Tax Return Filing: Not filed your I-T return yet? Use the e-filing portal's free co-browsing feature

While ITR filing portal Filetaxonline offered a 25 percent discount last week, the discounts on other platforms seem to be widening

With the income tax return filing deadline well nigh, e-return intermediaries (ERIs) have started offering discounted packages for last-minute return filers.

While ITR filing portal Filetaxonline offered a 25 percent discount last week, the discounts on other platforms seem to be widening. Clear is offering a 55 percent discount on assisted tax filing packages, while Tax2win is doling out a 20 percent discount.

Also read: ITR mistakes: Five return-filing errors that could trigger income tax notices

TaxSpanner, apart from offering a 49 percent discount on regular tax filing packages, has initiated live video filing of tax returns. But the charges here are steep, at Rs 2,499 to Rs 8,999, depending on the complexity of your tax return. TaxBuddy is using a combination of discount and cashbacks to lure tax assesses.

These discounts are being promoted more this year because free filing of tax returns has been discontinued by most platforms.

“The free-filing feature that was being offered a couple of years ago has vanished from the market,” says the head of an ERI. The cheapest plans are now at Rs 299-650 for basic returns, without any capital gain or job changes.

Existing tax-filing charges, too, have increased as there are complexities in returns. For instance, the costs for filing on crypto trading have increased. “There is no change in our tax filing packages except the plan for crypto transactions due to the complexity of the tax return,” Sujit Bangar, founder, Taxbuddy, told Moneycontrol.

Last-minute filers can save on the Rs 5,000 penalty for late-filing of income tax returns.

Also read: Your one-stop guide to filing income tax returns online 

Free services still available

But, if you need assistance in filing your tax return, you could first check the income tax portal itself. It has been offering pre-filled returns, which is particularly beneficial for senior citizens, who only have savings bank accounts and fixed deposit income to report.

Check your annual information statement (AIS) and verify if all the details mentioned are correct. The other details will already be filled in your tax return form, based on the data from your permanent account number (PAN), your past tax returns and the data submitted by banks, brokers, mutual funds and sub-registrars (for property transactions).

But, ensure that you seek guidance if you don’t know much about filing returns. This is because you could lose out on tax benefits or make an error that could leave you facing a tax evasion charge if you skip mentioning a particular income.

New assistance feature

If you have some knowledge about tax returns and basic income types, then you can use the co-browsing feature offered free of cost by the income tax department’s e-filing portal. The tax department says that only the tax return form will be visible to its support team and nothing else.

“The taxpayer needs to approve the request before the agents can start the co-browsing session. Taxpayers can also end the co-browsing session at any time if they wish to terminate the discussion,” the Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) said during the launch of the feature in November 2022.

Deactivation needed

If these features do not help you or you are still seeking an expert, then you can use the same return-filing service provider as last financial year or switch to a new one.

If you switch from one ERI to another then you will have to first deactivate the old ERI. So, for instance, if you used taxfile.com (fictitious name, for representational purposes) last year and want to use easytaxfile.com (fictitious name, for representational purposes) this year, then you would have to log in to your income tax account and deactivate taxfile.com as your ERI. Only then can you sign up with easytaxfile.com to file your tax return.

You can do so using the first tab, ‘My e-return intermediary’, under the ‘Authorised Partners’ tab in your income tax account. You can check the activate and deactivate box based on the preference for the year.

This is a new feature as the income tax department has asked online portals to register as e-return filing intermediaries.