ITR Filing: The ITR filing season is here and if not done correctly, you can receive an income tax notice from the department. Receiving an income tax notice can be stressful for many taxpayers. However, it must also be kept in mind that this is the time when scammers try to target taxpayers by sending fake income tax notices and extort money.
The income tax department only sends you an income tax notice if there are discrepancies, non-compliance, or other matters linked to your ITR filing or if you have not filed your ITR within the deadline.
But how to know if your income tax notice real or fake? Read on to find out.
Income Tax Notice: Real or Fake?
The Income Tax department has a number of guidelines and protocols they follow when they send a tax notice. Therefore, once you receive a tax notice, you need to check for details to identify if it is real or fake.
Before you panic and open any link sent to you via email or SMS, it will be helpful to know how to identify a fake tax notice.
The first thing to check is if your income tax notice has a unique DIN number. The DIN number is mandatory for income tax notice and can be compared to a fingerprint as it is traceable.
“Every communication by Income Tax department issued on or after 1st October, 2019 shall bear an unique Document Identification Number(DIN). In order to satisfy yourself that the notice/order or any communication received by you is genuine and issued by Income Tax Authority, you can authenticate any notice/order or any communication using this service,” the income tax department says.
If your income tax notice received before or after ITR filing does not bear a DIN, it is not genuine.
“In such case, the notice/order/letter received by you would be treated as invalid and shall be non est in law or deemed to be as if it has never been issued. You do not need to take any action or respond to such communication,” according to the income tax department.
ITR filing: How to identify real income tax notice?
You can authenticate the order issued by the Income Tax authorities on the e-Filing portal using Authenticate Notice / Order Issued by ITD service. Here is a step-by-step guide to do it:
Step 1: Visit the the income tax e-filing portal at https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/.
Step 2: On the homepage, navigate to the Quick Links section and click ‘Authenticate notice/order issued by ITD.’
Step 3: Enter your DIN and a mobile number of your choice. You can also authenticate using your PAN, document type, assessment year, issue date, and mobile number.
Step 4: After filling in the details, you will receive an OTP on the mobile number you entered.
Step 5: Once validated, the screen will display a success message if the income tax notice is real. Otherwise it will show No record found for the given Document Number.
It can be a cause for panic if you receive an income tax notice during the ITR filing season, but it is always advised to remain calm and authenticate it first to avoid scam.