The Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT ) in exercise of powers conferred under section 138(1)(a) of Income Tax Act, 1961, has issued Order inF.No. 225/136/2020/ITA.II dated 31.08.2020, for furnishing information about ITR Filing Status to Scheduled Commercial Banks, notified vide notification No. 71/2020 dated 31.08.2020 under subclause (ii) of clause (a) of sub-section (1) of section 138 of the Act.
The data on cash withdrawal indicated that a huge amount of cash is being withdrawn by the persons who have never filed income-tax returns. To ensure filing of return by these persons and to keep track of cash withdrawals by the non-filers, and to curb black money, the Finance Act, 2020 w.e.f. 1st July, 2020 further amended the Income Tax Act, 1961 to lower the threshold of cash withdrawal to Rs. 20 lakh for the applicability of TDS for the non-filers and also mandated TDS at the higher rate of 5% on cash withdrawal exceeding Rs. 1 crore by the non-filers.
The Income Tax Department has already provided a functionality “Verification of applicability u/s 194N” on www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in for Banks and Post offices since 1st July, 2020. Through this functionality, Bank/Post Office can get the applicable rate of TDS under section 194N of the Income-tax Act, 1961 by entering the PAN of the person who is withdrawing cash.
The Department has now released a new functionality “ITR Filing Compliance Check” which will be available to Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) to check the IT Return filing status of PANs in bulk mode. The Principal Director General of Income-tax (Systems) has notified the procedure and format for providing notified information to the Scheduled Commercial Banks. The salient features of the user functionality are as under:
Scheduled Commercial Banks can also use API based exchange to automate and integrate the process with the Bank’s core banking solution. Scheduled Commercial Banks are required to document and implement appropriate information security policies and procedures with clearly defined roles and responsibilities to ensure the security of information.