Three Easy Ways To E-Verify ITR

A large number of taxpayers believe that the task of revealing tax payable and availing refund, if any, ends with filing of Income Tax Return (ITR). Unfortunately, that is not the case. While return filing exercise completes with the verification of the ITR filed, the Income Tax (I-T) Department will process your ITR only after you have verified it. Always keep this aspect in mind that if you want to get tax refund for TDS in a financial year, filing and then subsequent verifying of ITR is necessary. 

There are two ways to verify ITR. One, by sending through ordinary post hard copy of the one-page acknowledgement receipt to the Centralised Processing Centre, Bengaluru, of the Income Tax Department. The I-T Department will scrutinise and process your ITR once they receive the hard copy of the acknowledgement receipt. This traditional and old method of verifying ITR is gradually losing the popularity among taxpayers. 

Two, through e-verification on the income tax e-filing website. Note that once you have submitted the ITR, you have 120 days to verify it. These days’ the second option is the most sought after and widely practiced method of verifying ITR. 

Before you start e-verifying exercises, make sure that following things are in place:

Registered Mobile Number 

Your mobile number must be registered with the UIDAI and the I-T Department. This will enable you for e-verification of ITR. Also make sure it is registered with the bank account in which you want your tax refunds. If you get your email ID registered with all the above entities that will come as an extra benefit. The above bank account you must pre-validate by logging into your income tax e-filing account. All these deeds will free your e-verifying of each and every hassle. 

How To e-Verify ITR

The first thing you need to do is to visit the income tax e-filing website wherein you will find e-Verify Return link under Quick Links head. After clicking you will be taken to a new page where you have to fill in details like PAN specifics, assessment year and acknowledgment number, which you get after submitting ITR. On the next page you will get three options of e-verifying ITR. 

1. Generate Electronic Verification Code

You can e-verify your ITR by generating Electronic Verification Code, which is a 10-digit alphanumeric number. Before availing this facility you need to ensure that your mobile number is registered with your Aadhaar data base. You can also get the EVC in your email if you have already registered your email ID. 

2. Pre-validated Bank Account

A pre-validated bank account is an account in, which you want your tax refunds transferred directly from the income tax department.  But remember that you must pre-validate it with the Income Tax Department. So how you pre-validate it? It is a simple step. Log into your account on income tax e-filing portal.  After logging in you will get different sections. In Profile Setting you will get an option Pre-validate Bank Account option. After clicking on that, you will get Add option. So if you haven’t already added an account then add one. 

For adding, you will require to fill in details like PAN, name as in PAN, bank account number, account type, IFSC, bank name, bank branch, mobile number and email ID. After giving all these details then press pre-validate button. Your account will get pre-validated from the Income Tax Department. 

3. Aadhaar OTP

This is the most sought after option of e-verifying ITR. For this option, you need to get your mobile number registered with the UIDAI. If you already have a registered number, then you can choose this option of e-verifying ITR. Once you press this option, you will get an OTP in your registered mobile number. Fill in the OTP and e-verify ITR. 

On a final note, it can be said that, at a time when the everything else is moving towards the digital space at such a rapid pace, e-verifying ITR is definitely a better choice to opt for.