Income Tax Portal not displaying Orders and Communication on Time: Professionals and Taxpayers facing Difficulties

The income tax portal, is showing glitches on the portal from the first date of its rollout last year and most of the issues are still not resolved by the Government and tech department.

“The i-t portal cannot even upload intimation orders properly. Order is not openable with password & in spite of numerous reminders for past several weeks, the proper order is still not posted on site. WHAT A TRAGEDY !!!,” a user tweeted recently.

Recently, many users and tax professionals complained about the glitches in the system including accessing the data. Since online filing of appeal is a mandatory statutory requirement, unavailability of orders on the portal is causing unnecessary delay in filing appeal or become a ground for dismissal of appeal for want of uploading of impugned order.

“There is one instance where the AO sent by RPAD four orders in one cover and uploaded the orders separately but system shows only last two orders and in respect of the other two, it shows that they are at SCN stage. Because the orders are not displayed appeals cannot be filed and if date of uploading is to be taken as date of service these orders are"time-barred... I have retained screenshots to show that the orders have not been uploaded... Spoke to the AO also who blames the system..,” a Tax lawyer told Taxscan.

Recently, the Calcutta High Court has asked the Assessing Officer to conduct fresh assessment proceedings since the assessee could not file the reply to notice due to technical glitches on the income tax portal.

In another case, the Calcutta High Court has quashed an assessment order since the assessee failed to file reply to the draft assessment order under section 144B of the Income Tax Act, 1961 due to glitches on the income tax portal.

In another ruling, the Rajasthan High Court observed that “there has been across the board extension of last dates for compliances. Presumably, these extensions are granted because the Government of India had realized that on account of technical difficulties, several assesses may not have been in a position to make the compliances. There is nothing for us to presume that the administration is not cognizable of such defects and that proper steps for removing of such defects would be taken so that the extension of last date for compliances does not remain illusory but the assesses can meaningfully take advantage of such extension.”

A few months before, users reported issues while accessing the online income tax portal. Responding to this, the Income Tax Department said in a tweet that the Bengaluru-based IT bellwether Infosys is looking into it. User data was not impacted by the recent glitch in the online portal.

Support our journalism by subscribing to Taxscan premium. Follow us on Telegram for quick updates