Central Board of Direct Taxes to extend the date of filing ITR?

Central Board of Direct Taxes to extend the date of filing ITR?

The government's new portal has been facing technical issues

The Income Tax Department (ITD) of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) is expected to extend the deadline for filing the Income Tax Returns (ITR) beyond 30 December 2021.

The department had extended the deadline in September due to the difficulties faced by the taxpayers and other stakeholders in the filing of ITRs. The reason was that the government's new tax portal was facing technical issues.

It is to be noted that certain technical glitches still continue. These include:

1. Non-functionality: Problems while filing multiple ITRs u/s 139(1) for the same PAN, incorrect upload of JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) files of one PAN in other PANs, unable to download acknowledgments and/or ITR forms after filing, validations of these forms, frequent changes in the department's utilities, login issues, time consumed in processing and generating even after processing of ITR on a real-time basis, income tax refund payable is shown as awaited, mismatch in PAN data when there is no mismatch, PAN account locking even when the number is active, filing of refund re-issue requests, digital signature certificate (DSC) validation, bank account validation, new PAN registrations and data saving.

2. Rectification applications: Problems related to rectification applications, filing of ITR perusal to Notice u/s 139(9), incorrect processing of intimations u/s 143(1), updating of Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN) to map with documents filed on the website.

3. Lengthy utilities: The utilities provided in the public domain have lengthy rules. As a result, it takes substantial time to compile details and complete the compliances.

4. New tax regime forms: The forms, including, Form 10IC, Form 10ID and Form 10IE are not smooth and effective. Form 10E reports arrears of salaries prior to the Financial Year 2000-2001. This needs to be corrected.

5. Access to forms not provided to software vendors: Many forms are enabled for filing only electronically. But access is not provided to the software vendors to customize the filing.

6. Reconciliation of AIS/TIS date: The reconciliation of Annual Information Statement (AIS)/Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) date with ITR as well as Applicable Financial Statement (AFS) is time-consuming. Several assessees are receiving notices due to variations in ITR filed vis-à-vis the data reported in AIS, even though it was clarified that no notices would be issued due to such mismatches.

7. Transfer Pricing Audit Report: The facility to file the Transfer Pricing Audit Report (TPAR) in Form 3CEB under the IT Act, 1961 is not enabled.