Income Tax: A complete checklist for your ITR filing

By now, you must have finished your Income Tax Return (ITR) filing process for the financial year 2016-2017. If not, do not delay as just two days are left. 

ITR filing process is complicated and there are always chances of missing out some or the other step. 

Here's a checklist for you which will help you to go through your ITR forms.

1. Make sure you have selected the right ITR forms. Picking up the incorrect ITR form is one of the most common mistakes that almost all taxpayers make at least once in their life. Choosing wrong ITR forms can result in rejection of your returns. 
The simple way to select the ITR form is to read the "brief" given on Income Tax official website. 

2. Do enter correct personal details. Before you click "Submit" button, double check your personal details. Providing this information incorrectly may result to disallowing tax credit refund. Other personal details that you must enter carefully is your mobile number and email address if you are filing taxes online. Mobile number is where you receive OTP and email is where you receive the receipt of your ITR copy.

3. Do not forget to mention exempted income. Maybe certain incomes are exempted from taxes but they need to be mentioned in your ITR form. Income such as dividends or long-term capital gains or equity funds or PPF investments is exempted from tax liabilities. Also, gifts received from blood relatives or agricultural income up to the certain limit are exempted from tax, as explained by All India ITR. 

4. Be careful with TDS details. It is very important to assure that tax payment you have made last year has been credited to your name. Refer to the Form 26AS which shows all your TDS details which you can access online from official website. You can do it by clicking on the “View your tax credit” option available on the official website of Income Tax Department.

5. In the case of e-filing income tax return, you are required to print off the ITR-V Form and mail it to the CPC office after signing it accordingly. ITR-V is the acknowledgment of your income tax return filing. The time frame allowed for sending ITR-V to CPC is 120 days from the date of return filing. Your online tax filing will be regarded complete only after CPC receives this ITR-V.  

Once you mail it to CPC keep a track on it to see if CPC has received it or not. In case, CPC does not receive it within 7-10 days of mailing, then contact Ayakar Sampark Kendra and send another copy of ITR-V. 

6. You cannot avail deduction twice if you have switched the jobs in same financial year. In this case, mostly the first company has deducted tax accordingly but the second company might have deducted low tax by considering this job as your whole year income. The second company avails 2 lakhs basic deduction under section 80C considering the income you have earned from them only.  

Avoiding tax in such cases is not easy as the previous company must have deposited TDS on your behalf. So, if you do not disclose all your salary income from both jobs, this will result in a mismatch in your TDS form and tax details. You must be aware of the fact that there is no way you can escape your tax liabilities in such cases.

So, do consider these points before submitting your ITR forms. 

ALSO READ: 

• Income Tax: Need to report capital gains? This ITR form you need to file
• Income Tax: Taxable income but 'forgot' to file your ITR? Here's what happens
• Income Tax: Download Form 26AS in eight easy steps to file ITR