Every communication issued by the income tax department from the 1st of October 2019 will have a unique document identification number (DIN). The computer-generated DIN will facilitate a transparent and recorded communication between the taxpayers and the income tax department.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had issued a circular in the month of September 2019 stating that it will be mandatory to quote the unique DIN for all the communications issued by the department from the 1st of October 2019. Any tax notice, a letter issued to a taxpayer, or summons will be considered invalid if the unique DIN is not quoted.
More than 17,500 unique DINs were generated by the income tax department on the first day of implementing the CBDT’s circular, i.e. on Tuesday. Any document issued without a DIN will be treated non-existent in the eyes of the law.
Also Read: CBDT extends the ITR filing deadline for tax audit cases to October 31
The recipients will now be able to verify the authenticity of the document received by them from the tax department. The department will no more issue any communication manually except under certain specified circumstances.
Under exceptional circumstances, the concerning income tax officer will have to obtain approval from the appropriate chief commissioner or director general in a particular format before issuing any manual communication. Also, the officer will have to record reasons in writing for issuing a manual notice and upload it on the government portal within fifteen days of issuing such notice.
For any clarifications/feedback on the topic, please contact the writer at komal.chawla@cleartax.in.
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