I-Tax department offers `home visit’ to help people file returns

Taxpayers can now register on the Income Tax Department's web site for `home visit', in addition to an `online help', in a new taxpayer-friendly initiative taken by the tax authorities to make filing of returns more convenient.

The Income Tax Department today announced the launch of two more taxpayer-friendly initiatives - 'Register for Home Visit' and 'Online Tax Help'.

To avail these facilities, a taxpayer must visit the website www.trpscheme.com and take help of trained professionals either online or at their homes. The taxpayer can choose between 'online help' or 'home visit', an official release said today.

On choosing the option of online tax help, the taxpayer can fill in his tax related query along with his contact details. The online query will be resolved by tax experts through e-mail or phone within 24 hours.

The taxpayers who choose to register for home visit, will be asked to indicate in short the help required by them and a convenient date and time when the Tax Return Preparer (TRP) can visit them for assistance. The help desk will forward the query of the taxpayer to the nearest available TRP and fix the appointment telephonically. The TRP will then visit the taxpayer and render assistance. The facility is aimed to facilitate taxpayers in filing their return and thereby reducing their cost of compliance.

TRPs are allowed to collect fee from the taxpayers as per the TRP notification subject to a maximum of Rs250 per return preparation. The facility for home visit by TRPs has been made available in a few cities such as Bangalore, Chennai, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, New Delhi, and Patna. The facility would be extended to more cities during the next phase.