The Income Tax Department is preparing the launch of a new mobile application known as “My Tax” to streamline filing of tax returns. The current setup is somewhat strenuous to the average taxpayer, which makes this a viable alternative to the methods in place now. In addition to filing your tax returns, the app will also let you pay your taxes, get details on exemptions, deductions and more.
There are no details available on what the app will look like, although reports indicate that it is currently being developed by in-house developers. The call on launching a dedicated Income Tax app comes from the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and appears to be a direct consequence of PM Modi’s call to make paying taxes easy and less cumbersome.
The user’s details will be gathered based on the PAN (Permanent Account Number). Using this information, the government will track your due taxes and detail the deductions that you are eligible to receive. Having a standalone Income Tax app will also open up new avenues for the Income Tax Department to communicate with the taxpayers. This will, in turn, result in the users being better informed on the changing policies or gathering pretty much any information pertaining to the Income Tax Department.
There’s no timeline on the official release of this app, although it seems like we could have a functioning version of it by the next month or so. The IT Department recently launched an app called Aaykar Setu, which served a similar purpose. The app is offered for free and is devoid of any intrusive ads. However, it is only available on Android as of now. Perhaps My Tax will be the cross-platform version of Aaykar Setu.
