Monday, 30 July 2012

How to File your own Income Tax Return for Free


Hi Fellow Readers,

As July 31 approaches close ,you might be looking for help in filing income tax return . Unfortunately there is no free help available and this is a dirty business for many agents .

However this is as easy as a simple banking transaction and there are some very good benefits of filing return online . Most of all it is FREE.



First understand the Income tax return :

1)      Income tax is a tax levied by central government to ensure creation of black money and cash-flow to facilitate various scams, hence it is our duty to pay tax on time .

2)      As no one want to pay income-tax for the obvious reasons , hence the
Income tax is already deducted from our salary . Often it is deducted more than what you need to pay .

3)      The Return is an agreement between a tax-payer and Government of India that all the money earned by a tax-payer is audited and appropriate tax is paid .

4)      If there is an additional tax paid you can claim refund through
Return . you will get 9% per annum interest on the excess tax paid amount.

5)       If there is less tax paid then needed you will get a demand note
from Government of India.

Now understand the Return process for salaried employees  :-

6)      Most talented people in India like you and me are underpaid and all
our earning comes through salary which is “WHITE Money”. Hence Government of India is lenient on salaried tax payers .

7)      Anything you submit as return will be accepted by default .

8)      Only one salaried return in every 10,000 get audited, if the return
found incorrect then you may be asked to submit the proofs . in case of salaried employees the only proof needed is form-16 .

9)      The last day of submitting the return is 30th June 2012.

10)   If you make a mistake in the return , you can correct is till 31st Jan 2013.

11)   The income tax department is nice to salaried tax payers hence if they
catch you have made a fault , they send you a notice. Don’t afraid if you receive such notice , if you made a mistake please accept and pay as asked .
if you feel that demand is unjustified then call the income-tax  call center
. (Aayakar Sampark Kendra (ASK)     124-2438000

12)   Rest assured they will not raid your home or arrest you.
But the tax consultant guy is charging only 100 Rs , why should I take pain

Often my friends argue that they don’t want to take pains of return filing and 100 Rs is tiny amount to pay for a consultant . so Here are the reasons you should consider :-

13)   Your income-tax return carry sensitive data , like your income , PAN
No., Employer’s TAN No , your bank account details , address , phone number and other demographic data. This is enough data to imitate a person and do a fraud. Several such cases are reported in past years . in the NSDL scam all false de-mat accounts were open by the CA firms using the PAN card and income-tax returns . people come to know when they get the notice from SEBI.

14)   No agent can survive on your 100 Rs. , most of them sale your data to
telemarketing companies .

15)   Income-tax department pay 10% fee for catching fabricated papers and
tax-evaders, so often these agents act as eyes of Income-tax department.

16)   Sometime these agents create your login
https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in and don’t share the password with you, so that you can’t change your agent every year . Many people don’t notice it until they don’t try to file it themselves.

17)   Even Lord Voldemort was not able to enter Hogwarts without an insider,
you should know, What this means.

18)   Most agents are not certified TRP (Tax return Preparer) of Income-tax
department . you can check if your agent has signed at the space provided for TRP in form ITR-V or the acknowledgement .

19)   The refund process is fastest if e-filling done be self.

20)   Last but not least , it enable you to keep a full record of tax . the
income-tax return also certify your wealth , hence it is important to keep it tracked.

21)   Go to
and register your self . you find you are registered already contact the person who file your last return or (Aayakar Sampark Kendra (ASK)
124-2438000     ask@incometaxindia.gov.in).

22)   While filling the form , Please enter your name and father’s name as
entered in the pan card form. Lot of time the middle name and father’s middle name cause issues . so please fill the data as filled in the form of pan card. If you are in doubt please check ”know your PAN” section at https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/knowpan.do .

23)   Login to your email and activate your account .

24)   Find your jurisdiction from

25)   Login to your account at https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.

26)   Click on download Link :-

27)   Download the return preparation software  (ITR-1 applies to 99%
salaried people , unless you don’t want to post a loss from business or property )

28)   Unzip the file and open it in Microsoft excel . Enable macro in excel
. if you don’t know what is macro and how to enable that please refer following link . this detail is there in help.txt file which is part of return preparation software  (ITR-1) zip file . for office 2010 refer following link .


29)   Re-Open the excel file after enabling the macros.

30)   Fill your “First Name”, “Middle Name”   "Last Name" , "PAN" ,  "Flat /
Door / Building" ,  "Road / Street" ,  "Area / Locality" ,  "Date of birth (DD/MM/YYYY)" ,  "Town/City/District" ,  "State" ,  "Pin Code" ,  "Sex (Select)" ,  "Email Address" ,  "Mobile no" ,  "Std code" ,  "Phone No"  as per your pan card .

31)   Please provide your current postal address where you want postal
communication from Income-tax  to come .

32)   Provide the same email address and mobile number as in

33)   Select Employer Category as “OTH”.

34)   Please enter your “Income Tax Ward / Circle” from the details you
acquired in point 24.

35)   Select “11-BeforeDueDt 139(1)” in Return filed under section.

36)   Select original  in “Whether original or revised return?” . you can
submit your return any number of time with income Tax Department , if you are submitting first time for a given year ,it is original else it is revised .

37)   Select “RES-Resident”  as your Residential Status. If you are NRI
please select so .

