If handling finances wasn’t enough, we have taxes in place too to give us gripping nightmares.
However tax payment and filing income tax returns are both crucial for achieving a financial stability in life.
ITR filing is mandatory is a person’s gross total pay exceeds 2.5 lakhs.
The basic motive for filling income tax return is to showcase accountability and to display that appropriate tax has been paid.
There are both online and offline ways of filing income tax returns. However the income tax department made it mandatory for individuals with an income of more than 5 lakhs to file their income tax returns through the online route only.
We will write down about ways in which you can go ahead with this.
The offline Route:
If you have an income of less than 5 lakh per annum, and you decide to go ahead with the offline process then you can easily download the forms from the income tax website, or you can collect it from an income tax office. You will have to fill in some necessary documents including the ITR form and acknowledgement form(This contains the summary of ITR). The stamped copy of the acknowledgement form is handed back to you.
While Offline is the conventional route, Online is the more convenient one.
The Online Route:
It saves time. With technology popping up from everywhere, it becomes easy for you to file the returns of income tax. You do not have to fill in bank related details (such as the PAN number) over and over, all of that is auto-filled for you by the software. Thanks to the digital era!
The software is considerate and helps you calculate the tax amount payable or the refund amount due based on your income and deductions mentioned in the income tax report. This again saves time, is more efficient and reduces fallacies.
While you have chosen the online route, you will be happy to know that there are many options to opt for while filing income tax returns.
Apart from the income tax department’s websites. There are other deputed websites to carry out the same work. Some of the popular websites are Cleartax.in TaxSpanner.com, Makemyreturns.com etc.
There would be variations in these websites in terms of the packages offered, the costs associated, the procedures involved . Also many portals provide the process of filling taxes for free. These are for people with the income below a certain level.
So while opting for a package, you usually choose a cheap package if your income is through your salary. The package choice may turn to a costlier one, if the income is from various sources(Business, Capital gains, House properties etc)
You need to also ascertain the service provider. These are your finances that we are talking about and hence we need to be careful. You will be filling in information like investments, savings, bank account details etc, and hence you need to evaluate the confidentiality and privacy policy of the portal that you choose.
You do not have to do much while filling it through the government website. You can fill the details online itself on the ITR form and upload the form directly.
After the upload and submit, an acknowledgement is generated. This would be emailed to you as well.
For most of service providers, there is already a system built in for filling forms with ease, that suits the need of the users. Some service providers even have a question and answer format for form filling.
Once the acknowledgement is signed, it is received by the tax department to assess the calculative errors, wrong claims or deductions filled in by the tax payer for that year.
After rigorous evaluation, when the data filled in by the taxpayer is matched with the in-house data, an email is sent to the individual which is termed as intimation under section 143(1). This is to notify the individual that the acknowledgement has been received and is ready to be processed.
Tax consultants
Apart from these routes, you have many tax consultancies too in place. These consultancies have expertise on tax .These consultancies help individuals like you by providing the know-how around taxes. The organization provides complete and intact information on how to file the income tax returns. Examples are H&R Block, TaxConsultantsIndia etc.
Now we believe that filing income tax should not be a formidable task for you. With so many options the ease around them, you do not have to ever worry about getting stuck anywhere.
