Income Tax Alert! People of THIS age can file ITR in paper mode

On June 7, the Income Tax Department unveiled the new income tax returns (ITR) e-filing portal - incometax.gov.in and after that, it faced several glitches. Infosys was then asked to fix those shortcomings on the website.

But there is a pertinent point that has to be raised is how will the senior citizens who are not well versed with technology use the new website. So, can they be exempted from filing their ITR through e-filing?

As per the official website of the Income Tax department, incometaxindia.gov.in, from the assessment year 2019-20, the senior citizen filing his return of income in Form ITR 1/4 can file his return of income in paper mode which means that for him e-filing of ITR 1/4 (as the case may be) is not mandatory. Also, he may choose to go for e-filing if he wishes.

It is therefore important to check the age for senior and very senior citizens. Notably, a resident of India who has attained the age of 60 years or above but less than 80 years at any time during the respective year, is a senior citizen. On the other hand, a resident of India who is 80 years or above during any time of the respective year is a very senior citizen.

With the launch of the new ITR e-filing portal 2.0, many new services and features have been launched on the portal like enhanced help section with user manuals and videos, secure and multiple options for login, wizard-based assistance in ITR selection and pre-filed ITRs, Mobile App, Chatbot, easy to use ITR utility and role-based and user-friendly dashboard.