All about resolving mismatches under E-Sahyog facility

Assessees beware!! The Government has started a new campaign called E-Sahyog to ask for information/response from assessees where there is mismatch found in information given by the assessees in the Income Tax return and that given to/by other third parties in respect of the assessee.

In this facility, the income tax department will compare information relating to the assessee available with the other parties such as service tax department, VAT, TDS Department, Registrar of properties etc. with the information provided by the assessee in the income tax return and any mismatches will have to be explained by the assesses by way of response in the E-Sahyog tab in the IT login of the assessee.

Ques: What information will the IT Deptt. compare?

Ans: The Income Tax Deptt. will compare information as given by the assessee to the other govt. departments or as available with these departments which are provided by any other person in respect of the assessee.

Some of the examples of the information compared by the IT Deptt are:

• Comparison of the details provided in the service tax return of the assessee with the income as shown in the income tax return.
• Mismatch of income as shown in form 26AS with that shown in the income tax return.
• Comparison of the sales consideration for transfer of immovable property as reported in AIR by the registrar of properties and as reported by the assessee.
• Comparison of income shown from transfer of immovable property with that shown by the buyer in his tds statement.

Ques: Where can you see this mismatch?

Ans: The details of the mismatch are available in the E-Sahyog link available in the ‘My Pending actions’ link available under the worklist Tab in the Login of the assessee.

Ques: How can the assessee respond to the mismatch?

Ans: The assessee can repond to the mismatch by Clicking on the Link “Response” to open

“Return Mismatch Response”.

The mismatch related information (relevant value in the ITR and third party information)

will be displayed in “Return Mismatch Response”.

After this the assessee can respond in two parts:

Part A

This is preliminary response. Here the assessee just has to respond whether he has knowledge about the information due to which the mismatch has occurred or not.

Part B

If the assessee chooses the option in the Part-A that he has knowledge about the mismatch, then he has to submit a detailed response in Part-B relating to the mismatch.

Here the assessee will have the option to see the complete details of the mismatch by accessing the return filed and also the other information such as Form 26AS etc.

The assessee can provide a detailed response to explain the mismatch.

Ques: What are the types of responses the assessee can give?

Ans: There are different types of responses that the assessee can give depending on the facts of each case. The different types of responses are:

• If the information/value provided under third party information is wrong, then the assessee has to select the appropriate response under the section “Mismatch Response

”The value shown under Third Party Information is wrong”.

The respondent has to be careful while providing this response and has to be very sure that the information given is indeed wrong.

• If the mismatch is on account of information relating to different PAN/AY

Here the following response can be selected:

“The mismatch is on account of information relating to different PAN/AY”.

• How to respond if the information/transaction was not correctly accounted for in the IT Return?

Here the response can be submitted under the following option:

“The information/transaction was not correctly declared in Return of Income and revised return u/s 139(5) has been filed.

In this option, the respondent has to ensure that that he has filed the revised return of income with the correct figures. If not, the assessee has to file the revised return immediately.

• How to respond if the mismatch has an explanation?

Here under the section “Mismatch Response”, select the appropriate r        response:

“Explanation other than above”

After selecting this option, there are different explanation type options available for the respondent depending on the type of mismatch.

After the respondent has selected one of the above options, the respondent can give a detailed response for the mismatch.

Other Points to remember

• After giving the response, a response ID will be generated which can be saved.
• The status ‘submitted’ will be displayed as soon as the response is submitted.
• The respondent can file more than one response at a time.
• The response once submitted can be reviewed.

Ques: How will the case be resolved?

Ans:    Depending on the type of response and the satisfaction of the A.O, the case will be closed after processing of the response. The purpose of this system is to reduce the need of physical appearance of the assesseee before the AO, therefore if the response is satisfactory, the case will be closed. Although, there is no guarantee as yet that if the case is closed in this facility, the case of the assessee will not be selected for scrutiny.

Another motive of the ITD is to process maximum no. of cases where there is mismatch as only 3-5% cases are selected for scrutiny and there are cases which are overlooked. After introducing this facility, the IT department can process maximum no of cases and take action on those who show incorrect figure or conceal something in the IT Return.

All in all this is another step by the IT Department towards the digital India motive of the present Govt. and will be expanded in the future to cover more and more assessees.