Taxpayers may e-appeal against tax order

New Delhi: In a major relief to tax payers, the income-tax (IT) department on Sunday operationalised a new facility for e-filing of the first appeal before a tax officer. The e-filing of appeal, like filing Income Tax Returns (ITRs), can be done using a digital signature from now on, while the Electronic Verification (EVC) facility for the same using the Aadhaar, mobile number and email id will be activated soon on the official web portal of the tax department.

In the new e-form, an applicant or taxpayer seeking appeal against an Assessing Officer’s order has been given a provision  to attach ‘Statement of Facts’ in 1,000 words as also furnish the grounds of appeal in another 100 words. The department has also allowed the tax payer the facility to upload any documentary evidence.

The new form is applicable for the Commissioner of IT (Appeals)  fora and those taxpayers, who file e-returns will be eligible to use this new facility. The systems wing of the department will soon roll out detailed procedures for taxpayers to begin using this facility.

“Electronic filing of appeal along with the documents relied upon before CIT (Appeals) will remove human interface, reduce paperwork and decrease the transaction cost for the taxpayer. It would ensure consistent and error free service as validations will be inbuilt resulting in fewer deficient appeals. Online filing will also facilitate fixation of hearing of appeals electronically," said an earlier statement of IT department.

Meanwhile, the e-filing of income tax returns for the assessment year 2016-17 was launched for a select category of entities and individuals. The two are ITR 1 (SAHAJ) meant for individuals having income from salary and interest and ITR 4S (Sugam) meant for individuals, HUF, partnership firms having income from presumptive business IT department also provided an online calculator for filers to do an easy check and obtain their annual tax liability.