ITR-V form - IT Dept to do away with sending ITR-V to Bangalore

IT department may do away with the procedure of sending ITR-V form to Bangalore by those who file ITR online

Income Tax Department contemplates for doing away with the procedure of despatching signed ITR-V form to Central Processing Office Bangalore by those who file Income Tax online from this financial year.

Readers may recall the issue of amendment notification issued in the month of May 2013 that amended Rule 12 of Income Tax Rules (Income Tax NOTIFICATION NO. 34/2013 [F.NO.142/5/2013-TPL]/SO 1111(E), DATED 1-5-2013). This amendment notification warranted Income Tax assessees whose total income assessed to income tax exceeds Rs. 5 lakhs for filing E- Income Tax Return viz., online income tax return from the assessment year 2013-14 (FY 2012-13). While this new amendment would bring more assessees into the net of e-filing of procedure, IT department’s proposal for exempting despatch of hard copy of signed copy of ITR V form to Bangalore central processing office would relieve many from hassles of taking printouts of ITR-V form and sending it through ordinary post to Bangalore (IT department would accept only the ITR-V form sent through ordinary post until now)

Here is an extract of news published in electronic edition of Economic Times
Millions of taxpayers who file income-tax (I-T) returns in electronic form may no longer have to post the ITR-V form to Bangalore. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the administrative authority of the income-tax department, will now instead introduce electronic verification of these online returns.

The new measure, expected to be operational within this financial year, will save the taxpayer from the hassle of sending the paper document by post and tracking its acknowledgement.

“E-filing was meant to make taxpaying easier for people. But compulsory dispatch of paperdocuments by post to the Bangalore-based central processing centre of the department or procuring a digital signature was undoing this. Hence, the department has decided to end this soon,” a senior official said.

The department has been receiving a number of complaints from taxpayers with regard to following these rules and also was getting suggestions to do away with paper documents and make e-filing more user-friendly, he said.

When taxpayers file returns online, they are required to send an ITR-V by ordinary post to the I-T department’s CPC, based in Bangalore. It then sends an electronicacknowledgement to the tax return filer.

In case of digital signatures (used by corporate entities), a bonafide statement that verifies the identity of the sender are required to be created by paying a fee and requires regular renewal.

The CBDT, according to the official, has decided to stop the practice as it wants more and more people to file e-returns and it is also bolstered by the huge spurt in e-filing numbers being recorded every year.

During 2012-13, a 31% jump was seen in e-filings by taxpayers as 2.14 crore entities filed returns online as compared to 1.64 crore in 2011-12.

Recently, the CBDT has made e-filing mandatory for those with an annual income of Rs 5 lakh or more for the financial year 2012-13 and assessment year 2013-14 and with the addition of this category of taxpayers the department expects a huge surge in the number of online filings.

The department also wants to introduce “new concept of third party validation of utilities developed for e-filing which will avoid mistakes in returns and bring uniformity in the interpretation of tax laws in filing of returns”.
Source : The Economic Times