Income Tax Filing: What is Sahaj? Here's all you need to know about new ITR-1 Form

To simplify filing of Income Tax Returns (ITR), Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) notified the designing of one page ITR, last week, which will be applicable from this new financial year. 

"ITR Form-1(Sahaj) can be filed by an individual having income upto Rs 50 lakh and who is receiving income from salary one house property / other income (interest etc.)," CBDT said recently.

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Moreover, Ministry of Finance in a release said that number of ITR forms has also been reduced to seven as against the existing nine forms. The existing ITR Forms ITR-2, ITR-2A and ITR-3 have been rationalized and a single ITR-2 has been notified in place of these three forms. Consequently, ITR-4 and ITR-4S (Sugam) have been renumbered as ITR-3 and ITR-4 (Sugam) respectively.

What is ITR-1 Form?

The ITR-1 Form, also called Sahaj (meaning easy in Hindi), is the Income Tax Return Form for salaried individuals (i.e. salary/pension/family pension and interest income).

According to ClearTax, individuals who are not eligible to fill the ITR-1 SAHAJ form are those who have earned Income through the following means:

• more than one Property
• Lottery, Racehorses, Legal Gambling etc.
• non tax-exempted capital gains (Short term and Long term)
• agricultural means exceeding Rs. 5000
• Business and Profession
• Individual who is a Resident and has
  • assets (including financial interest in any entity) outside India or
  • signing authority in any account located outside India.
• Individual claiming relief of foreign tax paid or double taxation relief under section 90/90A/91.

Documents required

Documents which you should keep in hand before filling out your ITR-1 form are:

• Form 16s, issued by all your employers for the given Financial Year
• Form 26AS - remember to verify that the TDS mentioned in Form 16 matches the TDS in Part A of your Form 26AS
• If you have not been able to submit proof of certain exemptions or deductions (such as HRA allowance or Section 80C or 80D deductions) to your employer on time, keep these receipts handy to claim them on your income tax return directly.
• PAN card
• Interest from bank account details - bank passbook or FD certificate
• The ITR-1 Form can also not be used if you are claiming double taxation relief under Section 90/90A/91.