38)   Leave the Tax Status as It is , we will return on it shortly .

39)   Open your form 16 . The instruction are based on TechMahindra Form 16.
But not very different for other companies as well .

40)   Excel row 41 “Income from Salary / Pension (Ensure to fill Sch TDS1)”
à Copy the value of form 16 , page 3 , Item 8. Gross Total Income (6 + 7).

41)   Excel row 42 “Income from one House Property” à fill this value if you
have rented a house owned by you . else leave it blank .

42)   Excel row 43 “Income from Other Sources (Ensure to fill Sch TDS2)” à
fill this value any bank interest etc which you have not declared to company . else Leave it blank.

43)   Excel row 46 “80 C” à Copy the value of form 16 , page 3 , Item 9
(A)(a) sections 80C. If the sum of all the listings is less than 100000 then write the sum value else if sum is more than 100000 write 100000.

44)   Copy the value of form 16 , page 3 , Item 9 (A)(b) in Excel row 47 “80
CCC”.

45)   Copy the value of form 16 , page 3 , Item 9 (A)(c) in Excel row 49
“80CCD”

46)   Copy the value of form 16 , page 3 , Item 9 (A)(d) in Excel row 50
“80CCF”

47)   Copy the value of form 16 , page 3 , Item 9 (B) “Mediclaim Through Sal”
in Excel row 51 “80 D”

48)   Hit Save Button in excel.

49)   Go to TDS worksheet of excel sheet.

50)   Enter “MUMM15369E”  in Excel Cell C4 "Tax Deduction Account Number
(TAN) of the Employer”. This info is available in form 16 , page 2 , 11th line from TechMahindra logo.

51)   Enter “Tech Mahindra Limited”  in Excel Cell D4 " Name of the
Employer”. This info is available in form 16 , page 2 , 6th line from TechMahindra logo.

52)   Enter same value as in item 40 in Excel Cell E4  "Income chargeable
under the head Salaries”. This info is available in form 16 , page 3 , Item 8. Gross Total Income (6 + 7).

53)   Fill Excel Cell F4  "Total tax Deducted”. This info is available in
form 16 , page 3 , Item 18 , Less: Tax Deducted at Source u/s 192(1) & 192
(IA) on perquisites u/s 17 (2).

54)   Save the excel sheet again .

55)   Move to “Taxes paid and Verification” worksheet.

56)   Fill Item 20 “Enter your bank account number” in Excel Cell H8. This
info is available in your salary slip.

57)   Fill Item 21 “Select Yes  if you want your refund by direct  deposit
into your bank account, Select No if you want refund by Cheque” , Select Yes in Excel Cell J9.

58)   Fill Item 22 “In case of direct deposit to your bank account give
additional details” Excel Cell E11 “MICR code” and Excel cell J11 “Type of Account(As applicable)” as “Saving”.  MICR code you can get from your bank website or check-book or from http://www.bankmicrcode.com/ .

59)   Enter your father’s name in Excel Cell J28.

60)   Enter your current location city in  Excel Cell C31.

61)   Enter today’s Date in H31

62)   Save the excel sheet again .

63)   Go to Excel Cell J7 . this is your Refund value .

64)   Go to Income Details worksheet of excel sheet .

65)   Go to Excel row 32 Tax Status . If Refund Value is Zero Select “Nil
Tax Balance” . If Refund Value is more than zero select “Tax Refundable”. If Refund Value is less than zero select “Tax Payable”.

66)   Scroll to Top in excel sheet.

67)   Click On validate button on top right corner .

68)   Click on calculate tax button on top right corner.

69)   Hit save button in excel

70)   Click on “XML Generate” button.

71)   A new excel worksheet will  appear with name “Pre-XML Check”

72)   Hit the “Save XML” button .

73)   The XML will be saved in the same folder of Excel sheet . the XML is
named as ITR1_PAN-NO.xml .

74)   Save and close the excel sheet .

75)   Login to your account on https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in and goto link of “AY 12-13”. Income Tax work in assessment year which is one year ahead then financial year. Financial year 2011-12 will have assessment year 2012-13.
  
76)   Select ITR-1 as the form Name . ensure your pan number is correct .Click Next .

77)   Upload the XML using browse button .

78)   Your return is submitted here .

79)   Download the form ITR-V from the link mentioned . It will also be
emailed to your email address .

80)   The form ITR-V is a password protected PDF . the password of PDF  is
your pan number followed by your date of birth in DDMMYYYY. if the pan is AAAAA0000A and the date of birth is 20-Jan-2007, then the password will be aaaaa0000a10012007.

81)   Please take a printout of form ITR-V and Sign it using a blue/black
pen.

82)   A duly signed ITR-V form should be mailed to “Income Tax Department –
CPC, Post Bag No - 1, Electronic City Post Office, Bengaluru - 560100,
Karnataka, ” BY ORDINARY POST OR SPEED POST ONLY   within 120 days of
transmitting the data electronically. ITR-V sent by Registered Post or Courier will not be accepted by Income Tax Department.

83)   Take a deep breath , you are done with your tax process.

84)   Wait for 3-5 months and you will get an acknowledgement email on your
email account . save that email as that is your assessment order.



The entire process don’t take 15-20 minutes for a person . however should
you need help call or email (Aayakar Sampark Kendra (ASK) 124-2438000

No comments:

Post a Comment