Income Tax Return: The Income Tax Department may soon take strict action against those who give wrong information about their income in ITR .
CBDT chief Nitin Gupta on Monday said that 68,000 cases have been taken up for e-verification by the Income Tax department for under- or under-reporting of income in tax returns for the financial year 2019-20.
Under the E-Verification for Income (E-Verification for Income) scheme, the IT department is informing taxpayers through notices about discrepancies in financial transactions and annual information statements (AIS) filed in IT returns. Taxpayers can reply to the department giving clarifications or file an updated return if they find that there is a genuine discrepancy in the e-verification notice.
68,000 cases will be verified
Around 68,000 cases relating to the financial year 2019-20 have been selected for e-verification based on the risk management parameters set by the Income Tax Department. CBDT chief Nitin Gupta said that in 56 per cent of these cases or 35,000 cases, the taxpayer has already given a satisfactory reply. More than half have either responded to the notices or filed updated returns.
He said that till date a total of 15 lakh updated returns have been filed and tax of Rs 1,250 crore has been collected. However, no response has been received in 33,000 cases.
Updated returns to be filed by March 31, 2023
Taxpayers have time till March 31, 2023, to file updated returns for income earned in FY 2019-20. Once an assessee files ITR, the chances of his case being taken up for scrutiny or reassessment are slim.
What will happen if the notice is not answered
The CBDT chairman told that if you do not respond to the e-verification notice, there are high chances that an inquiry will be initiated into the matter. He said that taxpayers should check their AIS regularly. If taxpayers see any mismatch entry then they have to inform some IT department immediately.
15 days time
When the department informs the taxpayer about the e-verification by mail, the taxpayer is given 15 days to respond to the intimation from the I-T department. The CBDT has a time period of 90 days to complete a particular case under e-verify, but complex cases may take longer.
Let us tell you that the e-verification scheme was notified on December 13, 2021 and the pilot was launched in September 2022. The last date for filing updated returns for FY 2019-20 ends on March 31, 2023.
