Income Tax e-Filing Portal Not Working: Login, Password and e-Verification Fixes (2026)

The exact error strings behind 'income tax login not working'

• "PAN does not exist. Please register this PAN or try with some other PAN." — the PAN typed at login has never been registered as a portal user; registration and login are separate steps.
• "Your account has been locked. Please try after some time / contact helpdesk." — 5 consecutive failed login attempts trip an automatic lock, a security control, not an outage.
• "Invalid user ID or password" — usually the wrong credential format for the account type, a stale autofilled password, or case/whitespace in the password field.
• "Request is not authenticated" — a session/token handshake glitch between the browser and the portal, often under heavy concurrent load.
• "Something went wrong. Please try again after some time." — a generic catch-all for server-side errors, timeouts or overload that does not itself say what failed.
• "e-Filing portal is having technical issues due to overload issues" — genuine server-side overload, most common in the final days before a filing deadline.

Which login ID and password-reset route actually applies to you

The portal uses different login-ID formats by account type, and typing the wrong format reads as "invalid user ID or password" rather than telling you the format is wrong. For individual taxpayers the login user ID is the PAN itself, not a chosen username. Chartered Accountants log in with ARCA plus a 6-digit registration number, ERIs with ERIP plus 6 digits, External Agencies with EXTA plus 6 digits, and TIN 2.0 users with TINP plus 6 digits. A tax deductor or collector registers with the organisation's TAN and PAN, initially logs in with the deductor's PAN, and — once that registration is approved — can log in directly with the TAN.

The portal offers six password-reset routes, but you will only see the ones your account has enabled: e-Filing OTP, Aadhaar OTP, Bank Account EVC, Demat Account EVC, Digital Signature Certificate (DSC), and Net Banking. If you have turned on e-Filing Vault Higher Security, the reset screen shows only the specific options you pre-selected there — that is why some users see fewer reset routes than the portal generally offers, not a bug.

For most login routes you enter a user ID and password. Net Banking is the exception — you never enter a separate e-Filing password at all, because your bank authenticates you and hands off directly to the e-Filing dashboard.

How to reset a forgotten password when your mobile number is stale

• Aadhaar OTP needs PAN linked to Aadhaar, and the OTP itself is sent only to the mobile number currently registered with UIDAI — not the number on your PAN application or your e-Filing profile. If your Aadhaar-linked number has changed, this route will never deliver an OTP until you update it with UIDAI.
• Bank Account EVC and Demat Account EVC need that specific account pre-validated on the portal with a mobile/email registered against it.
• Net Banking needs PAN linked to that bank account and an active net-banking login — and skips the e-Filing password step entirely.
• DSC needs a valid, active Digital Signature Certificate with the emSigner/emBridge utility installed and the USB token plugged in.
• If your mobile is stale everywhere (not updated with Aadhaar, bank, or demat) so none of the OTP/EVC routes work, a valid DSC linked to your PAN can still reset your password — or you can bypass the e-Filing password altogether by logging in through Net Banking.

Fixing 'account locked' and 'PAN does not exist' without waiting on the helpdesk

• Locked after 5 failed attempts: use the "Unlock Your Account" self-service link on the login page immediately, or simply wait 30 minutes — the account unlocks automatically with no ticket needed.
• "PAN does not exist" at login: go to the portal's Register page (not Login) and complete first-time registration for that PAN with basic details and OTP verification, then log in normally — retrying the same login will not fix it.
• "Invalid user ID or password": confirm which ID format applies to your account (PAN for individuals; ARCA/ERIP/EXTA/TINP-prefixed IDs for CAs/ERIs/agencies/TIN2.0 users; TAN for an approved deductor), retype the password manually instead of trusting a saved/autofilled one, and switch to Forgot Password rather than repeated retries — five wrong guesses is exactly what trips the lock.
• "Request is not authenticated": click Continue on the error dialog two to three times in quick succession to force re-authentication; if it persists, log out fully, clear cache/cookies or switch to a private/incognito window, and retry. This click-through workaround is reported practitioner advice, not something the department has documented in an official FAQ, so treat it as a first thing to try rather than a guaranteed fix.
• DSC authentication failed / DSC not working: install emSigner/emBridge from the portal's own Downloads > DSC Management Utility page (not a saved older installer), run it as Administrator so it can open its local port, confirm the USB token is plugged in with current drivers, check the certificate has not expired and its PAN matches your portal profile, and register the DSC on the portal — a separate one-time step from simply owning a valid certificate.

Aadhaar OTP not received for e-verification — the actual fix

The single most common e-verify complaint is Aadhaar OTP never arriving. The OTP goes only to the mobile number currently linked to Aadhaar in UIDAI's database, regardless of what number sits on your PAN application or your e-Filing profile — so if that number has changed, no amount of retrying will make an OTP arrive.

