Top 9 Point remember when Filing ITR and avoiding Income Tax Notices

Income tax return filing or ITR filing is a necessary annual ritual which shall be compiled very seriously by all the citizens of this country. Although every year, the government claims that it has simplified the procedure of filing Income tax return, however, in reality, it is becoming more and more complex not even for the common man but also for professionals.

Even after the introduction of digitization, i.e., online Income tax return filing, the problem has not solved a bit. Every year, the government is trying to increase the tax base and introducing new fields in return in order to reduce tax evasion and catch hold or regular defaulters, which has also resulted in complexity or mistakes in Income tax filing or non-filing of tax returns which result in the issue of Income tax notice from tax departments.

However, if we keep some essential points in mind as given under, we can avoid such mistakes, Income tax notice as well as interest or penalty:

• First basic mistakes done are that there is a mismatch of names given in Income Tax return form and those mentioned in PAN card.
• Another mistake is that basic particulars like email address, mobile no. address, PIN codes are not correctly specified in the return which results in difficulty in correlation.
• Now mentioning of Aadhar no. is mandatory; therefore same shall not be left blank.
• Only for senior citizens and those individuals whose Gross Total Income does not exceed Rs 5 lac can opt for filing a tax return in paper form or manually., all other assesses has to compulsory file tax returns electronically i.e. opt for efiling Income tax return.
• One common mistake made is that figures of Income and tax deducted are not correlated with form 26AS which often results in incorrect filing of tax returns and receipt of Income Tax notice from tax department.
• Another common mistake is use of incorrect challan for depositing tax or filling of wrong particulars in tax challan.
• In the assets and liability schedule, details of bank and cash in hand needs to be given. This should be given with due diligence since at the time of scrutiny same has to be justified.
• In case of Residents and Ordinary Residents, even details of foreign bank account and foreign investments are required to be given. Quite often assesse fails to provide aforesaid information which results in defective return.
• After filing a return electronically, most people think that job is over. However, it is not over until and unless tax returns they filed are verified either manually or electronically within 120 days of filing. Verification can be done in any form like e verification by generating electronic verification code using Aadhar or by net banking or bank account no. or demat account or registered email and mobile no etc. of a taxpayer. Same can also be sent by speed post to CPC office Bangalore.