‘Service Unavailable’: Income Tax Portal Crashes Ahead of Deadline, Will CBDT Announce Extension?
Since the launch of the updated platform, users have frequently complained about errors during busy filing seasons, so this is not the first time they have encountered such issues.
Income tax - taxscan
Income tax - taxscan
On the final day of filing, professionals and taxpayers across were left feeling uneasy when the Income Tax electronic filing portal continued to display "Service Unavailable" problems on Sunday night and also continued to the next day also, i.e., on the deadline day.
Just hours before the statutory deadline, the unplanned outage caused a flurry of social media complaints and rekindled requests for the Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT) to extend the deadline.
Several chartered accountants and tax filers reported that despite multiple attempts, the portal either failed to load or froze midway during submission. Many said that after days of preparing documents, the final step of filing became impossible due to persistent technical snags.
Also, the accountants and taxpayers started sharing different memes on the inefficiency of the income tax portal. These last minute issues are anticipated, however, the ministry should have taken enough care for issue-free filing of the income tax returns.
Several professional associations, including the Karnataka State Chartered Accountants Association, have urged the Finance Ministry and the CBDT to extend the filing deadline. To show the gravity of the issue, they circulated video evidence of the portal’s repeated breakdowns.
https://x.com/KSCAA_CA/status/1967139445037265174
The taxpayers were previously promised by the Tax Department that the Infosys-managed IT portal was stable and had the capacity to cope with heavy traffic, but the last-minute disruption caused questions about reliability.
Since the launch of the updated platform, users have frequently complained about errors during busy filing seasons, so this is not the first time they have encountered such issues.
Additionally, alleging IT portal issues and flood disruptions, the CA Association, Jalandhar, has urged FM to postpone important tax dates. They have requested for non-audit ITR till Oct 15, audit ITR/TAR till Nov 30 & 12A renewal till Dec 31, plus reliefs for charitable organisations & portal-related condonation.
Will CBDT Announce Extension before Midnight?
The important question in the mind of the very taxpayers and the professionals is "will the government extend the due date considering the income tax portal issues?” The Finance Ministry is expected to provide clarity today, either through a circular announcing an extension of the due date or by remaining silent, which would effectively confirm that no extension has been granted.
The Ministry has not issued any clarification on a possible extension so far. While in the past, extensions have occasionally been notified close to midnight, the likelihood of such a move this time appears slim. However, with tax professionals across the country voicing over the portal’s glitches and pressing for relief, the government cannot afford to remain indifferent to their concerns.
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