Analysis of Income Tax Circular Requiring updation of Email address Mobile Number
The Income Tax Dept. has mandated pre-filling of Mobile No. & Email ID before filing of return of an assessee vide its press release dated 26.06.2014. Further one Mobile No. and Email ID can not be used for more than 4 times for incorporation in any assessee’ detail. This has brought lot of inconvenience to Income Tax Practitioners who were earlier filling assessee’ return on behalf of assessee. The natural reason for the hardship is the low internet penetration. Many clients do not possess an Email ID. Further the entire family in which every member is an assessee combined with their business entities (also an assessee) may not have any Email ID. The Mobile No. penetration is also considerably low in India.
According to communication from IT Deptt. the intimations/correspondence with the assessee’ does not reach the assessee since the Email ID and Mobile No. provided are those of Income Tax Return preparers or CA’s or the lawyer who files the return. Consequently, the corrective/ suitable action may not be taken by assessee in time. Further, the tax payers are not able to reset their password since the contact details provided (for email communication) may be the details of I Tax Return Preparer.
However, it is important to understand that the relationship between the assessee & his lawyer/CA is based on mutual trust and understanding. By providing his own Email ID & the Mobile No., the practitioner is absolving the assessee with unwanted troubles. The assessee may not check his emails regularly & further may not understand the importance of SMS communication which happens with the Deptt. The practitioner is aware of Income Tax Act & takes corrective actions in case of any default.
Further, the limitation of Email ID’s to 4 may not serve much purpose. This would only lead to creation of more Email ID’s by the practitioners to avoid inconvenience to clients who do not possess Email ID. The workaround of email id being limited to 4 assesses is already being circulated on net.
Further, the receipt of PIN in the SMS for registration of assessee’ Mobile is a cumbersome process. As a welcome step the Deptt. has facilitated a 24 hour extension to register the PIN’s.
It remains to be seen if the steps followed by IT Deptt. to directly reach/communicate with the assessee would eventually serve its purpose or would further add to the ever burgeoning problem of bribery & corruption in the Deptt. (The Deptt. would now possess the contact details and Email IDs of assessee). Similar instances have been experienced in VAT Deptt. where the assessee has faced harassment from Deptt. officials for deposit of March VAT before 31st March to fulfil department target of revenue collection in a Financial Year. ( The due date is between 20th – 30th April according to VAT Acts. )
Further, the email communication has not yet received legal sanctity in India. We are still following the Paper communication era. There are no recognised/ identified Email Service Providers in India. The likes of Google ( Gmail ) etc. have their servers in US. There are hundreds of other non-Indian entities which provide E-mail infrastructure. Their services can never be relied upon. Currently, Google does not charge any fees for providing Email Services to users. Providing Email service require huge investment cost in terms of servers and such companies may begin to charge from users anytime in future. The popularity/ ease of any communication system should not lead to usage of such system for legal communications unless legal sanctity has been provided to Email communication systems.
(Author – Ankur Aggarwal, ankur@klaggarwal.com,Web: www.klaggarwal.com)
Latest Update on above-One mobile number or email ID can now be used for 10 Income Tax Accounts
Dear Sir,
While efiling the IT return the dept mandates that the PIN for mail id updation will be sent only on mail while that of mobile updation will be sent on sms.While the later is received promptly i am not getting the PIN for the former after repeated attempts.Even a letter to the chairman CBDT has not solved the problem and i continue to face problems for last one week even though there is no change in my email id and the recent communcation from the dept was received only on this id
But so many ca are creating email I’d on behalf of Clint which Clint may not be known . The solution of receiving the email from it department it have the option to select communication on secondary Emil which is ca email I’d . Then it will communicated properly ca and SMS will be on the mobile of assessee. From CA Dr.Balasaheb bhosale
First let there be a law passed by the Parliament that every citizen who is a tax assesse possesses a mobile phone and let that law pass the test of scrutiny by the Supreme Court of India. Let there be a second law about every citizen possessing a computer device and an e-mail id. The problem is due to the unholy nexus between the so called tax practitioners and the tax officials. Let there be debate on this aspect in the Parliament and State Assemblies.
sir i am thankful to u above problem face corently.
The issue of Emaild Ids of clients are of generally from Gmail which has their server is us. Making Emails mandatory the department can create an exclusive email ids for the clients from with an extension of Income tax, For example some X client X@incometaxindia.in. This email ids can be exclusively used only for income tax purpose.
as I think this measure would be helpful to the clients also.
It is 100% correct that the it become more mess. If one assessee used Prepaid card mobile number and used that number in the IT profile, after some time assessese may changedor missed his mobile number but still the IT information will go to old mobile number hence, assessee not aware the intimation etc. some time some one stay in village having no internet connectivity having taxable income and file his ITR through his CA and as per new system he has to use email id and even he create the same, he may use once in a while hence, he may miss the ITR communication, it does’nt mean the person living in village not to file any returns. If IT earlier system, at least C.A can take the information because they open their email almost every time in their office.
The move will shlow down the process of filing returns in the month of JULY.If the dates are extended up to 31/03/2015 the scheme may be used the assessees. Whether the assessee gives his number and E Mail ID or others what it the problem for the department as long as the issues are solved by the person whose number and E mail ID is give. The department is trying to stop the e-filing procedure in the future and all the tax professionals may be avoided by the IT department so that they can directly deal and bargain for a better “FEE”. On one side they say the corruption has to be reduced and on another side these procedures will give rise for more and more corruption in the department.Kindly do away with this at the earliest.