available online as well as offline with interactive questions to assist taxpayers to file their returns on income, even if they do not have much knowledge on tax-related issues. It will help in pre-filling and minimising data entry effort.
• A new call center for taxpayer assistance will be available for immediate answers to taxpayer queries with videos, tutorials, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and chatbot/live agent
• All major portal functions on the desktop will be available on the mobile app which will be enabled subsequently for full anytime access on a mobile network
• A new online tax payment system on the new portal will be enabled subsequently with multiple new payment options using UPI, net banking, RTGS/NEFT, credit cards from any account of the taxpayer in any bank, for seamless and convenient payment of taxes.

During the blackout period-  June 1-June 6, when the existing income tax portal will not be operational, the I-T department will not fix any compliance dates, to avoid any inconvenience to taxpayers. The new e-filing portal will be operational on June 7. The hearings of cases or compliances will be fixed only from Juen 10, 2021, onwards to provide taxpayers some time to get familiar with and respond to the portal's new system.