Quick Guide for Income Tax Return Filing

Income Tax Return is generally abbreviated as ITR which is mandated for filing each financial year to every person or entity that earns income from one or another source. The said person is represented as assessees in categories of Individuals / Firms / Companies / LLP and other similar categories of business forms. These business forms need to comply with the provisions of Income Tax Act, 1961 which make it obligatory to file information about his or her income earned in respective financial year (F.Y.) that starts with April and ends in March. The income tax return for any financial year is filed in respective assessment year (A.Y.) for given F.Y. 

To understand in simple terms if an Individual starts earning income through Salary in year 2017, the period considered for ITR Return filing would be April, 2017 to March, 2018 at respective due dates specified in Income Tax Rules.

As already mentioned, ITR is all about filing information of income earned by the person or entities as applicable. There five heads with respect to type of income earned by various assessees which are classified below:  

• Income from Salary Income 
• Income from House Property 
• Income from Business and Profession 
• Income from Capital Gains 
• Income from Other Sources
  

Since assessees constitute both natural persons being Individual as well as artificial persons being companies/ LLPs/ Firms/ Trusts various other forms the Government has prescribed. The form in which ITR is filed varies based on category of person and source of income. For example, as per Income Tax Rules every company needs to file form ITR-6 on the due date specified therein.

Following is the gist of various forms to be filed by respective categories of assessees based on source of income as specified above:

While filing ITR, the most crucial factor is the date up to which return can be filed being compliant and to avoid any interest and penalties levied by Income Tax Department when returns are filed after the due date.

As per the provisions of Income Tax Department following are due dates for various categories of entities for filing of ITR:

With recent amendments made by Finance Ministry we would like to bring following material information to your notice to avoid any adverse consequences: 

Last date to file Income Tax Return for F.Y 2015-16 and F.Y 2016-17 is 31st March, 2018. Hence, if the same is still not filed, please ensure the filing before the period ends. Legalwiz.in may help you to fulfill this requirement ensuring hassle-free compliance.

Further, while talking about “income”, it is indispensable to mention that an assessee in his day to day life liquidate some funds which are absolutely necessary for making a living like payment for insurance premium, interest on housing loans, mediclaim, interest on higher education loans as well as to enhance income growth investments are made in various schemes like FDs, Mutual Funds, NSCs, Government Bonds, Equity Shares, PF, EPF and various other schemes.

We are happy to share that such payments and investments are eligible to be deducted from liability of taxes on income earned by assessee under section 80C to 80U of Income tax Act, subject to various conditions which should be complied mandatorily to avail the benefits of reducing income and further tax burden for all assessee.