INCOME TAX RETURN (ITR) FOR FREE!!

INCOME TAX RETURN FOR FREE!!

Now that I have gotten your attention with words like FREE and ZERO (come on..admit it J ), the method I am about to tell you is indeed FREE and involves ZERO cost.

The method is – Do it yourself for FREE on govt. website.  You can easily fill your ITR for free and it is not that difficult or Rocket Science as you might think.

Every year, during these 2-3 months (May-July), many CA’s and 3^rd party ITR e-filing service providers sprout up to “Help You” out in your herculean task of IT return.

The charges of these friendly service vary from 100-500 for simple ITR and 1000 onwards for ITR involving multiple income sources and other variables.

Well you can now save all those hard earned money & spend it on more productive affairs like Movies at Elante or something along the line..you get the drift..right J

I am outlining the FREE ITR filing steps below for everyone’s benefit

The information may seem little over-whelming, that’s only because I am trying to be as detailed as possible. Its only lengthy in reading, once you start doing it..it will be easy to follow and wrap up

Alternatively, You can file ITR through ClearTax also: https://goo.gl/JcCzy9 (Very Very Simple)

ITR Filling Step 1:

Go to the website http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ and

1. Click on the "Register Yourself" button if you are not registered (Registration is simple - Just need you PAN Details and DOB and stuff like that)

2. Click on the "Login Here" button once you're registered or already a registered user. Login using the details you provided while registering.

(Both the buttons are on the Right Hand Side Menu of the home page).

ITR Filling Step 2:  

After Login, Check the left hand side menu and click on the “Quick e-File ITR” link.

ITR Filling Step 3:

After clicking the “Quick e-File ITR” link, a form will open in the same window saying “Prepare and Submit Online ITR”.

Your PAN no. will be filled in by default. Select ITR Form Name ITR-1. Select Assessment Year.

Select Prefill Address with option as applicable (Previous Year Return or from PAN Database). Digitally Sign will be NO and click Submit.

ITR Filling Step 4:

You will be provided an easy 7 tabs form to fill in the details. The tabs may seem over-whelming at first. But it’s easy and I am explaining everything in detail.

Some details will be filled from the Salary Certificate so keep it handy. Here is the link from Harmony for your salary certificate and form 16

ITR Filling Step 4 (Tab 1: Instruction):

Leave it. I will guide you in detail.

ITR Filling Step 4 (Tab 2: Personal Information):

A1 – A18 -> Simple Name and address formality. Fill as desired. Some info will be already filled in. No need to fill any non-mandatory field.

A19 -> Others

A20 -> Choose as applicable (Refundable or Payable or Nil)

Refundable – If extra tax was deducted from you. It happens when you are not able to submit your tax proof on time with Your Employer and have some pending proofs to claim. I will get to it too.

Payable – If you have some tax to pay which was not deducted by Your Employer. I will get back to it shortly.

Nil – Will be the case of most of us. Who have regularly submitted IT proofs and tax has been deducted as per the investment plan.

A21 -> RES

A22 -> Before due date

Select Original ITR return in case you are filling the first ITR of this year.

Revised in case you are re-filling the ITR in case of some modifications. In this case, the ITR ref no. and date of the earlier filled return will be needed to fill in mandatory columns.

A23 -> No

A24 -> In case 23 is Yes which most probably won't be.

A25 -> In case it's revised return. Here the previous ITR detail and date will be needed to fill in.

A26 -> In this case no need to fill.

A27/28 -> Aadhar details. You can fill it if you like. Not mandatory.

Once fill the tab, Save Draft.

ITR Filling Step 4 (Tab 3: Income Details):

B1 -> Section 8 in your salary certificate (Gross Income)

B2, B3 -> Fill if needed. Leave otherwise. If you fill it, it will increase your net income resulting increase in payable tax, which in turn will result in "Payable" option as discussed above in A20 of Tab2.

How to pay tax in case of Payable, will discuss in this section soon.

Deduction -> Section 9 of your salary certificate.

In case there is Nil return - No need to fill in anything else. The tax will be calculated automatically. It will be pretty much as shown in your Form 16 – give or take 2-3 Rs.

