From assessment year 2013-14, E-filing has been made compulsory for the person who is an individual or a Hindu undivided family (HUF), if his or its total income, or the total income in respect of which he is or it is assessable under the act during the previous year, exceeds Rs. 5 lakh rupees for the assessment year 2013-14 onwards. It clearly states total income and not taxable income.
Please read below to know 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. Income tax return excel utility also computes income tax, but they only take taxable income as input.
Also make sure that you also see whether the advance tax has been paid on time (See row 101-104 in 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 C. Income tax return excel utility also computes interest penalty u/s 234C.
Pay your tax online
Whatever pending amount you need to pay can be paid online on this link: Pay Taxes 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.
Make sure to add interest penalty as computed by income tax return excel form u/s 234A, 234B and 234C in case of tax payments after due date.
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/Pension, interest and single house property ( but with exempt income is less than Rs. 5,000) : ITR-1
Income from more than one house property, capital gains, salaries, pension, interest and exempt income more than Rs 5,000: ITR-2
Income from partnership in a firm: ITR-3
Income from business/profession: ITR-4
Income from Presumptive Business: ITR-4S
Exempt income here includes transport/conveyance allowance, HRA exemption, agricultural income, insurance maturity amount, LTA, Gratuity, Interest on PPF balance, Leave Encashment, Income from Mutual Funds, Dividends and long term capital gains.
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.
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 2012-13 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 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’.
From year 2012-13, even if a person does not have digital signature, he can file online and even does not need to send ITR-V copy to Bangalore CPC (Central processing centre) address.
An electronic signature would be generated online in income tax efiling website after providing certain information from previous year’s income tax return. On validation of such information, unique PIN would be provided to person on email/SMS. This PIN can be used to file income tax return online without needing digital signature. This will also make sure no further hard copy needs to be sent to department.
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. 285 for 1 year validity.
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.
Income tax department call center:
To assist taxpayers, a limited call center service 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.
One may also call on 1800-425-2229 (Toll free) or 080-43456700 for status of receipt of ITR-V at CPC, Processing status of e-filed returns, Refund issues and any other information related to processing of returns at CPC. The working hours of CPC Call center have been extended to 9AM-8PM on all working days.
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.
Hi Pankaj,
I have 2 queries.
(1) I and my parents leave in a home which is in the name of my elder brother. I have been paying rent for the same. My brother is staying in US since last 2 years. In this case, can i claim exemption in HRA. What all documents do i require for claiming the same?
(2) Also, we have another home in Mumbai which was on lease and is currently vacant for the last 2 months. This home is in the name of my parents who currently dont have any income source. I have paid the rent for this home too for the 2 months. Can i claim HRA exemption for this too. If yes, then what all documents do i require to produce?
Thanks in advance,
Vinay Rane
God Bless All With Good !
@Vinay
Yes, you can claim exemption for HRA. You will need rent receipts from the landlord.
Regarding your other home, You cannot claim HRA for two homes at a time.
My father and myself (2nd name is mine) have booked a flat costing Rs 8 lakhs which is under-construction. The completion of the construction will be in 2 years
Can I pay Rs 1 lakh and claim as deduction u/s 80 (c) under the head “Payment made towards the cost of purchase/construction residential property” ?
It is to be noted that Rs 1 lakh I am paying is not through any loan…but through my savings
@Manoj
Yes, you can claim deduction under section 80. To read more download file from this link: http://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/Archive/House_Property.pdf
Thanks Pankaj
However I have two more querys ..
What does “previous year” mean here ?
here does the flat have to be from any Govt Housing Board or Govt authority? I am asking this because my flat is from private developer ?
——————————————————————————-
Chapter IV states
Payments made towards the cost of purchase/construction
of new residential house property during the previous year are
eligible for deduction under section 80C.
The following payments qualify for deduction:-
any instalment or part payment of the amount due under
any self-financing or other scheme of any development
authority, housing board or other authority engaged in the
construction and sale of house property on ownership basis;
@Manoj
If you pay for house in FY 2009-2010, you can only avail benefit in 2010-2011.
There is no condition that house should be from Govt Housing board or authority.
sir ,
i m a lic and shara agent . my TDS certificate amount is 27684, and total amount is 271222. i want asking u wtich way we get all tds amount without any paying tax. i heared the lic agent recived amount 1/3 part dedcted.
pls
@Abhishek
All payments more than 10,000 are subject to TDS. You will have to file a refund in return for that.
Hi Pankaj … I am salaried and am filing returns for year 2008/2009 and as you would know the last date is Mar 31st, there’s a sense of urgency here. I have two questions:
1. Some of deductions don’t show up on my form 16 because during the form 16 prep by my employer, i hadn’t provided them. Now that i am filing returns myself, can i us these deductions directly for filing returns. If yes then i don’t see any placeholder on that e-filing excel template to provide some proofs of deductions being filed. How would government know that these are valid deductions? …
2. On the e-filing excel template, what is option to be selected for “Returned Filed Under Section”?
and let me ask a 3rd question as well …. What are my options for going beyond Mar 31st for filing returns? is there any part of filing return which can be carried over beyond Mar 31st ? ..
