How to File an Income Tax Return Online

19 Oct 2021 0 Admin Tax4wealth 6241

How to File an Income Tax Return( ITR)

An Introduction of Income Tax Return:

An income tax return (ITR) form helps the taxpayer for declaration of his or her expenses, incomes, investments, taxes, deduction of taxes etc. According to the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961, it is compulsory for a taxpayer to file income tax return annually. Accordingly, an ITR form has to be filled in by a taxpayer to report his or her annual income to the government. There can be several reasons for file income tax return online even though there is no income earned during a particular financial year. Now, this is very easy to go for Filing Income Tax Return online.

Apart from this, a taxpayer can also file income tax return for reporting of carry forward losses, to claim tax deductions, to claim income tax refund in a particular financial year. The Income Tax Department has introduced the facility for electronic filling of income tax return. It is to be noted that a taxpayer has to keep the documents ready for computation and reporting of ITR data before filling the income tax return.

The following are the steps for filling of income tax return-

Calculation of Income and Tax:

The taxpayer has to calculate his or her annual income according to the provisions of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The calculation of the income will include all sources of income such as interest income, salary, freelance income etc. Apart from, the taxpayer can also claim for deductions for tax saving investments under the provisions of Section 80C of the Income tax Act. Besides, the taxpayer must also consider the amount of TDS or TCS or any advance tax that has been paid by him in any of the financial year.

TDS Certificates and Form 26AS:

The first step towards filing of return will be the summarization of TDS certificates and TDS amount received by the taxpayer in all quarters of a particular financial year. For the same form 26AS will be used by the taxpayer to summarize the TDS paid during the particular financial year.

Choosing the right Income Tax Form:

The next step is to ascertain the forms required and used for filing the income tax return. After ascertaining the same, the taxpayer can start filling the income tax return. There are two modes available for filing of income tax return such as online mode and offline mode. In the online mode, the taxpayer can login into the database of income tax portals and start filing. However, it is to be noted that on the portal forms for ITR 1, ITR2,ITR4 are not available for individual taxpayer. In the offline mode, all forms are available for all types of taxpayers where they can generate XML document and upload the same.

Downloading of ITR utility from Income Tax Portal:

Login to the website of Income Tax portal i.e. www.incometax.gov.in and click on the option ‘Downloads’ on the top menu bar displayed on the website. A screen displaying the relevant screen is annexed below;

Income Tax Portal Home Page:

After clicking on the download option, then chose the assessment year you want to download and download the same with offline utility software such as Java, Microsoft excel, JSON on basis of your choice. However, it is to be noted that Microsoft Excel and JAVA utility has been discontinued from the Assessment Year 2020-21 by the Income Tax Department.

Filling the details in the Downloaded File:

After downloading the offline forms, fill the required details including the income, tax payable, refund available if any according to the utility calculation. The income challan details can also be furnished in the forms downloaded.

Validation of the Information Entered:

There are few buttons of the right hand side of forms downloaded. Click on the button ‘Validate’ to make sure all the required details and information is filled properly without any error or omission.

Conversion to XML Format:

After successful validation, Click on the button ‘Generate XML’ displayed on the right hand side of the file and convert the same into XML format.

Uploading the XML file on Tax Portal:

After conversion of file to XML format, login to the website of income tax e-filing portal and then click on the option of "e-File" and then select the option ‘Income Tax Return’ available in the drop down. A screen print depicting the same is annexed below;

Upon displaying the page, furnish the necessary details including assessment year, PAN, submission mode, ITR form number etc. Then chose the option ‘Upload XML’ from the drop down list with correspondence to the field named ‘Submission Mode’. A relevant screen print depicting the same is annexed below;

After the aforesaid process, attach the XML files from the computer and the click on the button "Submit". Then chose any of the verification modes available such as;

Aadhaar OTP
Electronic Verification Code (EVC)
Manually sending a signed ITR-V copy to CPC, Bengaluru

Signatures and E-Filing:

Each ITR filed by taxpayer has to be signed compulsorily by the relevant person authorized by the law. The authorization provides a confirmation that the information provided in the ITR is accurate and correct and as per the provisions of the Income Tax Act. Apart from that the signed ITR form provides the confirmation that he/she is competent to make the verification of the return. According to Section 140 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the following are the persons who can sign the ITR form;