De-Tax. More security for e-returns

Over the years, by slowly widening the ambit of mandatory e-return filing requirement, the Income Tax Department has brought most categories of individual/salaried tax payers under the e-filing net.

Official statistics on e-filing show that the salaried class (those using ITR 1, ITR 2, ITR 2A forms) accounted for almost half the e-returns filed in 2015-16. This is a steady climb from the 33 per cent in 2010-11.

Barring concessions for those who are 80 years of age or older, e-filing was made compulsory for those earning above ₹5 lakh from the financial year 2012-13. Besides, e-filing was made mandatory for those who claim tax refund.

As the numbers increased, the department has been taking measures to make the e-filing website more user-friendly.

In recent years, the department introduced ‘quick’ e-filing for the simpler ITR 1 form; pre-filling of personal information and information on taxes paid/TDS, etc., on entering the PAN in the return forms, was also enabled last year.

Besides, the introduction of the Electronic Verification Code (EVC) last year helped do away with the hassle of sending a copy of the ITR V Acknowledgement form by snail mail to the department. This year, more features have been added.

All along, e-filing intermediaries may have been vying with each other to enhance their online security features to keep your financial information confidential; but the Income Tax Department’s e-filing website ( incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in ), where all returns are ultimately filed and where copies of earlier returns, demands, etc. are available, had only one level of authentication for your login. This involved a user id (PAN), date of birth and password.

If you don’t file your return on your own, this login would have been created by your auditor or any e-filing intermediary whose services you took.

From April 2016, you have a choice to add another layer of authentication to keep this e-filing account more secure.

Called the ‘e-filing vault’, you can activate this feature by initially logging into incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in with your existing login credentials and choosing the ‘e-filing vault’ option under ‘profile settings’. There are three ways to enable ‘e-filing vault’. One is through net banking.

Once you choose your bank, you will be redirected to the net banking login page for the second level of authentication. Say, you have an ICICI Bank savings account. When you choose ‘ICICI Bank’ on the tax department’s e-filing website, you will be redirected to your net banking web page.

Once into net banking, a link to the e-filing website is available under the ‘Manage your taxes’ option in the ‘Payment and Transfers’ tab. If you click on this option, it will lead you back to your account in the tax department’s e-filing site.

E-filing vault can also be enabled using a digital signature certificate — after registering this certificate in the ‘profile settings’ section in the tax department’s e-filing website.

It can also be enabled using a one-time password sent to your mobile based on your Aadhaar number. You can shift from using one of these three options to the other at any time.

There is also an option to disable the e-vault feature and re-enable it. This can perhaps be done when your auditor or return filing intermediary wants to access it for either filing returns or looking up any information.

Hence, from this year onwards, your financial details will actually be more secure.

With requirement of details that you alone would know — such as net banking user id and password or Aadhaar-based OTP in the second layer of authentication — access to your personal tax details cannot be available to anyone without your knowledge.

Another new feature of this return filing season is the addition of two more methods of e-verification. Since last year, once your return is filed on incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in , the EVC, which is a 10-digit alpha-numeric code, can be generated for the purpose of electronic verification.

Last year, you could either use your net banking account, Aadhaar number, or your debit/credit card at an ATM to generate the EVC. Now the EVC can be generated giving your bank account number and IFSC code.

A list of participating banks in this feature is available on the e-filing website. EVC can also now be generated using the demat account number.

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