Know how to e-File tax in a secure way

Like all the other government departments, the Income Tax Department too had now and again issued alerts to the public to be cautious about their passwords and OTPs and not to share with others. The Department has also often times warned people about the phishing emails.

However, to make life much easier for the taxpayers and help them secure their E-filing account against frauds, the Income Tax Department has introduced a new facility called the "E-filing Vault".

How to e-File tax in secure way:

In order to use this facility, taxpayers can log in to their E-filing Account and under their profile page select "E-filing Vault - higher security".

Taxpayers can then select to login with any one or multiple options of the higher security methods namely - using Aadhaar linkage to generate OTP, Login through Net-Banking or Login using Digital Signature Certificate (DSC).

Once this has been done, any future attempt to login will require the additional check of OTP using Aadhaar or the taxpayers will have to login using net banking or login using DSC.

By using this facility, taxpayers can prevent anyone from logging in even if in the past they shared the user id and password. The dual factor authorisation ensures higher degree of security compared to the simple User id and Password.

Similarly, taxpayers can also select how their password can be reset. Once the taxpayer has selected reset password using any one or multiple options of the higher security methods namely - using Aadhaar linkage to generate OTP, Login through Net-Banking or Login using Digital Signature Certificate (DSC), then no other person will be able to reset taxpayer's password even if the secret answer or E-filing OTP etc is known.

More security checks to come in soon:

Additional EVC options using ATM, Bank Account Validation or Demat Account Validations are shortly going to be introduced and these options will also be available for the higher level of security for login as well as resetting of password.

Advisory by the Income Tax Department:

Income Tax Department strongly advises all taxpayers to use a strong password (combination of at least one uppercase, one special character and one numeral) and select the E-filing Vault option to add an additional layer of security to the their E-filing Account to login and resetting of password.