Tax Torture Continues...Now every taxpayer needs to update, validate mobile number & email ID
Moneylife Digital Team 22 September 2017
Tax practitioners were livid today — should they spend time doing their work or on tax compliance, they ask, after yet another change that was sprung on them today. 
 
Just when taxpayers and tax professionals have completed their annual exercise of filing tax returns, here comes a new activity from the Income Tax Department. In a communication , the I-T Dept has asked taxpayers, especially those using efiling to immediately update and their correct contact details. However, this is proving to be an arduous task for taxpayers and tax professionals with thousands trying to visit the e-filing portal as they cannot proceed further without updating the details. Both new and already registered users are required to update and validate their details. 
 
While the Communication says that one mobile number or email ID can be used for a maximum of 10 user accounts as primary contact in e-filing, tax professionals are finding it difficult to use same details for more than two accounts of their clients. "If the mobile and email are used for more than two tax payers, it forces you to change the same. Otherwise, you cannot proceed further. This is going to be a huge bottleneck - especially where same email ID or mobile number is used by CAs for senior citizens or non-resident Indians (NRIs). This adds to the already heavy compliance burden on tax payers and tax professionals," says CA Ameet Patel, who is former President of the Bombay Chartered Accountants' Society.
 
The taxpayer is required to check and validate her mobile number and email ID, both primary and secondary, if any. She had to also specify if the mobile number and email ID quoted belongs to her or anyone else, like a CA. Then she needs to provide all details of her bank account, like account number, IFS code, and branch name that are linked with her PAN number in the tax department records. 
 
 
 
Then comes the validation part, which is done through one time passcode (OTP) sent on registered primary mobile number and email ID. The taxpayer needs to provide both OTPs to validate her account details. However, many are facing issues with timely delivery of the OTP as this takes some time, especially for receiving the SMS. The Communication from the tax department says the OTP remains valid for 24 hours. On an average, it takes about 15-20 minutes to updated details. This may not be an issue with an individual taxpayers who can again login if her session becomes inactive. However, think about the CAs and tax professionals, who will have to keep doing the same exercise for all their clients.
 
The Communication from I-T Department states, "Taxpayers are advised to follow the process mentioned above in the interest of the security of their e-filing account and to directly receive communication from the Department about status of processing and issue of refunds. This is a one-time process to validate the mobile number and email ID. However, whenever the taxpayer changes the Mobile Number or email ID in their Profile, the process will be repeated to ensure that the particulars provided are correct."
 
Here are some reactions from Twitter on the new scheme from I-T Dept...
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Comments
Aditya G
9 years ago
Unbelievable!

I look after my family's income-tax filing and I've mapped my email to ensure all notices come to me. Now it's a pain to remap everything all over again! And now I will have to ask my family members to forward specific emails from income-tax to me. Argh! First Aadhar, now this. God knows what next?

This hare-brained logic baffles me. As long as taxes are paid, why do they even bother whose email is mapped? I wonder how CAs and wealth management firms will handle this idiotic (and illogical) mess.

Govt being penny-wise pound foolish. I never thought Modi govt (or North Block, or whoever) would stoop this low. Stupidity.
Mehernosh Dordi
9 years ago
Minimum government, maximum governance is becoming just the opposite.
A BANERJEE
9 years ago
I really wonder abut the logic behind such actions.
Parimal Shah
9 years ago
Hold your horses my friend.
This certainly is not tax terrorism.
This is an honest attempt to make a taxpayer honest in sharing latest and correct information and a part of a clean up of the system to weed out nefarious ways which earlier governments encouraged by flawed policies of taxation.
If someone is cleaning up the mess we must appreciate rather than just be on the bandwagon of criticizing each and every step the government takes. Itmay be the in thing but not necessarily the right thing to do. Few will understand that. Of course in democracy everyone can air opinions but dissent for the sake of dissent is our biggest problem. Politicians do it all the time. Let us not become that.
Suketu Shah
9 years ago
Best is just dump Income Tax and get bank transaction tax as Dr Swamy is saying since 5 yrs or more.This eliminates all problems and give a kickstart to the stagnant economy.
Anand Vaidya
9 years ago
I just updated and verified the details asked by ITD. It took all of 2mins. Quite easy and fully online process, I am wondering what are these people complaining about.
I hope these details are used to populate ITR forms during efiling saving us from keying in these details every year
mahesh
9 years ago
FOR ONE AY, REFUND IS RECD. AND FOR ANOTHER YEAR, WE R INFORMED THAT OUR BANK DETAILS R NOT CORRECT; NOW AFTER WE RECONFIRM, WE MUST BE PAID WITH EXTRA INTEREST
Bhuvaneswaran K
9 years ago
What is the torture in this?! This is like saying "The bank is asking for Uername, Password, and mobile number/residential address proof/email ID to be updated". This is one time task, no?! Don't we get tax submission reminders and confirmation?! About professional suffering, may be there is some genuine reason. But there are always reasons.
ROMIT KATDARE
9 years ago
Absolutely ridiculous exercise by the income tax department. I file returns for all my family members (6 in total). I cannot use the same mobile no. and email ID more than 3 times. What is the purpose of this exercise when these details were already registered in the website since many years and I have been getting all email and messages correctly. Do these people sitting in the ivory towers of finance ministry think that common people have no other work but to keep on complying to their new diktats on their whims and fancies. Another royal decree from emperor Modi and his ministers it seems.
Sudesh Pratap
9 years ago
Nothing can be done for such people who call it TAX TORTURE ! They are born to crib.
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