e-filing your taxes

It is already mid of May and you would be busy planning for filing your tax returns. Some of you (especially the corporate employees) rely on TRPs or tax agents to file their tax returns. These agents charge you anywhere between 100 to 250 rupees. You give them your Form 16 and provide your details like date of birth, mail ID etc.  They fill out a Saral form on your behalf and submit the returns. Once your returns are filed, they give you the stamped copy of the Saral/Sahaj form in a fancy stick file.


Your really don't need an agent to do this simple task for you. You can do it yourself here. You can even submit the returns for previous years. Some of the agents don't provide this service. They don't even accept requests for the current assessment year if it is past the due date. 


One more reason for opting this is, e-filing is secured. You can never entrust your financial details to others. We have been hearing about lot of identity theft cases recently. So, why take chances?


Here are the steps for e-filing your returns

1. First register yourself in the e-filing site to use the e-filing option. 
2. Download the form (excel sheet) which is relevant to you (ITR-1, ITR-2) for the assessment year you want to submit the returns.
3. Fill out the form. You have detailed instructions in the form on what and how to fill. Most of the information would come from your Form 16 
4. Verify your information and calculate the tax
5. Generate the XML. Don't worry, you need not write any code here. The form has a button to do that for you.
6. Upload the XML back to the site
7. You will get an ITR-V from via email.
8. Sign the form and post it to the Centralized Processing Center, where your tax returns are processed. Here is the CPC address: Income Tax Department - CPC, Post Bag No - 1 , Electronic City Post Office, Bangalore - 560100, Karnataka. You need to send it only by ordinary post. Speed posts and couriers are not accepted.
9. You will get an acknowledgement on e-mail once the CPC receive your ITR-V
10. CPC processes your return and send you the IT intimation in a password protected PDF file. If you are eligible for any tax credit, it will be credited to your bank account. Only selected banks like SBI, Axis, ICICI has this feature. You can even view your tax credit in your form 26AS. I will give you more details on form 26 AS in a separate post.

Thats it. You are done. Isn't it simple?