Now that the due date to file ITR for FY 2021-22 has passed, everyone would be in a relaxed state. But here is something to be noted and taken care of. The Income tax department has started an e-campaign to reach out to taxpayers who have not filed their income tax returns or either reported inaccurate details. The purpose of the campaign is to validate taxpayers’ financial transactions with the details reported in their income tax returns. So, the department doesn’t have to go through the notice and scrutiny process, and here encourages voluntary compliance for the taxpayer’s convenience.
The Income Tax Department is sending SMS/ emails to the taxpayers to give feedback for mismatches related to financial information reported in the ITR and transactions reflected in the AIS or in case you have high-value transactions during the financial year.
The Income tax department has various information sources to verify such financial transactions received by them which include SEBI/ NSDL/ RTA/ CDSL etc.
You may receive an email or SMS from an e-campaign for these reasons:
- Non-filing of return: If you have a potential tax liability or are obliged to file an income tax return for a specific assessment year and have not filed a return yet then you are required to submit feedback.
- High-value transactions: If certain financial information of the taxpayer reported in their income tax return does not verify with the transactions found from the third or external party or might have missed disclosing some high-value transactions are displayed to you for feedback.
- Significant transactions: If your specific financial transaction in the submitted ITR does not match the data held by the income tax department, feedback is requested in this head.
Submitting the feedback is not enough, you may have to file an updated ITR as per the expected response.
Is it compulsory to submit feedback for such SMS?
It is recommended to submit the feedback on the compliance portal. It is not always the case that discrepancy occurs if you have hidden or missed reporting any information, it may be the result of an AIS error, which should have been reported to the IT department in the form of feedback.
How to respond on an e-compliance portal?
In the e-Filing Portal, navigate to Pending Actions > Compliance Portal > E-Campaign, and select the AY. You are required to respond to the information appropriately.
For example, under the e-campaign list the type of issue is displayed High Value Transaction, for AY 2022-23, the status shown as partially submitted.
You are required to Provide Feedback in AIS (the information on which the feedback is required is marked as “Expected” in the AIS view. The Information category would include TDS /TCS (tax deducted or collected at source) or SFT.
You are required to respond to such transactions by selecting among the below-mentioned responses
- Information is correct
- Information is not fully correct
- Information relates to other PAN/ year
- Information is duplicate/ Included in other information
- Information is denied
Let’s say you select Information is not fully correct, then it will give you the option to edit the correct amount of information and submit it.
Here’s you can check detailed article on submit feedback on e-compliance portal.
What If I don’t respond to compliance feedback?
It is advisable that in any situation, you’re required to submit the compliance response whether the details asked are correct or not. Because not responding to such requests may lead you to notice or scrutiny from the income tax department.