E-filing system for tax returns and forms: Landmark e-governance initiative by the government of India

This paper gives a brief history and overview of the e-Filing of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) in India and mentions some benefits of the e-Filing system for different stakeholders. It provides objective information based on reviews of literature and documents available on the e-Filing systems of different revenue authorities worldwide, especially the e-filing systems for tax related documents and forms. The paper explores the issues and shortcomings of the old e-Filing system of Tax returns in India, with respect to the expectations of the stakeholders from the system. It also tries to highlight the factors that may have compelled the Government of India to take a decision for implementing the new e-Filing System of Tax. The paper explains the model/approach to execute the new e-Filing system in order to ensure that it gives a win-win outcome for all stakeholders (including the citizens of India). It explains why and how in this new system reliability and availability have been given prime importance while highlighting the recommended features and facilities of the new system, and the expectations of the different stakeholders. This paper also recommends that in future, the e-Return file upload type should be shifted to ‘extensive Business Reporting Language’ (XBRL) from current extensible Markup Language'.