I-T Dept Cautions People against Phishing E-Mails Promising Refund

The income tax department on Sunday asked taxpayers to beware of phishing e-mails promising refund.

"Taxpayers Beware! Please do not click on any fake link which promises to give refund. These are phishing messages and are not sent by the income tax department," the department said in a tweet.

According to the latest data, between April 8 and 20, the department issued nearly 14 lakh refunds involving an amount of over Rs 9,000 crore to various taxpayers including individuals, Hindu Undivided Families, proprietors, firms, corporate, start-ups, and MSMEs.

On April 8, the finance ministry said it will fast-track issuance of pending income tax refunds up to Rs 5 lakh which will benefit around 14 lakh taxpayers, to provide relief to individuals and businesses hit by the COVID-19 outbreak.

I-T Dept launches 'e-Filing Lite' - A Lighter Version of e-Filing Portal

A 'lite' e-filing facility was launched by the Income Tax department on Thursday to facilitate easy and quick filing of returns by taxpayers. The facility was operatlionalised on the official portal of the department -- https://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.

"The Income Tax department is launching 'e-Filing Lite', a lighter version of e-Filing portal with a focus on filing of Income Tax Return (ITR) by the taxpayers," the department said in a public advisory.

The same can be accessed by clicking 'e-Filing Lite' button in home page. The current e-Filing portal having all the services can be accessed by clicking on 'Portal Login' button

A senior official said a new tab for 'lite' was provided on the web portal and once registered taxpayers log in their page, they will only be provided essential links that enable e-filing of ITRs and Form 26AS (for tax deducted at source credit). Taxpayers can download pre-filled or XML forms and view their past filed returns, among others.

Other regular tabs like e-proceeding, e-nivaran, compliance, worklist and profile setting were taken off from the 'lite version' but retained in the standard version of e-filing facility, he said.

The 'lite' version is aimed to enable easy and quick ITR filing by all categories of taxpayers, the official said.

On July 23, the government extended the due date for filing income tax returns by individuals for financial year 2018-19 by a month till August 31. PTI NES

Online Discounts Being Treated As Capital Spend, And Now Flipkart, Amazon Are Appealing Against This

Looks like there is no end to the troubles for e-commerce companies. Where e-commerce giants like Flipkart and Amazon are in the tug of war to stay on the top of the chart, here comes the another development for them giving them a sleepless night. The e-commerce majors are now facing the possibility of having to pay tax as per an income tax order of last year.

E-commerce giants like Flipkart and Amazon have approached the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals), Bengaluru last month after an assessment order of last year asked them to reclassify marketing expenditure as capital expenditure, a report in Economic Times said.

Speaking on the development, Sanjay Sanghvi, partner (tax) at law firm Khaitan & Co told ET, “The Assessing Officer (of income tax) has no say in dictating terms of business to a taxpayer, as to how to run his business. There are enough judicial decisions supporting this proposition.”

The firms have appealed against this income tax order as it involved money spent by these firms on marketing done through deep discounts.

If reports to be believed, these companies have been classifying it as marketing expense and deducting it from revenue, leading to huge losses.

However, the income tax department says that such expenses should be reclassified as capital expenditure and can’t be classified as marketing costs and so shouldn’t be deducted from revenue. And the justification given by the tax department is that marketing costs constitute capital expenditure as what the marketing costs are spent on may aid future revenue.

According to ET reports, if the tax department's methodology is followed, e-commerce companies could turn profitable and be liable for tax in India.

While Flipkart and Amazon’s appeal was heard by the CIT, there were no immediate decisions taken.

Experts informed ET that the revenue department's stand could open a ‘Pandora's Box’ for several startups and e-commerce companies as it dictates how entrepreneurs must conduct their businesses.

According to another expert, the assessing officer has no say in dictating terms of business to a tax payer as what business expenditure to incur and what quantum is something that’s up to the business to decide.

It seems that these troubles are not going to end anytime soon. E-commerce firms have to fight a fierce battle to stay in the Indian market. In August 2017, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) has specified that e-commerce companies doing business in the country will not be allowed to market more than 25 per cent of its annual sales coming from one vendor.

