01 Mar Guidelines for Responding to Income Tax Return Notices
When faced with a notice from the Income Tax Department regarding the non-filing of an Income Tax Return, taxpayers must promptly respond. These notices are typically sent via email or SMS, and taxpayers can reply through their income tax e-filing accounts, eliminating the need for personal appearances.
The steps for addressing notices received from the Income Tax Department are as follows:
Section 54 of the Income-tax Act 1961
Section 54 provided benefits exclusively to individuals or Hindu Undivided Families (HUF).
Step 1: Begin by logging into your e-filing account at incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in using your username and password. If you’re a new user, registration is required.
Step 2: Navigate to the Compliance Menu Tab, where you can review your non-filing status.
Step 3: Select ‘View and Submit Compliance’ to proceed with your response. (If you’ve already submitted a reply, you can access it through ‘View my submission.’)
Step 4: You’ll encounter three options:
- E-sahyog: Useful for addressing notices related to discrepancies, but may not be applicable for non-filing cases.
- Filing of Income Tax Return: Allows you to provide reasons for not filing your income tax return for a specific assessment year. Possible reasons include:
- Return is under preparation.
- No taxable income.
- Closure of business.
- Related Information Summary: This section contains details of third-party information received by the Income Tax Department. For instance, if your bank deducted TDS on a Fixed Deposit, you must specify whether this information pertains to you and the source of the income or expenditure. Choose from options such as:
- Self-investment/expenditure out of exempt income.
- Self-investment/expenditure out of accumulated savings.
- Self-investment/expenditure out of gifts/loans from others.
- Self-investment/expenditure out of foreign income.
- Self-income from a transaction is exempt.
- Self-income from a transaction is below the taxable limit.
- Self-income from a transaction relates to a different assessment year.
- Self-not known.
- Other PAN.
- Require more information.
Once all necessary information is provided, click ‘Submit’ to proceed.
Step 5: Upon submitting your response, you’ll receive an acknowledgement number on your registered mobile number.
Step 6: To check the status of your response, navigate to the ‘Compliance’ tab and select ‘View my submission.’
Step 7: The Income Tax Department will verify the response submitted. If deemed satisfactory, the case will be closed. You can also download your response as a PDF by clicking on ‘Response PDF.’ To check your response status with the department, click on ‘Compliance Ask Number.’
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