@Deb
1. You can use all deductions now which are part of 80C, There is no need to attach any proof. Income tax department may ask you for proofs later by raising a query, if they have a doubt. All these deductions can be put into ‘Deductions under Section VI A’ block on General sheet of income tax return form.
2. There are different options available for return filing section: 11 – u/s 139(1): Voluntarily before the due date, 12 – u/s 139(4):Voluntarily after the due date, 13 – u/s 142(1): In response to notice under section 142(1), 14 – u/s 148 : In response to notice under section 148 14, 15 – u/s 153A:In response to notice under section 153A 15. In your case, you have to choose, 12 – u/s 139(4) as you are filing voluntarily after the due date.
3. In case you don’t file before 31 March, 2009, you will be liable for a penalty of Rs 5,000 plus In case you owe taxes, you will have to pay interest at 1 per cent per month.
@Deb
Also In case there is some pending tax amount, you have to pay penalty of 1% interest per month from April 2009 now.
Thanks. I have only refund and no payments to be made.
Hi again … Can you please help with this issue in e-filing excel of 2008-2009. I filled up the data in e-filing excel template of year 2008-2009. While trying to “Validate” the data, i am getting an error saying that “DatePayCred at Ser No. 1 in sheet TDS should not exceed 2008-03-31”.
Since i am filing for yeat 2008-2009, my dates of TDS payments would surely exceed 31st March 2008.
Thanks.
@Deb
Make sure that you are using the latest excel file (Download it from https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/individual_huf.do)
Hi … I had pulled and worked on the latest excel from the mentioned site only. After i faced this issue,i sent an email to [email protected] also but no response so far. I wonder how did earlier people use this excel. Please suggest some workaround to this problem.
and infact i tried to dowload the pdf file also thinking it might work. The link on site takes me to an error page. I have sent email for that also to the help email id on site but no response so far.
@Deb
You can call income tax department call center at 080-43456700 between 9:30 AM to 6 PM on weekdays.
wow that worked wonders. I can’t believe the prompt and such professional responses i got from a govt dept. It was really amazing. Now, one last help : Which deduction section does Home Loan payment go to?
@Deb
For Home loan interest part deduction, you will have to fill ITR-2 and provide interest amount value under Interest payable on borrowed capital.
For principal part, provide it under 80C.
Hi Pankaj,
If i withdraw my PF amount and move it to my salary account, will it be taxable?
@Mahesh
PF withdrawal is not taxable only if a person has been in continuous service for 5 years. In your case if you have had PF balance from your previous employer then such balance should have been transferred from your previous employer to your current employer and the period of service of both employers would need to be aggregated to check if you have completed 5 years of continuous service.
Hi Pankaj,
I own a private limited company in hyderabad.Its a partnership firm. We have started our firm in the month of April 2009. Till now we have done a total business of Rs. 9,80,000/- out of which our profit is 10% i.e. Rs.98,000/-.We have already paid an advance tax of Rs.30,000/-. I request you to help me whether i have to pay any tax now. If yes then howmuch? Kindly help me. Looking for your earliest reply.
Thanks & Regards,
Parvinder Saini
@Parvinder
I don’t much idea about taxation for income from business. Please consult any CA or income tax professional regarding the same.
I am actually a Techie, writes blogs out of my interest in personal finance and sharing whatever knowledge I have.
HI pankaj
What is the means “The long term savings schemes (e.g. PPF) would be moved from EEE (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt) to EET (Exempt-Exempt-Taxed) method of taxation.”
And what about the L.I.C. Govt. also has change rules for LIC.
Thanks
@Raveev
E means Exempt, T means Taxable.
First letter is for investment stage, 2nd for Earnings stage, 3rd for Withdrawal stage.
Almost all of the investment schemes are exempt at investment stage, slowly govt is moving all other towards EET or ETT. PPF will become taxable at the time of withdrawal.
There is no much details on LIC, but as per current statement, its withdrawal will be taxed. We will have to wait more for direct tax code details.
how to make payment challan 280, i want to make payment cheque and what should i write in cheque for ” PAY ” ?
@Shajan
You can also make payment online from almost all of the major banks.
However, If you want to pay thru cheque at bank, The tax has to be deposited in RBI, State Bank of India, IOB, Indian Bank and other notified banks.
The cheque accompanying the challan has to be made payable to “Name of Bank / Branch – A/c Income Tax”.
Hi Pankaj,
I am a freelance web content writer and blogger. Could you please tell me which form will I have to fill?
@Abhimanyu
You have to file ITR-4.
i am paying my child tution fees of about Rs 32000/- shall i claim for incom tax rebet
@Gangadhar
Rebate of Rs. 100, per month per child up to a maximum of two children, can be availed.