Though the government had earlier already mandated 25 per cent maximum sales from a single vendor it had failed to provide the duration for computation of the sales. The aim behind this is to provide investors with a friendly investing environment and attract more FDI into the country.

Now time will only tell how these e-commerce majors will fight with these new policies and will stand out in the market

ClearTax - A Y-Combinatar backed Indian startup, which lets you e-file Income tax returns

ClearTax is, a Delhi based startup that claims to be the easiest way to e-File Income Tax Returns in India. The company has an aim of helping people by preparing them to file their Income Tax Returns in the shortest time interval so as to maximize their tax deductions.

The company has been authorized by the Government of India for e-filing and since its inception in 2011; it has rapidly climbed the popularity charts in the country. In 2013, over 300,000 people made use of the website to e-file their taxes.

Archit Gupta started this company with his chartered accountant father Raja Ram Gupta. Archit was previously an engineer at Data Domain in Silicon Valley in India. This is the first time that a company which is only focused on the Indian market has joined Y Combinator. According to Gupta, this association has provided them access to resources which they couldn’t get in India.

The Indian government has a mission of making all tax filings online latest by 2016. ClearTax has a future plan of expanding beyond India but currently it only wants to focus on the booming Indian market in the sector.



Some 20 million people filled taxes online years ago in India, the figure rose to 27 million in 2013 and it is expected to cross 35 million in 2014. The estimated rate of increase in the number of online tax filers is 9 percent year over year.

ClearTax wants to change the notion of Indian people that taxes are a complex thing. They want to do this by their simple and accurate process.

The company is a product of ClearSharp Technology Pvt Ltd. ClearSharp itself is a very trusted name in the enterprise tax preparation and filing market.

The concept of e-filing is around 6 years old in India and in order to differentiate itself from other online tax services companies already in the business; ClearTax decided to regard e-filing as a “software problem”.

To use ClearTax, all one needs to do is upload the Form 16 onto the website and from there on the website will take over. The website’s software will automatically filter out relevant data; this means the users will not have to manually punch in any numbers or information.

ClearTax thinks its main competitor is the government itself. The government of India has its own online e-filing software but that is a tad difficult and complicated to use. ClearTax’s simple and easy interface gives its advantage over the government software.

ClearTax - A Y-Combinatar backed Indian startup, which lets you e-file Income tax returns

ClearTax is, a Delhi based startup that claims to be the easiest way to e-File Income Tax Returns in India. The company has an aim of helping people by preparing them to file their Income Tax Returns in the shortest time interval so as to maximize their tax deductions.

The company has been authorized by the Government of India for e-filing and since its inception in 2011; it has rapidly climbed the popularity charts in the country. In 2013, over 300,000 people made use of the website to e-file their taxes.

Archit Gupta started this company with his chartered accountant father Raja Ram Gupta. Archit was previously an engineer at Data Domain in Silicon Valley in India. This is the first time that a company which is only focused on the Indian market has joined Y Combinator. According to Gupta, this association has provided them access to resources which they couldn’t get in India.

The Indian government has a mission of making all tax filings online latest by 2016. ClearTax has a future plan of expanding beyond India but currently it only wants to focus on the booming Indian market in the sector.



Some 20 million people filled taxes online years ago in India, the figure rose to 27 million in 2013 and it is expected to cross 35 million in 2014. The estimated rate of increase in the number of online tax filers is 9 percent year over year.

ClearTax wants to change the notion of Indian people that taxes are a complex thing. They want to do this by their simple and accurate process.

The company is a product of ClearSharp Technology Pvt Ltd. ClearSharp itself is a very trusted name in the enterprise tax preparation and filing market.

The concept of e-filing is around 6 years old in India and in order to differentiate itself from other online tax services companies already in the business; ClearTax decided to regard e-filing as a “software problem”.

To use ClearTax, all one needs to do is upload the Form 16 onto the website and from there on the website will take over. The website’s software will automatically filter out relevant data; this means the users will not have to manually punch in any numbers or information.

ClearTax thinks its main competitor is the government itself. The government of India has its own online e-filing software but that is a tad difficult and complicated to use. ClearTax’s simple and easy interface gives its advantage over the government software.