Answers
The 30 questions we are actually asked, answered straight. If yours is not here, ask us on WhatsApp and we will answer it — and probably add it.
You answer a few questions about your situation, we send you a fixed price, and once you accept it our team does the filing while you follow the progress in your portal. Nothing needs a visit to our office. You upload documents from your phone, an assigned expert prepares the return, you approve the summary before anything is submitted, and the acknowledgement lands back in your document vault.
No. The entire process runs online, from the first question to the final acknowledgement. Documents are uploaded through the portal, questions are answered over WhatsApp or a call, and the filing is done by our team. Our Ranchi office is open if you would rather come in, but nothing requires it.
Yes — we file for clients across India, and tax filing is a central government process that works identically in every state. Our offices are in Ranchi and Noida, but income tax and GST are filed on national portals, so where you live changes nothing about how we work. State-specific matters like professional tax and trade licences do vary, and we handle those according to your state's rules.
A straightforward salaried income tax return is normally filed within three to five working days of receiving your documents. GST registration takes seven to ten working days because it depends on the department's verification. Company incorporation runs ten to fifteen working days. Each service page states its own timeline, and your portal shows where your work has actually reached.
Tell us your situation and we will tell you — there is no charge for working that out. Most people arrive certain they need one thing and turn out to need something simpler or slightly different. The guided quote asks about your income sources and entity type precisely so that the right service is identified before anyone quotes a price.
You must file if your gross total income before deductions exceeds the basic exemption limit — ₹3,00,000 under the new regime for those under sixty. Filing is also compulsory regardless of income if you deposited over ₹1 crore in a current account, spent over ₹2 lakh on foreign travel, paid over ₹1 lakh in electricity bills, or hold any foreign asset. Many people below the threshold file anyway, because the return is what banks and consulates ask for as proof of income.
The new regime is better for most salaried people, and the break-even sits at roughly ₹4,00,000 of total deductions — below that the new regime wins, above it the old one does. The new regime is now the default and taxes nothing up to ₹12,00,000 of taxable income after the section 87A rebate. The old regime only overtakes it once you are genuinely claiming large 80C investments, a home loan interest deduction and HRA together. Our calculator compares both on your actual numbers.
You can still file a belated return until 31 December of the assessment year, with a late fee of ₹1,000 if your income is under ₹5 lakh and ₹5,000 above that. You lose the right to carry forward business and capital losses, and interest runs at 1% a month on any unpaid tax. Past 31 December the only route is an updated return under section 139(8A), which costs an additional 25% to 70% of the tax depending on how late it is — so filing sooner is materially cheaper.
The three usual causes are an unvalidated bank account, a return that was never e-verified, or a mismatch between your return and Form 26AS. A return is not treated as filed at all until it is e-verified within thirty days. Refunds are only paid into a pre-validated account held in the filer's own name. If all three are in order and it has been more than a few weeks, the refund may be held against an outstanding demand from an earlier year, which shows on the portal.
You pay advance tax yourself in four instalments, because no employer is deducting it for you, and you can deduct genuine business expenses against your income. If your gross receipts are under ₹75 lakh you can use the presumptive scheme under section 44ADA and declare 50% of receipts as profit without maintaining detailed books. Missing the advance tax instalments is the single most common and most expensive mistake freelancers make, because the interest is charged per instalment.
Yes, and the department already knows about them — every sale is reported to it and appears in your Annual Information Statement. Listed shares held over twelve months attract 12.5% long-term capital gains tax, with the first ₹1,25,000 of gains exempt each year; held under twelve months, the rate is 20%. Undeclared gains that show in the AIS are the most common trigger for a mismatch notice.
Registration becomes compulsory once your annual turnover crosses ₹40 lakh for goods or ₹20 lakh for services in most states, including Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Some businesses must register from the first rupee no matter the turnover: anyone selling goods across state lines, anyone selling through an e-commerce platform, and casual taxable persons. Many businesses below the threshold register voluntarily, because without a GSTIN they cannot claim input tax credit and larger customers will not buy from them.
Monthly for most registered businesses — GSTR-1 by the eleventh and GSTR-3B by the twentieth of the following month. Businesses with turnover up to ₹5 crore can opt into the QRMP scheme and file quarterly instead, though tax still has to be paid every month. Composition dealers file one annual return in GSTR-4 plus a quarterly payment statement.
GST Monthly FilingGST Quarterly Filing (QRMP)GSTR-1GSTR-3BQRMP
Input tax credit only becomes available once the supplier files their GSTR-1, so until they do, the credit legitimately cannot be claimed. The practical remedies are commercial rather than legal: hold back the tax portion of their invoice until the credit appears in your GSTR-2B, and make that a written term of your purchase orders. Claiming credit that does not appear in GSTR-2B invites a demand with interest and penalty later.
