Technical Issues Faced on the Income Tax Portal

IT stands for Income Tax while ITR stands for Income Tax Returns. The ITR signifies a form that consists of information that provides the Income Tax Department, and the government at large, of your income, the taxes you are required to pay and the taxes you can be exempted from during that particular financial year.

 

Earlier, when technology wasn’t prime in everyone’s life, tax-paying citizens were required to visit the Income Tax Department in order to file their ITR. With improvements and progress in technology, the ITD introduced a portal called the Income Tax Portal where you can file your ITR through e-filing ITR online.

The users of the new Income Tax portal experienced various technical issues such as non-satisfactory grievance auto-responses, no way to find the various ITR forms on the website, not being able to download any necessary documents, etc. This deeply inconvenienced many tax-payers since various crucial deadlines were missed which could create a large impact on their finances and their financial history as well. 

 

However, these issues have been addressed right here, allowing you room to understand the issues pertaining to the portal and how you can manoeuvre around them.

On 7th June, the government launched a new version of the income tax e-filing portal in order to improve the convenience and efficiency of the portal. The intent was to offer better user interface and services. However, the new portal, ever since its launch, has given rise to technical issues that users cannot find a way around. These issues include the inability to file an ITR, ITR e-verification, PAN registration, etc. With the due date of paying the filing fees having passed by the users, the portal was also unable to calculate the ITR online filing fees for the users. 

1. ITR Filing

Some users are facing errors when they try to look for Form ITR1 and form ITR4 on the menu. However, the filing of these ITR forms is readily available on the Income Tax portal in online mode. You could always opt for the offline utility after troubleshooting the issue on the portal if you’re facing a similar issue. 

2. ITR Forms and ITR-V

Complaints surrounding the inability of the portal to allow users to download ITR-V and the ITR forms. However, this issue was seen to be primarily due to internet connectivity issues; hence, users are advised to download the forms at times when webpage traffic could be less or to try all their connectivity alternatives.

3. Downloading Excel for ITR Online Filing

Users seem to be struggling with issues surrounding the download of excel or the Java offline utility for their ITR forms. However, it is to be noted that this facility has been discontinued and an improved JSON utility has been launched on the portal. You may download it using the following steps.

• Go to ‘Downloads’.

• Open ‘Income Tax Returns’. 

• Choose an assessment year.

• Pick ‘Common Offline Utility’ depending on the ITR forms you’d like to acquire.

4. ITR e-Verification

During the process of filing ITR, an e-verification is very important. However, many users don’t seem to be receiving any response when they click on ‘e-Verify’. To be able to overcome this hurdle, you can take the following lead.

• Log out of the ITR portal.

• Click on ‘Our Services’

• Select ‘e-Verify’.

• Enter details such as PAN, assessment year, acknowledgement number and mobile number.

• Here on, you will receive an OTP to successfully complete the e-verification process.

5. Creating a Signature File

For those searching for an option that allows them to create a signature file to register for Digital Signature Certificate, please note that this service has been discontinued. Instead, you can  download emBridge which is the new DSC management utility from the Income Tax portal.

6. Form 26AS Details

While filing ITR, various users have complained about the absence of the automatic accumulation of details from Form 26AS. If you are facing this issue too, you can download Form 26AS and manually fill details into an ITR form. 

7. Logging In

Queries such as the disappearance of log-in data upon the launch of the new portal have risen, however, this is nothing to worry about. If you were logged into the older portal, your data and details have been carried into the base of the new portal and you will not have to register once again in order to access ITR e-filing. 

8. Grievance Redressal

For many, most grievance shootings on the Income Tax portal have received responses such as ‘N/A’. If a response like this displays on your screen after you submit a grievance on the portal, you could check your email inbox to confirm the grievance has been communicated to the grievance redressal team, despite what shows on your screen. If you receive an email of acknowledgement, you can rest assured that your grievance has been taken into account.

If the Income Tax portal starts to err or freeze beyond what has already been mentioned above, you may follow these basic steps before moving forward to troubleshoot the problem.

• You could start by closing all the tabs other than the ITR e-filing page, eliminate all the apps running in the background, pause app/file downloads and reload the ITR e-filing tab.

• You could also try by quitting Chrome or force shutting it, before reopening the application and loading the page again. You can always reopen other tabs once your ITR e-filing process is complete.

The launch of a platform that allows people the ease of using an e-filing portal from the comfort of their home with no tedious procedures or waiting in lines for hours has made the process of filing an ITR safer and quicker. This adds to the efficiency of every dutiful citizen of India who can make the most of the benefits of an online portal for such crucial duties. 

1. Registration

You may follow the steps given below to register yourself as a tax-paying individual on the new income tax portal. 

