To ease e-verification process of income tax returns (ITR), the Income Tax department has now launched a new facility on its e-filing portal. Taxpayers can e-verify their ITR without even logging in to the e-filing website.

On the Income Tax e-filing website, you can see a new 'e-verify return' button flashing on the homepage under 'Quick Links'. Clicking on it will take you to the new e-verification page where you can verify ITR by simply giving your PAN, mentioning the assessment year and acknowledgement number mentioned in the ITR-V form.

Once you have submitted your ITR, it is mandatory to verify it within 120 days. You can even do it even after August 31, the last day of filing ITR. If you forget to verify ITR then it will not be processed and you may even be fined for not filing ITR.

The ITR-V form can be downloaded from the e-filing website once you have submitted your ITR.

E-verification of your income tax return can be done using internet banking for which the e-filing portal has a section called “e-verify return" under "My Account" menu.

To e-verify return other than through net banking, you will need to generate an EVC, which you will receive on your phone number registered with your bank or demat account. However, first you will need to pre-validate your bank or demat account number. To pre-validate the accounts, go to “profile setting" and choose your bank or demat account you want to pre-validate.

In another rule imposed from this year, the Income Tax department has made it mandatory to link the bank account in which you want your e-refund with that of your PAN card. Refunds are being issued electronically only now. #casansaar (Source - PTI, LiveMint)