Despite numerous technical glitches in the new portal of the Income Tax Department, the All Odisha Tax Advocates Association (AOTAA) has issued a legal notice to the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) for not extending the ITR filing deadline for assessees of Odisha for the Assessment Year 2021-2022 and imposing a late filing fee under section 234F of the Income Tax Act, 1961. (A copy of the legal notice is available on ET Wealth online.)
CBDT failed to post the schema of the returns forms in the portal in a timely manner, as directed by the Hon’ble High Courts.”
The government did not extend the deadline for filing income tax returns (ITRs) for FY 2020-21 (December 31, 2021). Despite the fact that the ITR filing deadline was extended twice this year, many people were unable to complete the task on time due to many issues with the newly implemented e-filing system.
The legal notice further stated: “The new portal has been built in such a way that filling out the return forms and uploading them takes the maximum amount of time.” The portal was occasionally unavailable while filling out ITR forms, causing difficulty to assessees and making it difficult for them and Tax Professionals to file those forms before the deadline of December 31, 2021.
These are the other reasons why the ITR deadline should be extended, as mentioned in the AOTAA legal notification.
1.That the aforementioned Association has raised other points of suffering for the assessees of Odisha in its request letter dated December 27, 2021, such as frequent cyclones, rain due to low pressure, poor internet and electricity facilities, assessees and professionals suffering from COVID-19, non-cooperation from banks in obtaining transaction statements, and so on.
2. That verifying Form No.26-AS, AIS, and TIS, among other things, takes more time before filing the income tax return. It’s worth noting that, in the majority of cases, the AIS data was not made accessible for download owing to server difficulties.
Furthermore, in most situations, there is a significant discrepancy between the information presented in TIS and the actual specifics, as well as the same reported in Form No.26AS. As a result, the taxpayers now have to reconcile the discrepancies that existed previously. 3. The major barrier for Tax Professionals and Assessees to file their income tax returns on time was technological difficulties with the new system.
4. That the government does not have any kiosks, helpdesks, or other facilities to assist assessees in filing their returns of income, and that the assessees are not being educated on how to file their returns of income online.
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