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,
Happy to announce that our great Indian Postal Department did their job. Finally my returns (ITR-V) were received by IT department! Although I did not get an email acknowledgement, I could see status of my return changed to “Received at CPC” since this morning (July 23rd).
Just for records – I posted my returns on July 13th and they were received at IT end on July 21st. Till yesterday night (July 22), the Efiling Processing Status was showing error text but since this morning (July 23rd), the status is showing as “Received at CPC”.
Just in case you are not aware, the link for checking return status is the last link (bottom) when you mouseover “My Account” in the menu.
Thanks!
@Rajendra,
Great news. Thanks for the update.
So now we know that PO Box number is existent and sooner or later they will receive the return 🙂
Hi Pankaj,
First of all very usefull website and useful information we get.
I need some info for tax return. In a financial year,8 months I hv worked as a freelancer and after that as an emloyee for which i have got form-16 . Now how to file a tax return ? I need to fill 2 separates returns with ITR-1 and ITR-4 or combined ? I dont hv an idea plz. help me.
@DelhiGuy,
You cannot file two returns so you have to submit ITR-4.
even i had the name and surname not correct problem
i called the ASK and it got resolved
thanks pankaj
i am also getting the message ‘ please select a proper xml file for processing’ while uploading the return. what is the technical problem in our system, that, we are receiving this type of message
@Amit,
Its a system issue and should be corrected after sometime.
Hi Pankaj,
Another small update. This evening (July 23rd), I received acknowledgement email cum receipt from IT department as well.
Thanks,
Hi Pankaj,
I have one policy(10000 rs) which is not included in form 16 now i want to show that invetsment while filing the ITR.
so can u pls tell me how to show that investment(do we need attach the investment copy with ITR?)
Thanks
@Shailaja,
Please declare all investments in income tax return form whether or not its there in Form-16.
There is NO NEED TO ATTACH ANYTHING with ITR form.
Hi pankaj,
I want to submit my friends ITR manually (my friend is not in india)so my question is in ITR my friend sign is compulsary.
@Shailaja,
Signature of PAN holder is compulsory on ITR return.
Thanks Pankaj
Thanks pankaj…
I quit from a company, X, this Jan and joined another, Y, this May. I have F16 from X. In FEB took a new policy and paid the premium. How should I submit all this online?
@Syed,
Fill income tax return excel utility and provide all your savings under 80C etc in that.
Generate XML from that which can be uploaded to income tax e filing website.
Hi there,
I have a query.Say,my source of income is only salary and my TDS is NIL.
1) Which form do i fill, ITR1 or ITR2?
2) What do i enter in following section (consider ITR 1)
a)’Details of Tax Deducted at Source from Salary [As per Form 16 issued by employer(s)]’ section,
b) ‘Details of Tax Deducted at Source on Interest [As per Form 16 A issued by Deductor(s)]’
3) What about the Validation failure that i get if i dont answer any of above mentioned 2 sections.
Thanks in advance,
God Bless You and All with Good
@Vinay,
1. You have to fill ITR 1
2. a) In section, Details of Tax Deducted at Source from Salary, fill details as per the Form 16 provided by your employer.
b) In section, Details of Tax Deducted at Source on Interest, you have to fill any TDS deducted by your bank on earned interest
3. Validation won’t fail beacuse of not filling TDS details as they are not compulsory.
Hi Rahul,
I had created the xml. but when i try to uplaod it on the incometax site, it gives me an error saying” Kindly upload the correct xml”. I also did a validation check in the excel sheet before generating the xml, still I’m facing this issue. Can u kindly help me..
Thanks
Puneet
@Puneet,
Sometimes Income tax site develops some issue because of which it does not allow file uploading.
I would suggest you to wait for some time and then try uploading.
I have a good update.
I posted ITR-V on 20th July from Gurgaon Post Office, They received that on 23rd July and sent an Acknowledgement on 26th July.
System seems to be working better now.
Hi Pankaj,
Thanks for your prompt reply.
Still running with a query wrt your reply, can i skip the 2nd point completely as no TDS is deducted.
One more query from my side.
My uncle works with Govt firm and he has received his Form16 recently.
Under deductions section of Form16, three deductions with heads, CGEGIS,PLI,GPS(subscription) — all with 80D— that sum up above 20000 are shown. (FYI : I dont know what these heads really mean 🙂 although)
However,it is mentioned in ITR1 that for 80D the amount should not be greater than 20000.
Point to note, that the validation test passes for an entry of 20000+ for 80D.
How do i go with this ?
Thanks again,
God Bless You and All with Good
@Vinay,
Yes you can skip the TDS sheet completely as there was no TDS deducted.
In case of amount is more than allowed validation passes but in Row 60 (4m), Deductions : Suggested Value = 20000 automatically comes. You should only put the suggested value in 4m row.
I filed the income tax returns online for 2008-09 . I thought its done and I did not send it for verification. What should I do now?
Could you please reply to me immediately so that I can decide on this one and go ahead filing returns for 2009-10.
@Vinay,
As you did not sent ITR-V for last year return, you need to file return in hard copy for that again at income tax department office.
For this year, you may do it online.
Thanks Pankaj, That was too quick .
Is there any fine involved in this one?
This time Iam doing it through an agent. and I will ask them to get this one also acknowledged by IT department.
@Vinay P.,
In case you had any remaining tax liability then there is a fine.
Else there is no extra money needs to be given.
Its better that you do it yourself and not through an agent as its very easy now. You can also do it online using taxsmile.com, its very easy.
Hi…just wanted to check if there is a way to find out the past tax returns submission history i.e. which of the previous years i have filed my tax returns? please let me know.
@Shweta,
There is no way currently you can check past returns online if you have filed them off line.
If you had filed online last year you can check that in your account.
If I do it for this year 2009-10 online and send both the hard copies of ITR-V . Will that be ok? Since 31 august is the last date Iam kind of afraid if the It department doesnot verify within that time?
@Vinay,
ITR-V needs to be submitted to IT department within 30 days of e-filing.
In case you submitted IT return online last year, you can not send ITR-V now for that as 30 days period is over. You have to file that return again.
For this year, you can send ITR-V by ordinary post after uploading the return within 30 days.
Hi
Do i need to follow all step 1,2,3,4 .I have my form 16.
I am not getting this.
Thanks
@Kunal,
I did not get your question, which 4 steps you are talking about?
I have uploaded the xml with the wrong email id..I checked the status after few hrs.email has been sent but i didnt receive the acknowlegement for ITR V.
Once again i uploaded by changing the email id,i got the message as You have already filed your return, please choose ‘Revised’ option.Where will i find the revised option in the website.
@Siva,
You need not to worry for wrong email Id, you may also download ITR-V by logging into site and then goto My Account >> My Returns link.
i have upload the xml file with wrong email id. where we get the ack,.
@Chethan,
You can check the ack by logging into the income tax website.