10 tips to file Income Tax Return

Read this carefully, before you file your Income Tax Return (ITR), else you might end up putting yourself in big trouble. Many people in-spite of their best efforts are not able to fill error free Income Tax Returns (ITR).

Read this carefully, before you file your Income Tax Return (ITR), else you might end up putting yourself in big trouble.

Many people in-spite of their best efforts are not able to fill error free Income Tax Returns (ITR) and then complain if  Income Tax department ask for some clarifications or impose some penalty on them.

Being a legal document, ITR should be filled in by the assessee with due care and caution. There are few important points an assessee should remember while filing Income Tax Return.

1. Since, there are different Forms for different types of assessees, correct form should be used to avoid any inconvenience. For individuals having income from salary/ pension and interest should use Form ITR-1. Form ITR-2 is for individuals and HUFs not having Income from Business or Profession. Form ITR-3 is for individuals/HUFs being partners in firms and not carrying out business or profession under any proprietorship. Form ITR-4 is for individuals & HUFs having income from a proprietary business or profession. ITR-5 is for firms, AOPs and BOIs. ITR-6 is for Companies.
2. The name and address of the assessee should be written in block letters in legible hand-writing. Assessee should avoid any overwriting or corrections while filing up the form.
3. No return will be accepted without quoting PAN number. The same is allotted by the Income Tax department by filing Form 49A. Also, care should be taken to quote correct PAN number on the ITR form, else the assessee is liable to fine for quoting incorrect PAN number.
4. The other personal details of the assessee viz. date of birth, sex, status, residential status etc. are also important to claim rebates and deductions available to respective assessees according to such qualifications.
5. The return should be deposited with the correct ward/ circle within whose jurisdiction, the assessee belongs to. Generally, salaried taxpayers are classified according to the first alphabet of their respective employers name and others are distributed according to the area or locality where they normally live or have registered business address.
6. The name of the bank, branch address, MICR code, account type and account number of the assessee should mentioned correctly for crediting quick refunds.
7. For the last two financial years, ITRs are filed with the Income Tax Department without any supporting documents. They call it paperless returns. Hence, it is now more important to fill the ITR Form with utmost care and ensure that all the information is disclosed in the Form itself. However, it should to be noted that Income Tax Department can ask for supporting documents any time, hence all the supporting documents should be kept safe and ready to be produced in front of Assessing Officer.
8. The ITR must be signed by the authorised person and other particulars viz. Name, Assessment Year, Capacity, Place and Date should be correctly filled therein. Please note that any person making a false statement is liable to be prosecuted under Section 277 of the Income-Tax Act.
9. Double check the computations, round paisa to the nearest whole Rupee and try to fill the whole form without missing and section.
10. Last but not the least, avoid last minute rush and try to file your Income Tax return well before the last day. For the financial year 2008-09, the last day of filing ITR by individual assesses whose accounts are not required to be audited is 31^st July 2009.

 
You should ensure to follow above mentioned points and avoid undue delay in finalising their assessment.