Avinash Narain (name changed), a 28-year-old tax return preparer (TRP) will re-open his office, located in the bustling Connaught Place area of Delhi, from April 1, after a gap of over four months. After all, the income tax return filing season is around the corner.
Narain is among the 3,700 TRPs trained by the income tax department last year for filling up and filing tax returns. A bachelor in economics from Bhagalpur (Bihar), Narain now pursues a management course in Delhi while he tries to earn his keep through the TRP scheme. Last July, in the 15 days he worked as a TRP, he earned a neat Rs 10,000 by filing close to 50 returns. Each return fetched him a fee of Rs 250.
But that was then. The return-filing season got over and since then he and most of his ilk are struggling to make sense of their training. Most are not better off than when they were unemployed. ?The certificate we got after our training is a good incentive,? Narain says, ?but we still need more work.?
The more enterprising of the lot have branched out into selling savings instruments or become insurance agents. But one big problem for them is that, according to the official notification, only the unemployed or under-employed can work as TRPs. There is no place for the fully employed in the scheme of things. Tax authorities agree that this issue needs to be sorted out to ensure that those who join as TRPs don?t end up losing out on full time employment.
But there soon may be some good news for Narain and his colleagues.
The income tax department is planning to give them more responsibilities to help them tide over the lean phases. The department is weighing the possibility of training some of them in filing the tax deducted at source (TDS) forms. Another option with the department is to train the TRPs to file returns of small firms. At present, they help only individuals and HUF taxpayers.
The service tax return preparer scheme, announced in the latest Budget, may also be merged with the TRP scheme.
Towards this, the department will soon hold mock aptitude tests online. These would ensure that the TRPs have brushed up on their subject, besides screening the candidates for upgrade.
The scheme has proved to be an unqualified success. The 3,737 successful TRPs all over the country managed to file close to 45,000 returns?mostly of young professionals and small businessman?in the 10 days that they worked last year. The department and NIIT held a rigorous training programme for them and those with over 60% marks in the post-training exam were handed out certificates.
Buoyed by the scheme?s success, the department is now planning to extend the scheme in the new year and train more people in filing returns. ?Our aim is to train about 20,000 more people to become TRPs over the next five years. If the scheme gets the approval for an extension, we will select 5,000 more for training,? an official said.
The department would like to have at least one TRP in every sub-district of the country and in all places where it doesn?t have an office. The TRPs, although not an agent of the tax department, can advise people on tax matters, says the official.