Monsoons started as well as a technical issue with downloading the AIS and TIS, has caused delays in completing income tax returns.
Reetu | Jul 12, 2024 |
Slowness in AIS and ITR e-filing portal resulting in delay in filing ITR’s
Monsoons started in some parts of India, as well as a technical issue with downloading the Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Tax Information Statement (TIS), which has caused delays in completing income tax returns.
Chartered accountants in Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Gujarat acknowledged that, despite the fact that the July 31 tax return filing due date (for non-audit) is only 20 days away, the normal rush to submit ITR has not occurred.
The delay is being blamed on three factors: technical issues with the portal, the dynamic nature of AIS, and some organizations’ failure to share Form 16 by the required June 15 deadline.
According to Income Tax Department statistics, 2.22 crore returns had been filed as of July 10, 2024. So, compared to the 7.83 crore forms filed by people for the assessment year 2023-24 (financial year 2022-23), 5.61 crore returns must be made in more than a fortnight.
When media houses contacted, a dozen chartered accountancy firms confirmed that this year’s procedure has been hampered by delays in accessing crucial tax information for individual taxpayers.
“We have been experiencing difficulty accessing the AIS and TIS for many clients due to delays caused by the operation of the tax-filing portal server,” says an Ahmedabad-based Chartered Accountant.
Individuals avoid submitting returns without the AIS due to the enormous amount of information contained in it, avoiding unanticipated problems.
Even tax payment has been problematic because the same income tax portal is used for all aspects of tax filing and payment rather than the NSDL website, which was utilized until 2022.
The income tax portal is not functioning properly. On multiple occasions, the functionality ‘e-pay tax’ has failed, profile information is not reflected, and filled forms and the returns section are blank.
Even in the final month of filing taxes, information received from banks, mutual fund institutions, electricity boards, gold jewellers, and other vendors is either missing or being updated. This frequently results in the information captured against individual permanent account numbers (PANs) being updated on a regular basis.
Financial services and other organizations are required to provide information on specified financial transactions (SFT) by May 31. However, many firms have not yet filed their SFT returns, which affects the assessees’ AIS. Individuals are now unable to file their returns. Changing the deadline for SFT reporting to April 30 instead of May 31 each year would help us avoid such issues in future.
The modifications to the AIS mean that if the numbers don’t match, taxpayers may have to deal with inquiries from the I-T department.
There have been situations where people have not received their forms-16.
“Even though my Form 16 was released last week, the values mentioned were incorrect, and they recalled it. There is an issue related to a tax regime change that they forgot to address,” a Mumbai-based advertising executive told a media house on the condition of anonymity.
Even if you have not received your Form-16, there are still sections of your return that you may work on. Check the AIS and Form 26AS to ensure that the information reported by the respective entities about SFT transactions is correct.
If your taxes have been paid and are appropriately recorded, and there is no mismatch in the Form 26AS details, you can file the returns.
The salary slip contains information about the income received; the only difference is that the standard deduction amount and the net salary are not shown. Since the employer has previously filed Form 27D, the tax collected will be recorded on Forms 26AS and AIS.
Form-16 provides minimal information on wage breakdowns and perks. Beyond these categories, other sources of information include interest income, capital gains from stocks, and real estate. Even donations and their ARN numbers can be obtained.
You can keep your returns more or less prepared. Capital gains and residential property income can be obtained and contributed to the returns because they are not subject to Form 16 requirements.
If you have income from foreign shares or investments, gather this information. Even though Forms 26AS and AIS provide a glimpse of Indian revenue, overseas income is not mentioned.
Obtain the tax-paid certificate from the countries where you received foreign income. Get them translated if they are written in a language other than English (such as Chinese or Italian). If you have overseas income, you must file certain schedules.
Furthermore, the financial years for different countries do not correlate to the April 1-March 31 period, therefore proportionate income must be tracked. For example, in the UK, the financial year begins on April 6.
You must report the 20% tax collected at source (TCS) if you used travel agency services for foreign travel exceeding Rs.7 lakh per year or invested abroad and did not claim the TCS refund in advance tax. The tax returns are your final opportunity to obtain tax refunds.
Tax collection at the source would have occurred not only during international travel but also while purchasing cars. Previously, the TCS and TDS were automatically populated. However, we are currently not seeing the details collected and auto-populated from AIS.
If the TCS amount given is incorrect, you must return to the collector and seek a modification, which may take some time.
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