As deadline for filing returns nears, snag hits tax site

NEW DELHI: Two days before the deadline for filing income tax (I-T) returns ends, the online filing system of the tax department developed a technical snag on Saturday affecting taxpayers’ efforts to upload their annual statements.

“For the last two hours, the system has stopped functioning. It is showing a glitch. We now have a huge backlog of returns to be filed,” said a chartered accountant based in the national capital.

“It is a hardware glitch. The site has not crashed. The technical team is working on it and it should be up and running shortly,” a CBDT spokeswoman said.


Rush to file I-T returns led to snag

Tax consultants said the department’s filing system had been erratic since Saturday morning but completely stopped accepting returns by evening. The I-T department said technicians were working to resolve the glitch.

Traditionally, taxpayers tend to rush to file returns on the last few days leading to a huge pile-up on the system.

The deadline for filing returns is July 31. This year, the government has made it mandatory to link the Aadhaar number with the permanent account number (PAN).

The tax department is looking at the possibility of providing some relief to taxpayers who have been put in a spot due to the mandatory linking of Aadhaar and PAN.