From home loans to visa: Here's why you should file income tax returns

Less than 4% Indians pay income tax and the Government is trying hard to change this. 

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, during his Budget speech on February 1, 2017 said that that only 3.7 crore individuals filed tax returns in FY15-16, of which 2.94 crore are either below the income tax limit of Rs 2.5 lakh per annum, or in the first bracket between Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh.

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However, even if you don't earn enough to be in the lowest income tax bracket, you should still file income tax returns as ITR copy is required for many financial transactions. 

1. Loans: Thinking to buy your own dream house? You need to show your Income Tax Return copies to bank. Banks do ask for three years of ITR. While giving loans, banks are mostly concerned about your repayment capacity of the applicant. And for the same, they ask ITR. 

Not only home loans, bank generally ask for ITR copy for giving any loan like whether it is a home loan, or vehicle loan.

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2. Applying for visa to travel abroad: According to Archit Gupta, CEO and Founder, ClearTax, while applying for visa to travel out of the country, there are times when the visa officers ask for three years of ITR documents. 

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3. Registration of immovable property in some states: In India, there are some states that ask of ITR during the registration process. This has been seen in real estate sector while booking a property. 

4. Applying for credit cards: Some banks especially the small banks ask for ITR documents before giving a credit cards to its  customers just to make sure about payable capacity of the applicant.

So, if you ever think of not paying taxes, think that you might get rejected in any of the above cases just because you do not hold a valid proof. Thus, in the new financial year, do take a resolution to file tax.