For those who find filing of income tax returns (ITR) on their own a complicated and time-taking process, the Income Tax department has now launched a new lighter version of its e-filing website. The 'e-Filing Lite' portal can be accessed through the main income tax e-filing website itself.

The new facility is particularly useful for taxpayers who do not want to do any other activity on the income tax department website besides e-filing ITR. From August 1, all registered users on the e-filing website have two ways to access the e-filing facility. The standard one is a little longer with multiple options while its 'Lite' version is focused exclusively on ITR filing.

The new lighter version of income tax e-filing is now available on the website of Income Tax department.
The new lighter version of income tax e-filing is now available on the website of Income Tax department.

Taxpayers are free to use any of the two facilities to file ITR. The left side of the income tax e-filing website's homepage has a new section - 'Quick ITR Filing' - which takes you to the 'Lite' portal.

On the 'Lite' e-filing portal, you can file ITR, complete its e-verification process, download pre-fill XML, view form 26AS (for tax deducted at source credit) and check e-filed income tax returns (without XML/ITR/ITR-V download options).

However, if you want to use other features like e-proceeding, e-nivaran, compliance, worklist and profile settings you need to go to the full version of the portal that can be accessed by clicking on "Portal Login" button in e-filing home page.

The 'Lite' version is aimed to enable easy and quick ITR filing by all categories of taxpayers. In a relief to taxpayers, the government has already extended the due date for filing ITR by individuals for financial year 2018-19 till August 31.