How to register on the income tax e-filing portal

To file an income tax return online you need an account on the Income Tax e-filing portal, and your PAN is your user ID. If you have never used the portal, you register once with your PAN and your details. If you are already registered, you do not register again. You log in, or reset your password with an OTP.

What you need before you register

• Your PAN. It must be valid and active. If it is linked to your Aadhaar, the portal asks you to confirm that your details may be checked against the UIDAI database. No documents are needed.
• A mobile number and email address you can use right now, because the portal sends a verification code to each.
• Your name and date of birth exactly as they appear on your PAN.
• Your Aadhaar-linked mobile number, if you plan to e-verify with an Aadhaar OTP later. Our guide on how to e-verify your ITR explains why this matters.

The registration steps in outline

This is the sequence in the department's user manual. The portal's screens can change, so follow what it shows you.

1. On the e-filing portal's home page, click Register.
2. Under Register as a Taxpayer, enter your PAN and click Validate. The portal shows an error if the PAN is invalid or already registered.
3. On Basic Details, enter your name, date of birth, gender and residential status as they appear on your PAN.
4. On Contact Details, enter your primary mobile number, email address and postal address.
5. Enter the two 6-digit OTPs, one sent to your mobile and one to your email. Each is valid for 15 minutes, and you have 3 attempts to enter it correctly; you can ask for a new one with Resend OTP.
6. Check your details and click Confirm.
7. Set a password, enter a personalised message that the portal will show you at login, and click Register. The password must be 8 to 14 characters, with upper and lower case letters, a number and a special character.

If the portal says the PAN is already registered, stop. You do not need to register. Go to the next section.

If you are already registered

Many people are registered without remembering it, because a past employer, a bank or a tax consultant once set it up. Signs that you are already registered:

• The portal tells you the PAN already exists.
• You have filed a return before.
• Someone filed for you in an earlier year.

In that case you log in with your PAN and your password. If you do not remember the password, use the portal's forgot-password option, which asks you to prove you are the PAN holder with an OTP. The usual proof is an OTP on the mobile number registered for that PAN, or an Aadhaar OTP.

Please note that resetting the password changes it for everyone who uses that login. If your employer or a consultant also logs in to your account, tell them the new password has changed.

What registration does not do

Registering gives you access to the portal. It does not file anything. You still choose the form, enter income and deductions, and verify the return. Having an account also does not mean the department already has your return.

Keep your contact details current

The department sends intimations, refund notices and, if it ever comes to that, notices about your return to the mobile number and email on your account. If you change either, update it on the portal under My Profile: click Edit on your contact details, enter the new number or address, enter the OTPs sent to them, and then e-verify the change. A stale number is a common reason people miss an e-verify code or a refund message.

Family members and parents

Each person who files needs their own PAN and their own portal account. You can prepare a parent's, spouse's or child's return, but the portal account belongs to that person, and the verification OTP goes to their mobile number.

Common problems

• "PAN already registered". You are registered. Recover access instead.
• OTP does not arrive. Check the number the portal holds for you, signal and DND settings. A portal OTP is valid for 15 minutes; use Resend OTP to get a new one.
• Name or date of birth mismatch. These must match the PAN record. Correct the PAN record first if they do not.
• Locked account. The portal locks an account after 5 wrong login attempts. It unlocks by itself after 30 minutes, or you can use the portal's Unlock your account option.

How TaxCare helps

When you add a PAN, TaxCare checks whether it is already registered on the Income Tax portal and tells you which case you are in. If it is registered, you confirm with an OTP and TaxCare uses that access, with your permission, to fetch your statements (AIS, TIS, and Form 26AS or Form 168) so you do not key in figures by hand. If it is not registered yet, TaxCare points you to the portal's registration. You can add family members the same way, each with their own PAN and OTP. Nothing is filed until you approve the return.

This guide gives general information and is not professional tax advice.