If Aadhaar OTP is not an option, the portal offers alternatives that do not depend on the Aadhaar-linked mobile at all: a pre-validated bank account EVC, a pre-validated demat account EVC, an EVC generated at select bank ATMs, or Net Banking. Update your mobile number with Aadhaar via UIDAI in parallel if you expect to need Aadhaar OTP again in future filing seasons.

The list of banks currently supporting ATM-generated EVC could not be confirmed on an official portal page for this guide — treat any specific bank list you see elsewhere as illustrative, not current or exhaustive, and check the portal's own e-Verify screen for what is actually offered to your account.

The 30-day e-verification window — and what happens if you miss it

The condonation request itself is filed from Dashboard → e-File → Income Tax Returns → e-Verify Return → select reason for delay.

Looks like a portal bug but isn't

• "Income tax portal down/not working today" — check the department's own account (@IncomeTaxIndia) or a status tracker before assuming an outage. A large share of these reports are a local browser/cache/network problem, not a real outage — the department itself has publicly pointed to this.
• "e-Filing portal is having technical issues due to overload issues" is a genuine server-side problem, most common in the final days before a filing deadline, and is not fixable from your end. Retry during off-peak hours (very early morning or late at night) — CBDT has, in past seasons, granted a short deadline extension when overload became widespread near the due date, so also watch for an official extension announcement rather than assuming one will happen.
• "Something went wrong. Please try again after some time." is a generic catch-all that does not say what actually failed. Retry after a short wait, try a different supported browser or an incognito window, and if it keeps recurring across sessions or devices, raise a grievance (see the escalation section below) quoting the exact screen and timestamp instead of assuming it is a one-off glitch.
• JavaScript or cookies disabled — the portal's own browser-support page states plainly that JavaScript and cookies are functionally mandatory. The page can still load and look normal with either disabled, then block every transaction including login, which reads exactly like a broken portal.
• "e-Filing website not working in Google Chrome" — usually Chrome-specific cache/cookie corruption, an outdated Chrome build, or an ad-blocker/script-blocker extension interfering with the portal's JavaScript, not a Chrome-specific portal defect. Update Chrome, clear site data for incometax.gov.in specifically, and retry in Incognito with extensions off.
• "e-Verification of income tax return is pending" — the return uploaded fine; only the separate verification step (OTP/EVC/DSC/physical ITR-V) has not happened yet. Re-submitting the return is not the fix — verifying it is.
• Java-utility installation problems — the portal moved from separate Excel/Java-based offline utilities to a single JSON-based Common Offline Utility under e-Filing 2.0. Complaints about installing "the Java utility" are usually about an outdated legacy tool rather than a defect in the current one.
• Pre-fill JSON import failing in the offline utility — most often a version mismatch between the downloaded pre-fill JSON and the installed utility build. Install the latest utility first, then download the pre-fill JSON — not the other way round.
• "Invalid input" / a validation error that will not clear — commonly a hidden trailing space, a wrong date format, a value over a schema character limit, or an unmet dependency elsewhere on the same schedule. Re-type the field manually instead of pasting into it, and check for a dropdown or earlier field the form is silently waiting on.

Escalating when self-service does not fix it

• General e-Filing/ITR helpdesk: 1800 103 0025 or 1800 419 0025 (also +91-80-46122000 / +91-80-61464700), 08:00-20:00, email ITR.helpdesk@incometax.gov.in — for login, filing, intimation, rectification and refund queries.
• AIS/TIS-specific issues: 1800 103 4215, 09:30-18:00 Mon-Fri, or raise a ticket in-app via e-Filing > AIS tab > Help menu > Raise/View Ticket Status.
• Outstanding tax-demand queries go to the separate Demand Management Facilitation Centre, not the general helpdesk: taxdemand@cpc.incometax.gov.in.
• In-portal grievance: log in, go to the Grievance menu, select e-Nivaran, choose PAN/TAN holder, pick a grievance category (refund, PAN/Aadhaar, etc.), the relevant Assessment Year, and attach supporting documents — status is tracked in the same module.
• If e-Nivaran does not resolve it, CPGRAMS (pgportal.gov.in) is a separate, government-wide grievance platform outside the Income Tax Department's own queue and can prompt faster action.
• For ITD-EXEC2003 and similar unresolved technical error codes, practitioners report writing directly to orm@cpc.incometax.gov.in with PAN, registered mobile number and a screenshot of the exact error, after first checking My Profile for special characters in the address field or a malformed phone number under Key Person Details — the usual cause of that specific rejection.

Primary sources

The dates and fees on this page are read off the statute and CBDT’s own notifications and the e-filing portal, not copied from other guides. You can check every one of them:

• Login FAQs — Income Tax Department
• Reset Your Password — Income Tax Department
• ITR-V FAQs / 30 Days' Timeline for e-Verification of Returns — Income Tax Department
• Contact Us — Income Tax Department
• Link Aadhaar FAQ — Income Tax Department
• How to e-Verify User Manual — Income Tax Department