in Finance, Income Tax, India |

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.

income-tax-return-form-efile

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.

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

Published

Write a Comment

Comment

1,489 Comments

  1. Hi Pankaj,
    Thanks a lot again.
    I successfully filed my uncle’s ITR.

    Update from my side, the terms i had mentioned are
    – CGEGIS (Group Insurance Scheme)- 80C
    – PLI – Postal Life Insurance – 80C
    – GPS(subscription) – Government Provident Fund – 80C
    All are under section 80C and not 80D

    Thanks again,
    God Bless All with Good

    Reply to Vinay

  2. Hi Pankaj,

    I keep gettting the Message ‘Please select a proper XML file for processing’.

    I have gone through the earlier Posts, wherein it was suggested that sometimes there are problems with the Income Tax site & that one should try again later

    I have been trying since yesterday Evening, but I keep getting the same Message. Wanted to check if you can give me any other pointers in this regard

    Thanking you in Advance

    Reply to Raghu

  4. Sir I want to fill my I.T return but I get confused with balance sheet .Please tell the procedure to make the balance sheet.Please respond as soon as possible

    Reply to sachin

  5. Hi Pankaj

    I have seen following 3 step on your blog.

    1. Calculate Income tax:

    2. Pay your tax online:

    3. Fill Income tax return form:

    Now I am salay employeee from a company ,TDS is already deducted from my salary,I have a form 16 detailing all this thng. But I am confused between step 2 and step 3 Which one to choose or do I need to go through both there steps.

    Please advise.

    Thanks,
    Krunal

    Reply to Krunal

    • @Krunal,
      If total tax calculated in step 1 has been already paid through TDS by your employer, then you need not to follow step 2 and can directly jump to step 3, which is to fill income tax return form.
      In case some amount is pending, then you need to follow step 2 also.

      Reply to Pankaj

  6. I wanted to file IT return online. The xls for ITR2 has PARTB which is locked with password. How do I unlock it or enter figures from my form 16 in to the sheet? I am stuck here, do not know how to proceed.
    Please advise.

    Reply to Girish

    • @Girish,
      The excel is protected by Income tax department and only Green fields in excel are editable, please fill values in corresponding sheets and values in Part-B will be automatically picked up from other sheets. There are excel formulas on sheets which are locked and non-editable.

      Reply to Pankaj

  7. Hi Pankaj,

    I kept getting the same Error till late last night, after which I decided to use Taxsmile for filing the 2009-10 Return using Digital Signature. I had kept the Return ready on Taxsmile 2 Days back, but wanted to upload to the Income Tax Site Myself using Digital Signature

    I had opened the File in Textpad as well as Internet Explorer and it looked Okay

    I also have to file return for 2008-09, which I have now decided to file Off-Line

    Thanks

    Reply to Raghu

  8. Hi Pankaj,

    I did a mistake while submitting my return. So, I have then submitted “revised form”. My question is, should I post only latest “ITR-V/ Acknowledgement” or both “ITR-V/ Acknowledgement” form to “Income Tax Department” ?

    thanks

    Reply to Jabir

  9. Hi Pankaj,

    thanks for all detail information.
    still have one query, in manual submission, do i need to provide proofs which are not in form 16?
    with returns i am claiming LTA and medical, do i need to provide proofs for same (manual submission)

    Thanks
    Sachin

    Reply to sachin

  10. Hi Pankaj,

    I had taken break last year from job to pursue MBA.Do I still need to file income tax return. I had no income in last financial yearand have taken an educational loan.

    Thanks

    Reply to Ritu

  11. Hi Pankaj,

    Great blog ! I have some income as a consultant this year. Hence am using ITR-IV and showing this income in Item 51 of P&L (No accounts case) as gross receipts. However when I try validating the same I get a warning: “You have filled up Profit & Loss as well as No accounts”

    The XML is however being generated. Do I ignore this warning or is there some error that I need to fix ? Appreciate your time and effort.

    Reply to Narayanan

    • @Narayanan,
      Sorry but I don’t have much knowledge about taxation of income from business and profession.
      I would suggest that you take advice from any tax professional before filing return.

      Reply to Pankaj

  12. Hi,

    I am using ITR2_2009_10_R1h.xls.
    Apart from my salary i need to show a short term loss of Rs **** for current year. But the column H13 in CFL is not editable.
    Where should I enter the short term loss for current financial year.

    Note: I have only short term loss for current year. No other income / gains apart from salary.

    Reply to Praveen

    • @Praveen,
      You can use CYLA-BFLA sheet to enter current year short term loss amount.
      You should carry the loss forward to next year as this year you will not be getting any benefit on that.

      Reply to Pankaj

  13. Hi Pankaj,
    Bugging u again..this time for late filing of IT return for AY 2008-09…I was employed from April to June 2007, after which I proceeded for higher studies (full time). Hence, last year(2008) I didnt filed my returns as my total chargeble Income was somewhere near 55K INR. However, some of my friends advised that it is betr to file return to keep ur tax statement updated.I have already filed return for AY 2009-10, but am not able to do so for AY08-09, as website is not accepting the form and giving a message that last date was 31/03/09 and contact DIT administrator. I am not seeking any tax return. What to do now? as u know, at present I am out of India also.

    Reply to Shivpriye

    • @Shivpriye,
      Income tax site website currently is not accepting previous year’s return. You will have to submit that off-line only.
      As you are out of country, you can fill the pdf form and then send the signed hard copy to any of your friend/relative in India, who can then submit that by hand in IT office.

      Reply to Pankaj

  15. Hi pankaj,
    firstly thaks for helping thousands of people…

    I am working in Thailand since July 2007,and spend more than 6 moths out of India.
    and I have opened NRE account ONLY since July07 in HDFC bank,I do have 3-4 savings account still active since when I was working in Inida.
    There is No FD on my name in India.
    salary comes to my NRE account which I transfer to my family members savings account in India.

    My Question is:
    1) Can I hold Normal Savings account in inidan Banks?
    what I need to do with these account? ..close it or make it joint account with family member?

    2) I donot have any Income in India but still I am willing to file Return..so what exactly I should do for it.(I have no form 16,15G…nothing)
    I do have some LIC for my self still running.
    Please advice

    Thank you once again
    Regards
    Rajesh

    Reply to Rajesh

    • @Rajesh,
      1. I think, you can hold normal savings account in India.
      2. If you are holding a PAN card, you can file return. There is no need of Form-16. Just declare your India income (in case any) in return form and file it.

      Reply to Pankaj

  16. Nice discussions. Now a days filing tax returns are so simple as compared to earlier days. Now you can download ITR form from income tax site and fill it and submit.

    Reply to komal

  17. Hi Pankaj,
    I filed my IT return online but found some mistake after acknowledgement got generated. I filed a revised return with corrections and got a acknowledgement again with status of return as revised. Can you suggest if i need to send revised ITR-V alone or both original and revised one.

    Reply to Amit

  18. My father a retired senior citizen normally resides in Ghaziabad and presently staying in delhi for some time. Can he submit his IT return in Delhi or have to visit Gaziabad to submit the return.

    Reply to Pardeep

    • @Pradeep,
      You can submit your father’s return online and need not to go anywhere, jut fill it online and send ITR-V acknowledgment to Bangalore address by simple post.

      Reply to Pankaj

  19. Hey Pankaj,

    I was wondering when would you update your tax calculator for ongoing financial year with the new recommendations under the latest budget?

    Thanks and regards
    Jaspreet

    Reply to Jaspreet