How to file your income tax return in India

चरण

1. 1

   Reconcile Form 16 against Form 26AS and the AIS

   Download Form 26AS and the Annual Information Statement from the income tax portal and check them against your Form 16 before touching the return. The AIS also lists income nobody deducted tax on — savings interest, dividends, mutual fund redemptions — which is exactly what gets left out.

   You can only claim credit for tax that appears in Form 26AS. Tax your employer deducted but never deposited is not creditable, however clearly the payslip shows it.

2. 2

   Choose the correct ITR form

   ITR-1 covers salary, one house property and other sources up to ₹50 lakh. ITR-2 adds capital gains and multiple properties. ITR-3 covers business or professional income, and ITR-4 the presumptive scheme. Filing on the wrong form makes the return defective under section 139(9).

3. 3

   Decide between the new and old regime

   The new regime is the default and taxes nothing up to ₹12,00,000 of taxable income after the section 87A rebate. The old regime only wins once total deductions exceed roughly ₹4,00,000. Compute both before choosing — the difference is frequently tens of thousands of rupees.

4. 4

   Enter income and claim deductions

   Much of the return is prefilled from your employer's TDS return and your bank's reporting. Check every prefilled figure rather than trusting it; prefill is drawn from what third parties reported and is regularly incomplete.

5. 5

   Pay any balance tax before filing

   If tax is payable after TDS, pay it through the e-Pay Tax service as self-assessment tax under the correct assessment year, and enter the challan details in the return. Selecting the wrong assessment year on the challan is common and leaves the payment sitting against a year with no liability.

6. 6

   Submit and e-verify within thirty days

   Verify through Aadhaar OTP, net banking, or a bank account EVC. A return that is submitted but never verified is treated as though it was never filed at all.

   This is the single most common reason a refund never arrives. Filing is not finished until verification is done.