Income Tax Return (ITR) filing is a conscientious job. Not only does an assessee need to report all the income, but any error in the filing may lead to a notice of income tax being issued. There is no space for routine practise because tax filing is the procedure once a year, and therefore many individuals do not want to accept the pressure and take assistance from experts or experienced people involved with tax reporting. Pre-filled ITR Forms (ITR-1 and ITR-4 respectively) are required for salaried individuals and professionals having a presumptive income.
However, if such individuals redeem their investments in Equity Linked Savings Scheme (ELSS) or other equity-related funds or securities, they must register relatively ITR-2 or ITR-3 forms since the Long Term Capital Gain (LTCG) has now been taxable on the sale of equity and/or equity-related funds. The Income Tax Department, though, wants individuals to report their ITRs by own and has taken measures to minimise intermediary dependence.
In order to make sure that the same mobile number and email ID are not used in bulk by middlemen and assessors use their own contact details, the Department first launched the Contact Details Validation Drive in 2014. That being said, the assesses are permitted to access the email of any other person identified as their agent, in addition, to receive emails, notifications and so on. as a Secondary Contact (without any limit on the number of user accounts linked as a Secondary Contact). Measures such as E-verification launched in 2015, and PAN-Aadhaar linking, implemented in 2017, was also made to allow assesses to use their own details.
The Department has now mandated to pre-validate the bank account number in which an assessee wishes to claim the amount of tax refund, if any, to ensure that assesses use only their personal contact details as Primary Contact. If an assessee’s contact details (mobile number and email ID) are verified by the primary contact details recorded in the assessee’s tax filing record given that the assessee’s PAN is recorded in the bank’s database a bank account may be pre-validated. But, if you do not file your own ITR, please ensure that the individual filing the return on your behalf or the agent uses your contact information in your income tax profile as Primary Contact, or your bank account may not be pre-validated, and you may not claim the amount of the refund if there is any.
