Indian government has taken steps to make income tax return filing easier and simple.
In past few years there have been many improvements and use of technology by income tax department like introduction of E-filing, online tax payment, digital signature etc.

In order to spread the knowledge, I am writing steps on how you can file income tax return online yourself.

Calculate Income tax

You can calculate your income tax payable using the income tax calculator provided at this page: Income tax calculator.
Also make sure that you also see whether the advance tax has been paid on time (See row 101-104 in income tax calculator). In case you have paid the full tax but not paid on time as per the advance tax schedule, you are liable to pay interest under section 234 A, 234 B and 234 C. See this page for details.

Pay your tax online

Whatever pending amount you need to pay can be paid online on this link: Pay Tax Online (Use only Internet explorer for this).
Select challan type as CHALLAN NO. /ITNS 280 and continue.
Select (0021) INCOME-TAX (OTHER THAN COMPANIES) in tax applicable field and
Select (300) SELF ASSESSMENT TAX in type of payment.
Select bank through which you want to pay.

You also pay through your net banking login on Axis Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce, State Bank of Patiala, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, State Bank of Mysore, Bank of Maharashtra, State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Saurashtra, Union Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Dena Bank, Syndicate Bank, ICICI Bank, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Bank, Bank of India, Corporation Bank, State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur, State Bank of Travancore, State Bank of Indore, Vijaya Bank and HDFC Bank.

You can check online if your money has actually reached the I-T Department. For this you have to go to Tax Information Network Website and click the box CIN Based View. Provide details as per the receipt generated while online tax payment.

Fill Income tax return form

Download respective income tax form from income tax website. Income tax department has modified the return preparation software to include automatic calculation of tax and interest.

Income from Salary and/or from Interest/Family Pension : ITR-1

Income from house property/capital gains: ITR-2

Income from partnership in a firm: ITR-3

Income from business/profession: ITR-4

Fill up the form with information provided in Form-16 and the tax calculated in income tax calculator above in Step 1.

If you don’t know Assessing Officer (Ward / Circle), Find it here by submitting your PAN.

Also fill TDS details as per Form-16 and don’t forget to fill UTN (Unique Transaction Number) in TDS sheet. In general the UTN would be printed on the TDS certificate issued by the deductor. However, in case it is not available on the certificate, the taxpayer should separately obtain the UTN either from the deductor or from the website of National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL). As per the latest press release from income tax department, Taxpayers filing their income tax returns for assessment year (AY) 2009-10, or any other earlier AY, may continue to file their returns without mentioning the Unique Transaction Number (UTN) as required under the earlier Notification. The filing of such returns shall be treated as valid and in compliance to the requirements under section 139 of the Income Tax Act, 1961.

After filling up the form, Generate tax return XML from the income tax form by clicking Generate button on first sheet of excels form.

e-File income tax return

After you have created a XML file from income tax return excel form, Go to Income Tax e-Filing Website.
Create your login on this page on website. It’s not mandatory, to use a digital signature for electronically filing the return.

a) Filing return without digital signature:
Login to income tax site and click on assessment year under submit return menu on left side of page.
Upload the generated XML on this page for 2010-11 assessment year.
On successful upload acknowledgment details would be displayed.

Take printout of acknowledgment/ITR-V Form. You may also download it later. Login and go to link on top right My account > My Returns.

Form ITR-V has to be submitted with the Income tax Department as verification of the electronic filing of the return within 120 days after the date of e-Filing.

Form ITR-V is bar-coded, so it need not to be folded and to be mailed in a A4 size envelope BY ORDINARY or SPEED POST ONLY to “Income Tax Department – CPC, Post Box No – 1, Electronic City Post Office, Bengaluru – 560100, Karnataka” within 120 days after the date of e-filing of return. ITR-V sent by Speedpost, Registered Post or Courier will not be accepted. No Form ITR-V shall be received in any other office of the Income-tax Department or in any other manner.Please keep a copy of the same with you also. After some day of posting the ITR-V, you can check status of receipt by going into account ‘My Account’ -> ‘E-filing Process Status’.

To assist taxpayers, a limited call center service with two agents has been established at ITD-CPC, Bangalore. Taxpayer queries on status of ITR-V receipt at CPC, Bangalore will be answered on 080-43456700 between 9:30 AM to 6 PM. The service will be available in English, Hindi and Kannada.

b) Filing return with digital signature:
In case you don’t have digital signature and you want to buy that, you can buy class 2 or class 3. You can buy digital signature on e-Mudhra website . Class 2 individual certificate is available for Rs. 129 499 899 for 1 year and for Rs. 198 649 1149 for 2 years validity (prices changed effective from 10th Feb, 2010).

In case return is filed with digital signature, user may take a printout of the Acknowledgment for his record. The tax-payer is not required to submit the Form ITR-V with the Income-tax Department.

I hope this article will help many of us and make tax filing Simple & Easy. So please this year Do-It-Yourself.

Feel free to comment/suggest anything that I may have missed.

Note : No hard copy of any kind of proof needs to be submitted along with Income tax return.

Note from Author :
I maintain my website, write articles and reply comments because of my interest/hobby to share information and knowledge.

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