Over 34.84 lakh income tax audit reports filed on e-filing portal up to Oct 7: Finance Ministry

The finance ministry on Wednesday said more than 34.84 lakh audit reports, including about 34.09 lakh Tax Audit Reports (TARs), have been filed for assessment year 2024-25 on the e-filing portal till October 7.

The income tax department had extended the date for filing the audit report from September 30 to October 7.

There is an increase in the filing of TARs for the AY 2024-25 by around 4.8 per cent compared to the filings of TARs on the due date for AY 2023-24.

"To assist taxpayers, the department conducted extensive outreach programmes through emails, SMSs, webinars, social media campaigns and messages on the Income Tax portal to create and raise awareness among the taxpayers about filing TARs and other audit forms by the due date. Various user awareness videos were uploaded on the Income Tax portal to provide guidance," the ministry said in a release.

It further said that these concerted efforts have been helpful to taxpayers and tax professionals in timely compliance in filing TARs.

According to the finance ministry, the e-filing Helpdesk team handled around 1.23 lakh queries from taxpayers during September and October 2024, proactively supporting them throughout the filing period.

The team assisted taxpayers and tax professionals in resolving complexities and facilitated the smooth submission of audit forms.

Helpdesk support was provided through inbound calls, outbound calls, live chats, WebEx, and co-browsing sessions. The team also supported the resolution of queries received on the department's X handle through Online Response Management (ORM) and assisted them on various issues on a near real-time basis.