No security issues with e-filing….Ankur Sharma
In 2007, the income-tax department started the e-filing facility for individual taxpayers under its agenda of e-governance. In FY12, at least 16 million returns were filed onlinethat is a 4,000% growth in five years. However, the facility is still to reach its optimum penetration.
Easier than before
Cutting edge technologies have made solutions more user-friendly in terms of ease of use. Appealing user interface and smooth navigation make the experience easier than ever. Anybody with a digital Form 16 can attach this document and email it to get the return e-filed instantaneously. Moreover, there are platforms that provide a single click e-filing solution to employees of large organizations, from within the payroll software. What has been simplified here to a great degree is the process of information collection. Leading e-filing websites provide return preparation and filing service that automatically retrieves the relevant data from Form 16, Form 16a, Form 26AS, bank statements and brokerage statements. This eliminates the need for the user to find required details from various sources and fill all the entries manually. Moreover, users can be free of worry with respect to selecting the appropriate form. The portal does that on its own.
E-return intermediaries, who are authorized by the government of India, have considered the complexities in the preparation of tax return. Their portals automate the complete tax computation through in-built applications. Accuracy is guaranteed. Further, with all interactions with the income-tax department going electronic, e-filing becomes the preferred choice. Its 24×7 availability anywhere takes away the problem of standing in queues, saving time and effort to assure peace of mind.
Stay safe
Users should not be scared of e-filing their returns because of concerns around how secure their personal financial information is. The best practices in the industry today include employment of technologies that have put various checks in place. For instance, on some trusted private websites which use the most sophisticated technology, information entered by any user does not flow directly into the database. Every entry is stored in an encrypted format, preventing access breach. There are multiple layers between that to ensure shielded flow of data and storage on the database as per well-defined protocol.
Most authorized e-return intermediaries, evaluated for their security and confidentiality, store only relevant data. They do not store any information related to credit card or payment details. Similarly, session-related information is never stored in cookies directly. Instead, a session ID is allocated and mapping to session data stored on the back-end. Session timeouts are implemented to safeguard against denial of service attacks.
There are certifications such as the CERT-In (Indian computer emergency response team, department of information technology, government of India) for information security audit for hardware/software and security compliance. Such certifications attest the fact that service providers audited for them are free from any vulnerability and malicious code, which could be exploited to compromise and gain unauthorized access with escalated privileges.
Then, directly related to the security is the companys privacy policy. Do confirm that it tells you about the collection, use and disclosure of information and that none of it is shared with any third party.
Do it yourself
With e-filing becoming mandatory from assessment year 2012-13 for individuals with total income above Rs. 10 lakh and for those having assets abroad, electronic return filing will become the preferred way of filing returns. Your tax return mirrors your financial affairs. If you are able to understand and prepare your tax returns independently, half the battle of financial well-being is won.
Ankur Sharma is co-founder & CEO, Taxspanner.com
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* The hassle of filing income tax returns is soon to be outdated. Photo: AFP