Income Tax Returns can now be filed online without entering the UIDAI based Aadhaar number, as cleared by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).
The decision came amidst the Delhi high court orders for providing taxpayers with the option to ‘opt out’ for Aadhaar number input on the website due to non-availability of Aadhaar number with the taxpayer.
Income tax department was requiring the Aadhaar number till 2 August on their website for security and validation reasons, but now it is not mandatory for the taxpayer to add Aadhaar number while filing income tax returns.
One of the lawyers stated that the CBDT has done well by providing the option to opt out Aadhaar number validation on the website which makes easy for many of the taxpayers to file their tax returns on time.
The problems arise due to the legality of the Aadhaar system as there are petitions against the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar and being challenged in the supreme court by multiple people.
The constitution bench had earlier ordered the government to link the provision of services to UIDAI based Aadhaar card expect subsidies and welfare scheme till the final results of the hearing.
Also, note that the CBDT had extended the deadline for linking the Aadhaar and PAN within the IT returns till 31st March 2019.
