Online tax filing facility is a convenient method of submitting Income Tax returns through a hassle-free and efficient process. To submit or e-file income tax returns online, taxpayers and assesses must affix their Digital Signature to the tax return document for authentication purposes. A Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) is a Digital Signature issued in an electronic form used to authenticate digital or electronic documents.
For Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) firm, Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) (whose accounts are required to be audited as per Section 44AB), political parties and companies, it is mandatory to verify income tax returns (ITR) through DSC. Other taxpayers may also use DSC to file their returns. There is no need to verify ITR with Aadhar based OTP in case DSC is used to authenticate the ITR.
Digital signatures are issued by Certifying Authorities (CA) and are approved by Controller of Certifying Authorities (CCA). Under the Income Tax Act, 2000, DSC is given the same status as handwritten signatures. DSC’s are generally valid for 1 to 2 years and issued in the form of a USB token, which verifies and attest that the owner of the signature has authenticated the (digitally) signed document, in a secure, fraud-free environment. Digital signatures are signed using the private key assigned to that particular Certification Authority. The Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) is the technology used for digital signatures.
Digital Signatures cannot be disowned or claimed as forgeries by the signatory – as there are…
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