'I am getting repeated mails from Income Tax department'

Do you have any personal income tax query?

Mihir Tanna, Associate Director, S K Patodia & Associates (external link), a chartered accountants firm that offers consultancy, audit and tax services, will answer your queries.

Please mail your queries at getahead@rediff.co.in with the subject line 'Ask Mihir' and Mihir Tanna will answer all your tax queries.

Chakka Ranganayakulu: I am regularly filing IT returns as I am having taxable income. I am applying for FD in a company. Whether I can submit 15g/15h form to any company? Kindly clarify.

Mihir Tanna: Depositor can request to payer not to deduct TDS on Interest Income by submitting Form 15G/15H if income is below the basic exemption limit.

In your case, as you have taxable income, you cannot submit Form 15G/15H.

Durga charan Nayak: Dear Mr Tanna,

Before soliciting your sincere opinion I must first congratulate and compliment you for the benevolent job being done to alleviate the problems being faced by the solo taxpayers from the pounce of the IT Office. I would request you to go through my problem which is very much exhaustive and moreover disheartening for the busy people like you.

I am a retd employee from LIC in the FY 2020/21. In FY 2021/22 I had received arrears of salary along with commutation of pension and leave encashment. The employer while finalizing the IT for 2021/22 had deducted IT giving the exemption for comm pension, 80CC and 80D without the benefit under sec 89. While filing IT I could see the effect of AIS. Without any further deduction except under 80 TTB, I tried to confirm the Total Taxable Income as per 26AS/AIS.

The self-assessed tax was to be paid on three dates because of the ATM limit etc. The last payment which was on 28th July, could not be successful and was debited on 29th as a result I could not add the CIN No etc., on the Add box of tax payment. Since the total amount of tax was paid before the last date i.e 31st I did submit a short paid ITR presuming it would be taken care of.

On 1st Aug I received a message under sec 143 with a demand due for 4660/. The e-file status was showing the ITR is under process with O/S demand Nil (four Green tick was displayed). Till Aug 30th when I found the ITR is not accepted despite the grievances as cited above, again I paid the balance amount going thru the demand due option, there also I faced the same problem from bank. The amount could be debited on 31St Aug. I did pay the amount thinking the ITR and tax deposit are different Module.

Moreover after filing ITR I made a query with the ITO regarding exemption of Transfer grant which should have been allowed at source. They denied it under pretext that no further exemption after filling.

In order to see the last payment due appear under SAT head I had submitted a grievance which was not seen till I spoke to the help desk. One reply came with so many tags to file revised IT under section 131 (5). While I visited for re-file, I could see the interest amount along with an increased taxable income thus returned back.

Now my questions are:

1. How the taxable income would vary when a letter under 143 is issued with a demand?

2. If I am to re-submit the ITR under Sec 131 (5) can I restrict the taxable income to the earlier one?

3. Can they alter the taxable income when Sec 143 is invoked?

4. Finally, should I conform to the query or wait till they make their earlier demand set right.

Sir I had filled it by myself without the help of a professional. Your opinion would be mostly an antidote against the IT virus that has made me upset. Eagerly awaiting your reply.

Mihir Tanna: Thank you so much for your compliment. Looking at your facts, I wish you could have got professional advice on 1st August itself. My views on your queries are as follows:

1. I understand you are using online feature of filing Income Tax Return at www.incometax.gov.in wherein data is prefilled based on information reported by different persons (like employer for salary, bank for interest income, company for dividend income, TDS deductor for TDS deducted and amount of income credited, etc.). In your case, it might be possible that reportable entity has revised its data for reporting to income tax department and accordingly amount appearing in intimation issued u/s 143(1) differs from amount auto populated while filing income tax return u/s 139(5) of Income Tax Act using online feature.

1. It is not advisable to restrict auto populated income unless income auto populated at e-filing portal is incorrect. Check AIS for income auto populated at e-filing portal. If income appearing in AIS is incorrect, you can file feedback for AIS and offer actual income to tax while filing return u/s 139(5) of the act which allow tax payer to revise return by rectifying mistakes.

