Officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes are in favour of taxpayers sharing their own email addresses instead of their tax consultants’ with the income tax authorities.

The CBDT anticipates more frequent communication with the taxpayers using digital means, following the widening of the scope of form 26AS and the introduction of faceless assessment.

The income tax department has revised the form 26AS, which besides offering information to the taxpayer on TDS and TCS will now also show specified financial transactions, including information pertaining to property and share transactions.

According to income tax officials there could be a potential mismatch between what the tax assessee files in his return and what the department has collected in 26AS, which subsequently requires the assessee to file a revised return.

S.K. Gupta, member, taxpayers services and systems at CBDT, said it is in this context, taxpayers need to be aware of any communication from the department.

“Many times the taxpayers do not give their own email and instead the id of the tax practitioners are given. The notices and alerts go there. Taxpayers must realise that they should give their own email so that they can see and respond faster or at least alert the tax practitioner who may miss it because he has so many clients,” said Gupta at a seminar organised by Assocham.

“If the taxpayers get a reply (from the department) they should not ignore. They should respond because any non compliance is likely to escalate the issue which could be resolved right at the beginning,” said Gupta. Taxpayers should a precise reply to the department along with supporting evidence in case of any mismatch.

Gupta said the move to widen the scope of 26AS has been introduced to encourage voluntary compliance.

“There could be some mismatch between what the assessee shows in the return and what is there in 26AS. This information would be sent to the taxpayer. In case he has missed it, the revised return can be filed,” he said.