Memorandum on the problems being faced in relation to New Income Tax Portal

The District Taxation Bar Association (Direct Taxes), Ludhiana has written a Memorandum to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman wherein, they have highlighted 22 problems that are being faced by them and the taxpayers at large, on the New Income Tax Portal.

Due to these issues and problems, not only are taxpayers and professionals unable to reply to the notices of the Income Tax Department, they are also unable to do compliances for which due dates are fast approaching.

Read the official Memorandum below:

Smt Nirmala Sitharaman ji,
The Union Finance Minister,
Government of India,
New Delhi.

Reg: Memorandum on the problems being faced in relation to New Income Tax Portal

Honorable Madam,

While we are proud of Your Honor as our Union Finance Minister for steering our economy so well even amidst & post-Covid difficult financial situation, we would like to bring to your kind notice the problems being faced with respect to the New Income Tax Portal through this Memorandum.

District Taxation Bar Association (Direct Taxes), Ludhiana was formed on 29th day of May, 1981 and for more than 39 years, the Bar Association has been serving to promote the Administration of Law and Justice and to promote up to date knowledge and study of taxation laws amongst the members by arranging seminars, talks and discussions on the subject of Direct Taxes. Our Association would like to invite your considerate intervention for resolving the following issues regarding New Income Tax Portal;

1. The Income Tax Return for the AY 2021-22 cannot be filed through any software or directly by uploading JSON file because this functionality has not been enabled at the Income Tax Portal. Due to this, the Public at large, who are applying for/ renewal of its Bank Loans, for applying tenders to various organization and for applying visa for going abroad etc. are facing lot of problems.
Further, validation errors in Income Tax Return filing utility are not being resolved. Certain information not getting prefilled such as Bank interest and dividend and differences are appearing in TDS information prefilled and that appearing in FORM 26AS.
Further, returns for A.Y. 2021-22 which are uploaded through utility available at the e-filing site are unable to e-verified by the aadhar or any other OTP.

2. The department has still not issued Schema (Electronic Form) of the various Income Tax Return Forms i.e. ITR-2, ITR-3, ITR-5, ITR-6 & ITR-7 even after the passing of 3.5 months of the year.

3. The Electronic Forms i.e. Form 3CA-3CD and form 3CB-3CD for Audit u/s 44AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961 are still not available at the Income Tax Portal.

4. Many Income Tax Returns for the Assessment Year 2020-21 are not being processed. Due to which Income Tax Refunds are pending with the department even after more than 6 months of filing of Income Tax Returns and thereby the assessees are facing Liquidity Issues.

5. The Form No. 15CA and 15CB which are required for remittance of funds out of India have not been enabled at the Income Tax Portal.

6. Digital Signatures of the assessee are not getting properly updated at the Income Tax Portal and is subject to repeated glitches.

7. There is very slow speed of uploading replies/submissions at e-proceeding portal of the e-filing site. Sometimes replies uploaded are not reflected at the Income Tax Portal.

8. Forgot Password facility is not working properly. There is no Forget Password option to reset the password or the option to reset using the DSC as was available. Accounts are getting blocked on entering incorrect password for three times.

9. Income tax returns in response to notices u/s 148 of the Income tax Act, 1961 (Reassessment of Income) is not uploading at the e-filing site. Further, these returns are to be filed within 30 days and 30 days are already over but still the portal is not working.

10. The assessees are not able to file the form no. 35 i.e. regarding filing of appeal before Hon’ble CIT (Appeals) as there are some technical glitches. Either the form is not uploaded at the portal or data already submitted stands deleted. Further, not able to Add authorised representative in Filing of Appeals

11. Already filed appeals which have been partly heard, written submissions of the same are not reflecting at the Portal. Further in some old cases, remand reports are pending and the same are not being reflecting at the Portal. Rather such old Written Submissions are being called time and again.

12. Assesses are not able to download Intimations u/s 143(1) from the income tax portal for any year.

13. Assesses are not able to download receipts of any forms already uploaded at the Income tax site.

14. Old Rectification Applications, u/s 154 which are pending, are not reflecting at the portal.

15. Form 10A and 10B for registration of Charitable Institutions are still not available at Portal.

16. Legal heir of deceased assessee is not able to get himself register for filing of ITR, Submissions or appeal.

17. Applications filed for low deduction u/s 195(2)/197 are not getting reflected at the Income tax Portal.

18. Income tax department (faceless assessment unit) has imposed Penalties in many cases, inspite of the fact of non-working of the Income tax site from 1st June, 2021 onwards.

19. Taxpayers are facing problems in updating their profiles to 100% level due to which the taxpayers are unable to access some of the features of the website.

20. Activation emails remain undelivered in case of Registration of new PAN/TAN on the portal.

21. Facility of Know Your TAN is not properly activated, due to which Trade Name behind the Individual TAN is not traceable for TDS as appearing in 26AS.

Besides the above issues, taxpayers are not able to access old records and also there are other anomalies in past tax records.

Due to the above issues and problems, not only that we are unable to reply to the notices of the Income-tax Department, we are also unable to do compliances for which due dates are fast approaching.

We are very optimistic that your honor will consider our submissions as an appeal from our side and will kindly intervene promptly so that these issues are resolved at the earliest. We have every confidence that our request will be acceded to, when your bighearted attention is with our legitimate problems.

We assure you that we will leave no stone un-turned in complying with our professional obligations quite diligently for the welfare of our beloved Nation, as has always been our prime motive.

Warm Regards & Thanks

For District Taxation Bar Association (Direct Taxes), Ludhiana

CA Jasminder Singh
(President)