File Income Tax Return Online

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.

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Pankaj Batra

Jack of multiple trades. A generalist! Founder of Sparse Labs. Find me at FB, Twitter or LinkedIn .

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  • Hi Pankaj,

    Kindly help me out with my queries.

    I work as an independent contractor for my company; 10.23% of my monthly income is deducted as income tax as per company contract. I have received Form No 16A(Certificate of deduction of tax at source under sec 203 of IT Act) for the period 01/04/2009 to 31/03/2010.

    (a) How will I get refund of this deducted tax? What all documents do I need to submit for this? Will copy of rent receipt, phone bills need to be submitted?
    (b) My PAN# was done in Bangalore but I currently am in Kerala, could I submit the paperwork for refund here in Kerala?

    • @Thomas
      a. I have little knowledge for taxation of income from business/profession, as rules are very much different than a salaried employee.
      I would request you to consult any tax professional or CA regarding same.
      b. You can file income tax return online and there will be no issues of place of PAN and filing in that.

  • I tried to fill-up my ITR online and uploaded the exported XML file to Income tax site.
    I got the acknowledgment in my Email provided. Though I do not see any amount against
    "Deductions under Chapter-VI-A", whereas in the uploaded XML file I mentioned the amount which needs to be deducted under section 80C

    Is this expected? in the acknowledgment I do not see any amount against "Tax Payable (6-7d)". Only number I can see is against "Total Gross income" and "Total taxes paid".

    Is it same for other folks?

    • @Balbir
      The amount mentioned in 80-C should come in Deductions under Chapter-VI-A row.
      Also Tax payable figure should be there (in case all tax is paid, it should have zero).

      Can you please cross check whether generated XML was correct and it had all amounts.

      • I have the same problem. The uploaded xml file has all deductions and tax payable columns filled in (and Saral-II printout also taken) but the ITR-V acknowledgement doesnt show Ch-VI deductions and tax payable. Only gross salary and tax paid is shown

        Is there a bug in the Incometax online e filing software??

        • @Sanoop
          I have not filed income tax return yet this year, so will not be able to comment on that.
          You can contact income tax department customer care center for the same.

  • Pankaj,
    You are doing very good job.
    I am trying to file the return online. I have successfully enter all the required information in the excel file. As per my calculation i have to pay Rs 30k towards tax. but till Mar 2010, i have already paid 32k via TDS through my company.
    Now when i am clicking on calculate tax, it is calculating interest under column default in payment of advance tax (6b 234B) and differed of advance tax (6c 234C). I guess as i have paid my advance tax before march 2010, i need not to pay any interest on the tax.
    Can you please tell me what may be my mistake??
    Please help me to rectify this problem..

    Regards
    Jeevan

    • @Jeevan
      Thanks for appreciation.
      You have to provide TDS values in sheet, if that is provided the tax payable will become negative in your case.
      Its difficult to tell the issue without looking the excel.

  • Hi Pankaj,
    I have two Form 16, and I am planning to file the returns on line. How do I calculate the total taxable income.
    In one of the Form 16, the total amount is less than 1 lac and so no deductions have taken place,but in the other 436860 is taxable and 41372 has been deducted.
    Please let me know how do I calculate the total taxable amount, and any other information that I should know regarding e-filing with two form 16. Thank you in advance.

  • I have not filled the schedule IT. Is it because of that? if this is the problem then from where to get the BSR code and serial number of challan. My TDS is done by my company. Can you give me your email id so that i can mail you the excel sheet to locate the problem

    • @Jeevan
      BSR code and challan is required if you have paid some tax yourself directly as well apart from TDS deducted by company.

  • I would like to file my daughters ITR 1 online by e file.My query is:
    1. Can she e file ITR 1
    2. How many days within which the signed hard copy has to be submitted to Bangalore
    3.at the time of e filing she is not in the country can e filing be done & on return can she sign & file the hard copy?
    Your reply will greatly help me as I do not want to be late in filing.
    I

    • @Vinu
      1. If she only has salary income and not from profession and business, she can e-file ITR 1.
      2. ITR V has to reach bangalore office withing 30 days of e-filing.
      3. Only place, she has to sign is ITR V acknowledgment form, which has to be sent back to Bangalore address.

  • HI Pankaj, I transfer 2.7 lakh from my father account to my account by cheque, then I gave it to my brother by cheque. I want to know I have to declare this amount when I filling the ITR & I have to pay some tax on it. I hold this amount in my account only 3-4 days.
    Please advice.

    • @Rajeev
      There is no need to declare this amount in income tax return form.
      All transfer have been done in blood relation so no worries.

      • Hey Pankaj, I have one doubt here. All my friends lend/borrow money all the time. Its just give and take. Do we need to pay tax/file ITR for this too? What if its Salary account? What if its Saving account? please advice

        • @Anna
          All money given to persons who are not in relation will be treated as gift and gift tax has to be paid on that.
          However, if same is paid back, there is no tax liability and need not to be shown in ITR. In case of any query/scrutiny, the same can be proved by showing bank account statements.
          It does not matter if its a salary account or savings account.

  • Hi Pankaj,

    I am Saji. I am salaried employee & I have filed ITR-! by e-filing. I have made mistake, that instead of TDS entry in column #23, I have entered advance tax in column# 25, which was in the form-16 details. Is this will be OK or need to rectify. If need it, then how to do it. I haven't sent my ITR-V to IT office yet. Please advice.

    • @Saji
      You can file revised return with the corrected data and send ITR-V for both together

      • Hi Pankaj,
        Thank you for the quick response. One doubt, if I file it for second time, is this will be double filing of ITR. Is this OK as per the IT rules. Please clarify.

        • @Saji
          You have to file a revised return. Income tax e-filing website will only accept a return with revised status now, if the same has been filed once.

  • can i pay e-tax payment for my father as he does not have online interent banking facility .
    plz advice. He is idividual salaried govt employee

  • I know my PAN number but dont know what i had given for Firsname Sirname Middlename... But i need those details to register online. Please advice.

    • @Devilal
      You can try different combination on website to register.
      Also the same name must have been mentioned on your PAN card. you can see it from there.

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