What should you keep in mind while filing your income-tax return?

If you are an earning individual, 31st of July is the last date for filing income tax return (ITR) for the financial year 2021-22 and assessment year 2022-23. Early filing is advisable, and it will save you from last minute hassles.

The Income-Tax (I-T) Department provides pre-filled forms to make the filing of tax returns hassle free. But taxpayers should keep all the documents handy while filing the return and cross-check every field in the pre-filled form.

For instance, individuals with multiple bank deposit accounts or small investments may miss reporting such sources of income. And to avoid any penal provisions, one has to ensure all the information is captured while filing the return.

 
[Byte of Preeti Khurana, Director of Advocacy and Regulation at Clear.]

Form 16 is a certificate under section 203 of the I-T Act, 1961. It shows all the salary components of an employee and the tax deducted at source (TDS) by an employer in a financial year.

The TDS that your employer deducts is submitted with the IT department. The Form-26AS gives you all the details of your tax submitted with the department.

And one of the most important steps in filing an income tax return is to compare tax deducted in both Form 16 with 26AS. Inconsistencies in details of a taxpayer in both forms is quite common. For instance, it might be a case where the TDS amount in Form 16 and 26AS are different. In this scenario, the taxpayer can reach out to the employer and get it rectified or ask them to file revised TDS returns.

Always move forward to file a return after ensuring that pre-filled values in Form 26AS are updated with the actual computations that you have made.

If an individual has missed declaring investment or rental proofs to the employer, and a tax has already been deducted, he or she can claim refunds under the old tax regime by submitting all the valid documents. So, it is important to verify all the information on deductions.

According to the new income tax rules, the interest earned on provident fund contributions are taxable if the amount exceeds Rs 2.5 lakh.

[Byte of Alok Agrawal, Partner, Deloitte India]

So the taxpayers must ensure they assess all the information while calculating the final tax payable and make sure to e-verify the return after filing it.