A senior Finance Ministry official clarified that online Income Tax Return Filing Mandatory for Income above 5Lacs. Simply put, taxpayers having an annual income of over Rs 5 lakh will be required to file their returns in electronic form. “Income tax returns for the group above Rs 5 lakh, all such income tax returns needs to be e-filed. This is a move towards using technology so that the interface between Assessing Officer and assessee is minimised,” Revenue Secretary Sumit Bose said at a Ficci event in the national capital. With this, virtually all the assessees are now required to file their tax returns through online medium.  Last year in August, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) made it mandatory for all individuals and Hindu undivided family (HUF) having annual income of more than Rs 10 lakh to file their returns electronically for which digital signatures are not necessary. As such, e-filing of returns under digital signatures is already mandatory for any company required to furnish return, or for an individual or HUF whose annual income is Rs 40 lakh and above and required to furnish the return in Form ITR-4. The income tax department had received a record 1.64 crore returns electronically last year for assessment year 2011-12. The finance ministry is also making provisions for e-filing of Wealth Tax returns. Section 14 of the Wealth-tax Act provides for furnishing of return of net wealth as on the valuation date in the prescribed form. At present, certain documents and reports are required to be furnished along with the return of net wealth under the provisions of Wealth-tax Act read with the provisions of Wealth-tax Rules. Sections 139C and 139D of the I-T Act contain provisions for facilitating online Income Tax Return Filing Mandatory  by certain class of income-tax assessees. “In order to facilitate electronic filing of annexure-less return of net wealth, it is proposed to insert new sections 14A and 14B in the Wealth-tax Act on similar lines.. The amendments will take effect from June 1, 2013,” said the Memorandum to the Finance Bill 2013. Bose further said the Income Tax Department is making all efforts to widen the tax base and is in the process of identifying PAN holders who have not filed returns. He said the tax department would be sending out second set of “polite letters” to 35,000 assessees. We at Taxmantra.com would be able to help you in filing of tax returns and also other tax related issues. Please feel free to check this page – Income tax return Filing OR call us at +91 88 208208 11 OR email us at ‘info@taxmantra.com’