Team Herald
PANJIM: The Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has urged the Union Ministry of Finance to issue a clarification and initiate the quick resolution of the erroneous processing and to ensure smooth processing of the Income Tax Returns by Goan taxpayers at the earliest.
The GCCI has written to the Union Finance Minister; Principal Income tax Commissioner, Bangalore and the Income Tax Commissioner Goa with respect to notices received by Goan taxpayers, who are filing returns under Section 5A of Income Tax Act under Portuguese Civil Code.
According to the Chamber, recently, many taxpayers in the State, who had filed their Income Tax Returns for financial year 2023-24 has received a communication from the Income Tax Department stating that their Income Tax Return is defective. The reasons for the defect provided by the Income Tax Department is that the taxpayer/spouse are liable to audit under Section 44AB but have not filed the audit report. If the defect is not addressed within the time allowed, the return of income will be treated as invalid.
The GCCI has stated that due to the faulty processing of the returns, the defective return notice is being received by many taxpayers who actually do not need to file the audit report.
This error in the electronic processing of the Income Tax Returns is causing unnecessary hardships as taxpayers are now compelled to reply to this defective return and spend unnecessary energies on the matter to avoid their returns being invalid, it said.
Even in case the taxpayer agrees with the defect, the only resolution available is to file the audit report of the spouse. The taxpayer does not have any other option to rectify the defect in the return.
Further, many of these defective notices were sent during the festive season of Diwali, which had caused distress to the taxpayers and professionals in the State. The GCCI has requested the Income Tax Department to avoid sending any communications to taxpayers outside of working hours and holidays.