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The Income Tax Department will launch a new income tax filing portal on June 7.

Therefore, the existing portal will remain suspended for 6 days from June 1 to June 6," said a circular by the Income tax Department.

As per the circular, officers including AOs, CIT(A) etc access the information for taxpayers from the portal.

Likewise, taxpayers also use extensive use of the portal for filing their ITR, checking refund and raising grievance among others. Due to unavailability of the system for six days, officers have also been advised to not fix anything for compliance during these 6 days.

The Department has directed that any hearing or compliance is to be fixed only from June 10 such that taxpayers are given ample time to respond via the new system.

As per the official circular, the officers in the field including AOS, CIT (A), PCIT interact with taxpayers through E-proceedings over the E-filing portal directly or through the NeAC/NFAC for issuance of notices, sCNs and getting a response to various e-proceedings, conducting of video conference or adjournments, issuing questionnaires, summons, letters.

In preparation for the transition to the new system, the existing E-filing portal will not be available to both taxpayers as well as Departmental Officers for a period of 6 days from 1" June to 6th June 2021.

"Hence, it is requested that all officers may be immediately informed about this so that they may not fix any compliance dates during this period. All Officers may be directed to fix any hearing or compliances only from June 10 onwards to give taxpayers time to respond on the new system. If they have already scheduled any hearing or compliance which requires submissions online during this period, they may prepone or adjourn the hearing and reschedule the work items after this period, etc", the circular said.

"They may also view/download any submissions in E-proceedings prior to June 1" and the PDF of any ITRS and non-ITR forms that may be needed by them in advance so that they can continue to work in the ITBA system including completion of assessment proceedings where no further interaction with the taxpayer is necessary. It is clarified that the ITBA system and the CPC systems will continue to function for assessment-related functions. All Orders, notices issued during this period, however, will be made visible to the taxpayer only after the new portal goes live on June 7th, 2021," the circular said.

It would also encourage all Officers to complete all their urgent tasks involving interactions with taxpayers prior to June 1 to avoid the blackout period or typical initial teething issues in the transition.