• Notification Date: 27-06-2023
• Notification No: N/A

Steps to Follow if Advance Tax Payment Data is absent in Prefilled ITR Forms

The income tax (I-T) authorities have overhauled the Income Tax Return (ITR) filing process by introducing various measures, i.e., simplifying ITR forms, reporting income on Form AIS, prefilling ITR data, etc.  

One such measure, i.e., prefilling of ITR data, allows taxpayers to prefill the ITR forms with personal information such as name, date of birth, address, PAN, Aadhaar, mobile number, etc., details of income already available with the tax authorities and that reported in last year’s ITR, details of taxes deducted at source, taxes collected at source, advance tax and self-assessment tax, etc. This enables the taxpayers to quickly validate the information prefilled and furnish the balance data to file the ITR accurately. 

However, several taxpayers have noticed that the prefilled data file, when imported, does not have details of advance taxes paid during financial year 2022-23 (FY23). “Until last year, the advance tax payment details were always made available in Form 26AS. With the introduction of Form AIS, the payment details have moved to Form AIS from Form 26AS. Generally, the software utilities will import the advance tax details from form 26AS,” said Sudhakar Sethuraman, Partner, Deloitte India.   

Advance tax means the income tax paid in advance during the financial year instead of paying it at the end. The tax regulations prescribe specific dates when you need to pay this amount throughout the year. Basically, when the taxpayer’s tax payment exceeds Rs 10,000 after deducting the TDS (tax deducted at source), advance tax comes into play. 

Archit Gupta, Founder and CEO of Clear, said, “When tax payment data is missing, may be an error was made while depositing tax. In such a case, the taxpayer must look at the receipt generated when the tax was deposited and verify all the details with respect to the assessment year and PAN number quoted. A correction request can be placed at the bank.”   

Sethuraman further said, “As a corrective measure, taxpayers at the time of importing the prefilled data would need to validate the ‘Tax Payments’ section under ‘Part A – Details of payments of Advance Tax and Self-Assessment Tax’ in the ITR forms. Where the ‘Tax Payments’ section is missing the details of advance tax payments, the taxpayer would need to manually fill the schedule by providing the BSR code, date of deposit of advance tax payment, serial number of challan and amount of advance tax. Once the taxpayer fills in the details, the advance taxes will take effect in the computation of income and taxes.”  Thus, with the due date fast approaching, it is pertinent that all the income and asset details flow correctly to the ITR. Any failure to report or incorrect reporting would call for penal action from the tax authorities, including a levy of interest and penalty. Hence, it will help if you do it correctly the first time.