Income Tax Filing: Slow website, complex ITR forms trouble taxpayers; experts bat for deadline extension

Income Tax: A number of tax experts and taxpayers are reportedly facing problems with filing the income tax returns (ITR) for FY 2024-25.

Some of them Livemint spoke to claimed that two crucial documents, AIS (Annual Information Statement) and TIS (Taxpayer Information Summary), could not be downloaded on Tuesday, while the I-T filing portal was functioning at a snail’s pace on Wednesday.

“Yesterday, we were unable to download AIS and TIS, which are important to cross-verify data. So, we could not file any return. Today also, the tax filing portal is very slow,” says Chirag Chauhan, a Mumbai-based chartered accountant who runs CA Chauhan & Co.

He further points out that income tax forms this year are taking longer than usual to complete because of additional information required.

“It is taking double the time from the taxpayer’s side to fetch necessary details, especially to be able to claim deductions. For instance, to claim HRA, taxpayers now need to provide all necessary details such as PAN, property address, and place of property. These details were earlier meant to be provided to the employer, but now the ITR form also requires these inputs. Additionally, to claim a deduction against insurance, one needs to write the policy number as well,” adds Chauhan.

Time not enough to file ITR

Notably, the last date to file income tax return (ITR) for FY 2024-25 is September 15. Although there is over a month left to file the ITR, some believe that it is not adequate in view of the circumstances. While ITR-5 (Excel) was released on August 9, the CBDT is yet to release online utilities of ITR-6 and ITR-7.

“The ITR-5 was released only last week, whereas ITR-7–  form meant for trusts — has yet not been released. So, the time left to file the income tax return is very less as compared to last year. Additionally, the time that we, as CAs, are using to file ITRs should have been used to prepare companies’ audit reports. The deadline to submit audit reports still stands at Sept 30, which needs to be pushed further,” says Pratibha Goyal, partner, PD Gupta & Company, a Delhi-based CA firm.

CA Sagar Joshi, a social media user, wrote on X (Formerly Twitter) that the income tax portal is not allowing digital signature certificates (DSC), and users are facing errors regarding that.

Another user, while reacting to the same post, urged the tax department to extend the deadline further.

“You opened the ITR 3 in late. we dont have proper 90 days to file. Kindly extend the due date (sic),” Ramaiah Krishnasamy wrote on Tuesday on X.

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