The Income Tax Department on Thursday requested all taxpayers to file their returns at the earliest for AY 2021-22 and not wait for the last-minute as the extended deadline of 31st December, 2021 is approaching.

The number of ITRs filed per day has crossed 6 lakh and is increasing everyday, the official statement said.

Taxpayers are requested to ensure that the bank account selected for credit of refund must have their PAN linked at the bank to avoid refund failures.

Overall 9.83 lakh digital signature certificates (DSCs) have been registered. In the simplified process of DSC registration any individual has to register his DSC only once and can use it across any entity where the individual is a partner, director etc without having to re-register again against each entity or role.

The Income Tax Department strongly urges all taxpayers to view their Form 26AS and Annual Information Statement (AIS) through the e-filing portal to verify the accuracy of TDS and Tax Payments and avail of pre-filling of ITRs. It is important for taxpayers to cross check the data in the AIS statement with their Bank passbook, interest certificate, Form 16 and Capital gains statement from brokerages in case of purchase and sale of equity/Mutual funds etc.

The Department has been issuing reminders to taxpayers through emails, SMS and media campaigns encouraging taxpayers to not wait till the last minute and file their Income Tax Returns without further delay.

The Income Tax Department's Directorate of Systems is organizing webinars for frontline officials of the department to assist taxpayers in e-filing of ITRs. Directorate of Systems along with Infosys personnel are also engaging through the ICAI platform to raise awareness about resolution of problems faced in the process of e-filing. Educational Videos have been released on the YouTube handle of ITD for guidance of taxpayers.

As on 15th December, 2021, 3.59 crore Income Tax Returns(ITRs) have been filed on the new e-filing portal. Of these 3.11 crore returns have been e-verified, out of which more than 2.69 crore are through Aadhaar based OTP. The process of e-verification through Aadhaar OTP and other methods is important for the Department to commence processing of the ITR and to issue refunds, if any.

Of the e-verified ITRs more than 2.38 crore ITRs have been processed and over 90.95 crore refunds for AY 2021-22 have been issued.