Hi Pankaj,
I have PF account with my previous employer and my current employer doesn’t have PF facility as the total number of employees are less than 20 but may start after 6-9 months when the number becomes more than 20. Can I still continue the old PF account? Or as suggested by my previous employer finance person to close the PF account and withdraw the amount? As you said if we withdraw PF b4 5yrs completion then we have to pay tax on that, I have completed 3.5 yrs as of now.
Please suggest.
Thanks,
Ashish
@Ashish
Yes, you can continue holding your old EPF account and as soon as you have your new EPF account from current employer, you may get amount transferred from older account.
If you close older EPF account and withdraw money, it will be liable to tax, as 5 years with EPF has not been completed.
Thanks Pankaj,
As you suggested to keep EPF account open seems logical.
I have another question. My previous employer is winding up office in India by March end. If I continue to keep that EPF account open, and later when my current employer provides facility for EPF and I transfer my old EPF balance to this new account. Do you see any complications or difficulties at that time as old employer solicitation will not be there. Or in other words how easy it is to do that?
Thanks,
Ashish
@Ashish
If there is not going to be anybody in India, representing your previous employer, then there might be some issue to get the transfer done as it involves the previous employer also. Please consult your ex-employer regarding same.
Thanks again.
how i fill form 13 fill up, what documents produce
@Anupam
I am not sure about your query. You are filling form 13 regarding what?
Hi Pankaj,I am working in a sofware company and eligible for HRA of Rs 7918/month and also I am accomodating in a rented flat.But due to some reason I was not able to produce the rent reciept to my company on time and they have deducted TAX on it.Is it possible to get the TAX excemption on HRA while filling return filling.If yes please let me know the process.
@Nitesh
Yes, you can declare HRA while filing income tax return as well.
Hi .. i joined a private company on feb 15th . My salary is 25000. 2500 is getting deducted as tax. What are the procedure I have to follow for tax refund. When should I do it. I know nothing about all this.
@Savishiv
You have to file income tax return and provide refund amount and bank account details to which you want the refund amount to be credited back.
Hello Pankaj,
I filed E-return with help of some guidelines from various sources for assessment yr 2008-09.
and now I received Intimation from IT dept to pay additional tax.
On inquiry with them I was informed that I filed wrong ITR form, I had filled ITR-1 but they say I should have filled ITR-2.
I am salaried person and have LIC + housing loan,(housing loan Interest was not considered in ITR-1 I filed,So instead of getting Refund of 22000 I am asked to pay additional 3300 Rs.
could you please advice as How can we rectify this? can we submit new ITR again or I have to loose money and pay more tax?
Please please advice
Thank you
Rajesh Thosare
@Rajesh
Income tax department is also correct in their actions. Housing loan interest can be shown as loss from house income which has provision in ITR-2.
Now you can file a revised return quoting the previous return acknowledgment number and you must also reply to your assessing office from where the intimation has come.
Hi,
For the assessment year 2007-08, while paying self assessment tax online throught ICICI, at last minute website reported some error. Hence I repaid the tax and filed the return. After 4 months bank has sent an email saying that though the website reported error, but the payment was successful and the money is now with IT dept, bank cannot refund the money, I have to get the money from IT dept.
Since the challan number was not used while filing the return for the AY07-08, so can I use that challan number in the current year(AY 09-10) to show for Self assessment tax payment.
Thanks & Regards,
Amith
@Amith
In-spite of repaying, You must have contacted ICICI at that time only as money was deducted twice from your account.
Challan has assessment year mentioned in it, so it can not be used for this year.
What max you can do is to file a revised return asking for refund. But chances of getting refund with so late filing is very less.
I m residing in same city where I purchased a house and loan for furnishing of the house can i clam rebate on housing loan and HRA as house is under construction.
@Vinay
You can only start taking interest and principal benefit in income tax from the financial year in which you get possession. And once that is done, you won’t be able to get benefit of HRA, as you live in same city.
Hi Pankaj,
I have on question regarding the IT douments. I lost my Form16 for year 05-06. I lost IT return acknowledgements for almost all years from 05. Now suddenly my mind awakes to this. Could you pls help me how can I get back another copy for all this?
Thanks,
amit
@Amit
You can contact your income tax assessing officer regarding the same. There is no other way of getting the same.
hi,
I have to file my 2009-10 IT return i am working as S/W engg and i have return of 50K, currently i am in US (NRI status), i have some income also from agricultur land in india, please suggest what category i need to file IT return and suggest if any Please i can file online returns,
thanks in advance
@Akshay
As you are NRI and your income does not fall into taxable range, you need not to file a return in India.
Also income from agricultural land is not taxable.
Hi pankaj thanks but i was in india for 5 months for which my comp deducted tax and as i was for some time, according to form 16 i will be getting back 50K rs returns, so could u pls suggest how i can file online…
@Akshay
Read the following post regarding steps for filing return on-line: http://www.pankajbatra.com/india/file-income-tax-return-online-yourself/
The only step thats not on-line is posting back signed ITR-V to income tax department office in Bangalore.
I suggest you file return on-line, take printout of ITR-V, sign it and send it to any of your friend/relative in India, who then can post it to Bangalore address.