Income Tax Return

Well this is that time of year once again when you need to file your income tax return. The good thing is that the process is very simple now. Just a layman' take on it. 

1. If your income is only from salary and upto 5Lakh only you need not file return, but as always there are fine prints in it and you need to read them carefully check here for the same.
2. If you are salaried you can check the status of your TDS by checking your form 26AS, this will give all the money that has been deducted by your employer and deposited in government of India's account. This should match your form 16, you will need a user ID password for the Income tax departments portal for the same. You can also see this form through the net banking portal of major banks like ICICI, Axis, etc, as they give link on their website for the same based on your PAN number.
3. If your income is more than 10Lakhs per year then it has been made mandatory to file return electronically. A lot of websites like Taxsmile.com, Taxspanner.com, myitreturn.com, taxshax.com etc. Most of them have similar features, but only some of them offer 100% efiling e.g. Taxsmile.com
4. Technically you can file your return even after 31st of July, but then you will not be able to carry forward losses incurred in stocks or mutual funds transaction. 
5. So if you have carried forward or current years capital losses please ensure that you file the return before or on the due date.
6. Remember ( this is not a sermon) Tax return filing is mandatory even if all your taxes has been deducted by your emploer ( unless you have income of less than 5 Lakh per annum).
7. In order to speed up thing you should be ready with your form 16( salaried people), bank statements, records of any dividend etc., papers for any home loan taken, rent paid/received by you, any capital gains or losses made in stocks, mutual funds or any other financial transaction. Income of a minor kid etc.
8. Happy Filing.... let us be proud tax payers and hope our government does not use the money for stupid things but uses it for welfare of the nation.

Thanks for reading. Here is the link of an earlier post in this series