• Step 1: Visit the income tax e-filing portal through https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal. 
• Step 2: Select the ‘Register Yourself’ option.
• Step 3: Choose ‘Individual’ as your user type.
• Step 4: Fill in the requested information like your residential address, Aadhaar/PAN number, etc.
• Step 5: Select ‘Continue’.
• Step 6: Enter personal details such as your name, phone number, etc.
• Step 7: Submit your registration form.
• Step 8:Offer the OTP sent to you on your contact number via SMS.

2. e-Filing ITR

 Filling your ITR form accurately is imperative and hence, it would be helpful for you to understand the 10 easy steps of e-filing an ITR as given below.

• Step 1: Referring to the provisions stated in the Income Tax Act of 1961, calculate any tax liability that you may have.
• Step 2: Form 26A is for a blurb of your TDS payment liabilities for the various quarters of a single assessment year. Refer to this form.
• Step 3: Based on the eligibility criteria determined by the Income Tax Department, you will be required to choose a category you identify with.
• Step 4: Access the ITR e-Filing homepage through https://eportal.incometax.gov.in/iec/foservices/#/login to be able to log into the e-filing portal. 
• Step 5: Once you have logged in, choose the category you wish to be it ‘Individual’, ‘Hindu Undivided Family’, etc.
• Step 6: Choose the ITR form specific to which form applies to you.
• Step 7: Enter your bank details if you haven’t provided them already.
• Step 8: Check your ITR details once you have been directed to a new webpage which should display these details to you. You may alter any of those details if you need to.
• Step 9: Upon confirming that those details are correct, you can proceed to validate those details on the webpage.
• Step 10: You can now verify the returns and transfer a hard copy of the returns to the Income Tax Department.

3. Eligibility

Following are the ITR e-filing factors that are a prerequisite to abide by.

• You must file an ITR if you are considering applying for a loan or visa.  

• If you wish to claim a refund from the Income Tax Department due various reasons such as miscalculations, tax benefits, etc.

• Filing an ITR is of utmost importance if your gross annual income exceeds as per the regulations of the age category you fall under. Crossing ₹2.5 Lakhs of gross income if you are below 60 years of age, ₹3 Lakh if you are between the ages of 60 years and 80 years or ₹8 Lakhs if you are above the age of 80 years requires you to file an ITR under the Income Tax Act of 1961.

• If you or your company experiences profit or undergoes loss, you are required to file an ITR.

• You are liable to e-filing ITR if you earn from or invest in foreign assets. 

• Earning an income from housing property or more, makes you eligible to file an ITR.

4. Documentation

Certain documents depending on the intent of you filing an ITR are crucial to be submitted to the Income Tax Department. A list of those documents are as follows.

5. Status Check

You can check your ITR status by using your acknowledgement number or using your ITR login credentials. To manoeuvre through both, you can proceed with a status by following the guide provided below.

A) Through Acknowledgement Number

• Step 1: Visit the official Income Tax Portal login page
• Step 2: Proceed with your ITR login credentials
• Step 3: Select Income Tax Returns Status
• Step 4: Submit your PAN, acknowledgement number and captcha code.
• Step 5: Your status update should be displayed on your screen.

B) Through Income Tax Portal Login Credentials

• Step 1: Log into the ITR e-filing website with your credentials.
• Step 2: Choose the View Returns/Forms option on your dashboard.
• Step 3: Pick your income tax returns and assessment year, and submit.
• Step 4: You will now be able to see the status of your Income Tax Return online filing.

1. Refunding Facilities

Receiving a refund for all those who used the Income Tax portal for ITR online filing is a speedy and convenient process. All you need to do is upload your bank account details and shortly, your refund will be transferred to you without any hassle. 

2. Virtual Verification

Earlier in ITR filing, the ITR was sent to Bengaluru for verification which was very time consuming and tedious. However, through the e-filing facility, e-verification is done online which closes the processes in a speedy manner.

3. Document Access

An individual e-filing ITR can have access to the documents that they submit on the portal. Moreover, they can access those anytime and anywhere, contrary to the manual process of filing an ITR. 

4. Economical

Filing an ITR manually would force you to incur the costs of paying a professional to compute and calculate your returns for you. However, with the Income Tax portal, these computations and the process of filling forms could be done by you with no costs incurred. 

5. Status Updates

When it comes to manual ITR filing, you cannot access information such as how far your application has progressed. Hence, the Income Tax portal closes that gap by allowing you full-time access to finding information regarding your Income Tax returns filing progress. 

6. Accuracy

A manual calculation and computation could be susceptible to human error. Using the portal eliminates the room for mistakes, making this mechanism a major benefit of using the Income Tax portal and e-filing your ITR.

7. Time-efficiency

e-Filing your ITR takes little to no time to complete. Using the archaic way to manually file an ITR would invite the hassle of visiting the Income Tax Department and manually filling forms with tedious documentation.