Taxpayers Alert! Data on Advance Tax Payments is Missing In Prefilled Returns Forms 

The tax professionals are running against the deadline for filing an income tax return. While hardly six weeks remain to file ITR, the technical glitch in a newly refurbished income tax website is making the process longer. 

Earlier to make filing tax returns easier, the income-tax returns included a convenient feature called pre-filling. This feature automatically populated the amount of taxes that were paid in advance or deducted by employers, banks, tenants, or other organizations. 

The pre-filled information was based on the data associated with a person's permanent account number (PAN) in the tax-return forms. All individuals had to do was verify the provided details and fill in any missing information to complete the tax return filing process. 

However, at the time of filing the income tax return, this feature is missing in the tax returns forms downloaded for AY 2022-23. Due to the absence of advanced tax data on the website, taxpayers and Chartered Accountants (CAs) may face significant challenges in filing their Income Tax Returns seamlessly.

Balwant Jain, a tax and investment expert, emphasized the importance of clients notifying Chartered Accountants (CAs) about their advance tax payments. Failure to do so, with the assumption that CAs can retrieve the information from the website, may lead to taxpayers receiving notices from the tax department. This can significantly increase the workload and cause unnecessary distress. 

He further added that the Central Board of Direct Taxes should assign specific individuals the responsibility of monitoring the website's performance and ensuring the smooth functioning of various functionalities.

Due to the issue of data missing, people are facing difficulties to file income tax returns, therefore seeking the intervention of tax experts. The website is not able to fetch the prefilled data of advance tax payment in tax return forms and there they must consult a tax expert. 

Previously, Form 26AS has been redesigned as an "Annual Information Statement." In addition to providing details about Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) and Tax Collected at Source (TCS), it now includes extensive information about specific financial transactions, tax payments, tax demands or refunds, and ongoing or completed proceedings conducted by a taxpayer during a specific financial year. All these details need to be mentioned in the income tax returns.

However, the current situation raises two possibilities either there has been a format change in the data of Form 26AS or the problems with auto-filling tax-paid details in the tax returns are a result of software issues on the income tax portal. The exact cause will be cleared soon as further investigations are being in the process.

Also Read: State Government Appeals For Authorization of Police Action Against GST Evaders