A late fee of ₹50 a day accrues, ₹20 a day for a nil return, alongside 18% annual interest on any unpaid tax. The more damaging consequence is that the portal blocks the next period's GSTR-1 until the previous GSTR-3B is filed, so one missed month cascades into the next. A business several months behind usually needs the filings brought up to date in sequence before anything else can proceed.
Yes, but every pending return must be filed first, and a final return in GSTR-10 is due within three months of cancellation. Simply abandoning a registration does not end the obligation — late fees continue to accrue against a dormant GSTIN, and the liability follows the proprietor or directors personally. Cancelling properly is much cheaper than leaving it.
A proprietorship suits a small solo business with no outside investment, an LLP suits a professional partnership that wants liability protection without heavy compliance, and a private limited company is necessary if you intend to raise investment. The real question is liability and funding rather than tax: a proprietor's personal assets answer for business debts, and no investor will put money into anything other than a company. Compliance cost rises in the same order.
Private Limited Company RegistrationLimited Liability Partnership (LLP) RegistrationSole Proprietorship RegistrationLLPOPCSole Proprietorship
Every private limited company must file its annual return in MGT-7 and financial statements in AOC-4 with the Registrar of Companies, hold at least four board meetings, get its accounts audited whatever its turnover, and file an income tax return. Directors must separately complete DIR-3 KYC by 30 September each year. ROC late fees accrue daily without a cap, which is why a company two years behind can owe more in penalties than it earned.
Only if you are selling goods across state lines, selling through an e-commerce platform, or expect to cross the turnover threshold quickly. A local service business starting small does not need it on day one. That said, registering early is usually the right call if your customers are other businesses — they need a GST invoice to claim their credit, and many will not buy without one.
Yes — documents are stored encrypted in private storage that is never publicly readable, and every download is a signed link that expires within minutes. Only you and the expert assigned to your order can open them. We hold PAN cards, bank statements and Form 16s, and we treat them the way that demands: nothing is emailed as an attachment, nothing sits in a shared drive, and access is logged.
For a salaried return: PAN, Aadhaar, Form 16 from every employer you had during the year, bank statements for the financial year, and proof of any deductions you intend to claim. If you sold shares, mutual funds or property you will also need the transaction statements. Each service page lists exactly what that service needs, and your portal shows the checklist with the ones still outstanding.
Yes. Form 16 is a convenience, not a requirement — the underlying figures are in Form 26AS and your Annual Information Statement, both available on the income tax portal, and salary details can be reconstructed from payslips. Your former employer is also obliged to reissue it. We routinely file for people who never received one.
Because the work varies enormously and a published price would be wrong for most people. A salaried return with one Form 16 is not the same job as one with capital gains, foreign income and two house properties, and charging both the same means overcharging one of them. You tell us your situation, we quote a fixed price for that situation before any work starts, and the price does not move afterwards.
Yes. The price we send is fixed for the scope described in it and does not change once you accept. If something genuinely outside that scope emerges — an undisclosed second business, say, or a year of unfiled returns — we tell you before doing the work and you decide. We do not add charges after the fact.
By bank transfer or UPI to the account shown in your portal, after which you submit the payment reference and we confirm it against our statement. You will see the confirmation and your invoice in the portal, usually within a working day. Card and online payment options are being enabled and will appear in the same place when they are.
If we have not started work, the payment is refunded in full. Once work has begun, we refund the portion not yet done, assessed against the stage your order has reached — which is visible to you at all times in the portal. Government fees already paid on your behalf, such as ROC or trademark filing fees, cannot be recovered and are not refundable.
A qualified member of our team — a chartered accountant where the work calls for one — prepares and files your return, and their name and role appear on your order. Pathak Associates is Sanjay Pathak's practice, working from Ranchi for over twenty-five years and more than fifteen thousand clients. You are not filing it yourself with software assistance: the work is done for you, and a named person is accountable for it.
Raise a query against your order in the portal and it reaches the person handling your work directly, with the full history attached. For anything urgent, WhatsApp is fastest and reaches the office during working hours. Every reply is also emailed to you, so nothing depends on remembering to log in.
Yes, and it is worth acting quickly because most notices carry a response deadline measured in weeks. Send us the notice and we will tell you what it actually says, what it requires and what it will take to answer. Many notices are routine mismatches that resolve with a simple reply; some are not, and knowing which you have is the first thing to establish.
Yes. We need your previous returns, the current year's records and, for GST, access to your filing history so nothing is filed twice or missed in the handover. The most common difficulty is an incomplete handover rather than anything technical, so we ask for a specific list at the start and tell you what is missing before agreeing a price.
Ask on WhatsApp and you will get an answer the same day, from a person.
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