Income Tax Department Sends You a Notice? Here’s What to Do Next and Why Tracking Big Spends Matters

Taxpayers can often receive an income tax notice informing them of problems with their tax accounts.

This notice can be issued for various reasons, like failing to file an income tax return, making an assessment, or requesting specific information.

Additionally, an IT notice may also arrive for a variety of causes including making calculation errors, failing to report income accurately or even making exorbitant loss claims.

How To Check Authenticity?

Before responding to any communication that you have received in the name of the income tax department, it is important to verify whether the notice or order issued is genuine and issued by the income tax authority.

Taxpayers can authenticate the notice or order issued by the income tax authority on the e-filing portal.

Here is a step-by-step guide for the same:

Step 1: Visit the income tax e-filing portal. On the home page, under ‘Quick Links’ click on ‘Authenticate notice/order issued by ITD’.

Step 2: You can authenticate using either your PAN, document type, assessment year, issue date, and mobile number (for notice/order/letter issued for AY 2011-12 and subsequent years only) or
Document Identification Number and mobile number (for all assessment years).

Step 3: If you want to authenticate by PAN, document type, assessment year, issue date, and mobile number, select the option and enter all the details.

Step 4: After filling in all the details, you will receive an OTP. Enter the OTP you have received. After the OTP is validated, the Document Identification Number (DIN) of the notice issued, along with the date of issue of the notice, will be displayed.

In case, the notice is not issued by the ITD, a message will be displayed - No record found for the given criteria.

Step 5: Another alternative is to authenticate using the Document Identification Number (DIN) and mobile number.

Step 6: Enter DIN and mobile number and continue. You will receive an OTP. Validate using OTP.

If the notice or order is issued by the income tax authority, it will display a success message, as shown below.

Why Does Tracking Big Spends Matter?

For all the taxpayers that are indulging in luxury spends, it is important to ensure that your tax records are in sync since the Income Tax Department has intensified surveillance of high-value transactions, and any mismatch between your spending and declared income could invite scrutiny, notices, or even penalties.

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