Efiling… No More A Myth…

As human beings, we are always surrounded by myths which we face on a day-today basis. One of the latest and widespread myths is about efiling of income tax return. Even the advancement of technology has not been able to remove the myth from our mind. The main reason why most people avoid to efile is because they are acting out of fear - fear for technology, and fear of the unknown and most important fear for personal data security. Contrary to popular belief, efiling is a simple process. It is the most safest and convenient way to file the income tax return. With the progress of technology, organizations have made the entire filing process automated. The efiling process is handled by secured servers eliminating the risk of errors and data theft. By the virtue of tradition and myth most people are accustomed to filing for taxes the traditional way - using paper forms. The problem with using paper forms to file for taxes is that there is a lot of room to make mistakes. Most of these mistakes are due to pure negligence, and can be easily avoided. When someone makes a mistake in the forms, that individual may be asked to file for tax returns again to rectify the mistake. By then, the deadline would have come and gone. If that is the case, the individual is liable for certain late penalties. The best way to avoid making mistakes while filing is to efile. Efile helps to reduce mistakes because everything is very systematic. It's almost like using a wizard on your computer. You are walked through the entire process in a step by step manner. If there are mandatory fields that you need to fill in, you won't be able to complete the submission, and the software will prompt you to fill in the necessary information. Sometimes, after filling in all the forms, you can check and recheck for mistakes. But when you want to send the physical forms out, you accidentally left one out. Again, that makes an incomplete submission. For sure, this won't happen if you choose to efile. If there is some information that you need, and you don't have it with you, you can always save your efile as a draft and come back to complete the process another time. All you need is to create an account with an efiling service provider or popularly known as efiling intermediary e.g. Taxsmile.com. Taxsmile.com is approved and authorized by Income Tax Department, Government of India. You can use your log in Id and password to log in and efile at any time before the scheduled time, virtually from anywhere in the world. Moreover as responsible human beings we have another responsibility towards our environment. Efiling helps in protecting the environment. To prepare the paper forms every year almost 75,000 trees are being cut. You can help save these trees by opting for efiling. Using your digital signature certificates, you can efile your income tax return online, making the complete filing process absolutely paperless. So start efiling from this year onwards. You will find the process most efficient and convenient.

CPC commences issue of refunds for AY 2010-11 returns.

Centralized Processing Center (CPC), Bangalore has begun processing of returns for AY 2010-11. Till 10/12/2010 it has processed over 15 lakh e-filed returns of AY 2010-11 in ITRs 1, 2, 3, 4 and issued refunds in over 1.6 lakh cases. These returns were filed during this year from April to October 2010. Marking the advent of Income Tax department in digital era, all intimation orders are being sent by e-mail to taxpayers as a digitally signed password protected PDF document. SMS alerts (where mobile number is provided) to taxpayers on completion of processing and determination of refunds has been introduced for ITRs of AY 2010-11.

*Source Income Tax Department of India.

CBDT Press Release on Tax collections during first quarter

PRESS RELEASE
Net direct tax collections during first quarters of the present fiscal (up to June 2010)
stood at Rs.68,675 crore, up from Rs.59,465 crore in the same period last fiscal, registering a
growth of 15.49 percent. Growth in Corporate Taxes was 21.65 percent (Rs.43,439 crore as
against Rs.35,709 crore), while Personal Income Tax (including STT, and residual FBT and
BCTT) grew at 1.24 percent (Rs.24,075 crore as against Rs.23,780 crore).
Corporate advance tax for the first quarter, at Rs.26,876 crore in FY 2010-11 against
Rs.20,456 crore in FY 2009-10, grew at 31.4 percent, fastest since 2005. The corresponding
growth in corporate advance tax stood at –3.4%, 25.1%, 30% and 26.9% for FY 2008-09, 2007-
08, 2006-07 and 2005-06, respectively.
Securities Transaction Tax, however, recorded a negative growth at 25.21 percent during
the first quarter (Rs.1,094 crore in FY 2010-11 as against Rs1,462 crore in FY 2009-10).

Source* Income Tax Department

Revised Agreement between Republic of India and the Republic of Finland with respect to taxes on DTAA.

The revised Agreement and the Protocol between the Republic of India and the Republic of Finland for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and the Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income (DTAA) was signed by the Chairman, CBDT on behalf of Government of India and the Ambassador of Finland on behalf of Government of Finland on 15th January, 2010 and has come into force on 19th April, 2010.

Source* Income Tax Department

New Facility added for Registered E-filers

New facility added in "My Account" for registered e-filers at www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in to view the Tax Credit Statement (Form 26AS) to verify if the tax payments made by you or TDS deducted from salary or interest etc. are correctly reported to the Department.

Source* Income Tax Department

Order of Jurisdiction of Commissioner(s) of Income Tax.

The Chief Commissioner of Income Tax, Chandigarh have issued Order of Jurisdiction for Commissioner(s) of Income Tax and Ranges of North West Region.
Source* Income Tax Dept

Draft Citizen's Charter 2010

The process of drafting a new Vision document - Vision 2020 is nearing completion. An important component of the Vision 2020 document is the Citizen's Charter 2010. As a part of Vision 2020, the Citizen's Charter 2007 was revisited by a Working Group constituted by the CBDT.

source* - http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in