1. Yes, income tax provides updated figure at portal even if intimation is issued u/s 143(1) of the Act, as revised figures is provided by the payer of income or person authorised as reportable entity.  

1. I understand you are talking about self-assessment tax paid by you and not auto populated in relevant schedule of ITR. Reason for the same can be wrong selection of year or code while making payment or while uploading challan details by the bank. Please check 26AS for self-assessment tax paid, if the same is not appearing in 26AS of AY 2022-23, you have to discuss said issue with Jurisdictional officer.

Rabin Kumar Das: Dear Mr Mihir, I would like to know the following points:

I bought a flat in Thane - 400603 @ rs.one lakh in Dec.'1983 & would like to sell now this year 2022 @ rs.64 lakhs. Pl. let me know the amount of Property Gain Tax (Long Term) which I have to pay now considering 'Ready Reckoner Rate' at Thane - 400603 area or how to calculate the same to get taxable amount?

Also can I (as Sr. Ctzn.) get a tax exemption as I already bought (in joint ownership where my wife is 1st owner) another flat @ rs.75 lakh in Thane in Nov '2020?

May I invest taxable amount (if any) in Govt. Bonds like NHAI / REC / PFC to get tax exemption & what interest I will get for how many yrs. or else if it will be better to invest my selling amount in good Flexi Cap Mutual Funds for 5 years after paying entire taxable amount to recover the same?

Will appreciate your prompt feedback in detail.

Mihir Tanna: Capital gain on sale consideration will be reduced by Indexed cost of acquisition and allowable expenses incurred on transfer. You have to calculate indexed cost of acquisition by applying Cost Inflation Index as per prescribed formula on cost of acquisition.

For cost of acquisition, you may take actual cost or fair market value of the asset, as on 01.04.2001.

In case of land and building, fair market value on 01.04.2001 cannot exceed stamp duty value as on 01.04.2001.

Exemption is available if amount of capital gain is invested by purchasing a new residential house within one year before or within 2 years after the date of transfer of the residential house.

As you have already got possession of new property in November 2020, you will not be eligible for exemption.

Decision of investment in specified bonds or acquiring tax mutual funds can be taken after considering several factors like risk appetite, amount of tax liability on capital gain, availability of surplus fund etc.

Shibshankar Ray: I am a retired male senior citizen. I filed my income tax return for AY 2022-23 in form ITR-1 on 22nd July 2022 with NET Taxable income of 427200 with a mention of 5070 for rebate under 80 D towards my mediclaim insurance annual premium.

Before doing the e-verification on line through Aadhaar linkage I noticed that my actual mediclaim insurance premium is 7070 which I had erroneously mistyped as 5070.

So instead of e-verifying my above erroneous filing I filed a Revised Return on 20th August 2022 correcting the 80 D rebate claim to 7070 and the Net Taxable income became 425200. I e-verified this Revised Return immediately on line through Aadhaar linkage.

Within 2 days of my filing this Revised Return I got an assessment Email from Income tax department where they have treated this Revised Return as Late filed Original Return and imposed a late fee penalty of 1000 and issued a Refund Order of my TDS.

As such on my Net Taxable income of 427200 as per Original Return or 425200 as per Revised Return Income Tax is '0'. It appears that since I didn't e-verify my Original Return they have treated Revised Return as Late filed Original Return and imposed late fee of 1000.

Now I am getting repeated emails from Income Tax department that I have not e-verified my Original Return of 22nd July.

Can I e-verify my Original Return now and claim Refund of the 1000 Late Fee deducted by them?

Shall be grateful for guidance and advice.

Mihir Tanna:Return is taken up for processing only when it is verified. As revised return is verified before verifying original return, revised return is considered as original return. So in my view, even if original return is verified now, late fee will not be waived off as original return is considered to be filed after due date.

Read more of Mihir Tanna's responses here.

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