The e-filing portal of the Income Tax Department (www.incometax.gov.in) has marked receipt of more than 2 crore Income Tax returns as on 13^th October 2021. The new portal was launched on 7th June, 2021 and in the initial period taxpayers had reported glitches and difficulties in the functioning of the portal. A number of technical issues have since been resolved and the performance of the portal has substantially stabilized.

Over 13.44 crore unique taxpayers have logged in till 13th October, 2021.  Approximately 54.70 lakh taxpayers have availed of ‘forgot password’ facility to obtain their passwords.

All Income Tax Returns have been made available for e-filing. More than 2 crore ITRs for AY 2021-22 have been filed on the portal, of which IT₹ 1 & 4 constitute 86%. It is encouraging to note that more than 1.70 crore returns have been e-verified, out of which 1.49 crore are through Aadhaar based OTP. The process of e-verification through Aadhaar OTP and other methods is important for the Department to commence processing of the ITR and to issue refunds, if any.

Of the verified IT₹ 1 & 4, over 1.06 crore ITRs have been processed and over 36.22 lakh refunds for AY 2021-22 have been issued. Processing of IT₹ 2  & 3 will be taken up shortly.

The Digital Signature (DSC) registration of non-residents has been enabled and overall 4.87 lakh DSCs have been registered. In the simplified process of DSC registration any individual has to register his DSC only once and can use it across any entity where the individual is a partner, director etc without having to re-register again against each entity or role.

Over 15.72 lakh Statutory Forms have been submitted including 9.08 lakh TDS statements, 1.29 lakh Form 10A for registration of Trusts/institutions, 1.98 lakh Form 10E for arrears of salary, 23,920 Form 35 pertaining to filing of Appeal and 22,075 DTVSV Form 4 till 13th October, 2021.  In response to feedback from taxpayers, the submission process of 15CA and 15CB forms required for foreign remittances has been revamped. Over 1.83 lakh 15CA and 37,870 15CB forms have been filed. More than 21.40 lakh e-PANs have been allotted online free of cost. The Legal Heir functionality has been enabled for registrations and compliance

Further, e-proceedings and faceless proceedings have been enabled with functionalities including video conferencing for assessment and seeking adjournments or appointment and filings by Authorized Representatives. Taxpayers have been able to view over 12.20 lakh Notices issued by the Department under the Faceless Assessment/Appeal/Penalty proceedings, to which over 6.24 lakh responses have been filed.

The Income Tax Department strongly urges all taxpayers to view their Form 26AS through the e-filing portal to verify the accuracy of the TDS and Tax Payments and avail of pre-filling of ITRs.

All taxpayers who are yet to file their Income Tax returns for AY 2021-22 are requested to file their returns at the earliest.

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RM/KMN

E-verification via Aadhaar OTP enables processing of income-tax returns and facilitates timely refund issuance. The Department's revamped e-filing portal has recorded extensive uptake with over two crore returns filed and substantial e-verification, largely via Aadhaar-based OTP, which enables commencement of return processing and issuance of refunds; the portal also supports one-time DSC registration, broad statutory form submission, e-PAN allotment, faceless proceedings with video-conferencing, and urges taxpayers to view Form 26AS and file outstanding returns for processing.