In case of Refundable – You have to show your total investment done here NOT PROOF, just net amount – acknowledged by Your Employer and the rest which you were not able to submit on time.

Once you fill the investment details, the tax deducted amount will be reduced automatically and you will see refund on the next tab. You don’t have to show the investment while filling ITR.

You can show the investment if you get notice from IT dept, which usually come if there is something shady in the details. Nevertheless, keep your tax proofs with you till Sep/Oct of this year.

In case of Tax Payable – Now comes the interesting part. This will be the case when you have some other source of income (House rent from tenants or FD/Bank investment interests etc – The section B2/B3 of this tab)

In this scenario, you will enter additional source of income in the income section. The section B2/B3. Once you will in the details, your net income will increase and so will the tax.

Now when you have some tax payable, it will also be done online and in 5 minutes.

Tax Payable Step 1:

Go to this site: https://onlineservices.tin.egov-nsdl.com/etaxnew/tdsnontds.jsp

Tax Payable Step 2:

At the bottom of the website, in the Non-TDS/TCS section, choose CHALLAN NO. / ITNS 280

You will be re-directed to a page where you can fill in your remaining tax.

Tax Payable Step 3:

Tax Applicable will be 0021 Income Tax Other than Companies. Followed by usual PAN details and assessment details and House address.

Type of Payment will be 300 - Self Assessment Tax (As you have assessed your tax in the ITR and paying the remaining tax like good citizen)

Then Bank Name - They will redirect you to the bank to pay the remaining tax. Make sure you know how much you owe to govt and pay accordingly. +/- of 10 rupees is acceptable.

Fill the captcha and Click the "Proceed" button.  

Now you will be redirected to your bank, you will pay the tax amount and then you will be given a Challan number & BSR code (showed online in the form of PDF which you can save).

Note down the Challan Number and BSR Code. We will  use these details while giving tax details in the next section of the ITR.

You are done with any remaining payable tax. Logout your bank website and return to the ITR form.  

ITR Filling Step 4 (Tab 4: Tax Details):

Sch TDS1 will be applicable for you.

Tax Deduction Account Number – Acc No.

Name of Employer –  Your Employer Name

Income Under Salary (Gross Salary (minus) Deduction = Net Taxable Income in Tab 3)

Tax Deducted = Amount of tax you paid (More or less than actual needed as applicable)

Sch TDS2 will also be automatically filled in case you had some Bank FD or savings on which you got interest.

Bank would have already taken some tax from the interest which will be mentioned here.

Sch TDS3 will be most prob empty and no need to fill in anything here.

Sch IT - This is the section where we will fill in our BSR code and Challan Number of the additional tax that we paid. 

After filling the details and saving, the net payable tax amount will be Nil. It will non zero in case of refund.   

ITR Filling Step 4 (Tab 5: Tax Paid and Verification):

We are almost done now. The calculations of this page will be done automatically and if you have followed the above instruction properly, you will see the final tax details here.

D21 is the mandatory bank details to be filled in.

Total number of saving account will be 1.

IFSC code for YOUR bank. In case of any other bank, fill in accordingly.

Enter the bank name, account number and account type.  

In the verification section, fill only Place. Rest mandatory fields will be auto filled in. No need to fill anything else.

ITR Filling Step 4 (Tab 6: 80G):

This will be NA for you in case you didn’t donate substantial amount in Charity. Considering YOUR salary, I doubt you need this section anyways..right J

So leave it as it is..if you have given some major charity…fill as required.

ITR Filling Step 4 (Tab 7: AL):

No need to fill anything here as well.

Save draft and double check the sections once again..in case you missed anything, check the above instructions and the hit the SUBMIT button.

Great! Now you have filled in your ITR details...and free of cost..planning for the shopping already?  Wait..there is one last thing to do J

Now final step is to verify the details and get the confirmation from ITR deptt.

ITR Filling Step 5:

After submitting the ITR tab form, you will be given option to e-verify your return.

If the option doesn’t come automatically or you closed it accidently, go to the third horizontal menu of the website "e-File" and click on the sub-menu "e-verify Return".

You will be redirected to the page where your just submitted ITR is waiting for your verification. Click on the "e-Verify Return" link.

Now you will be given 4 options to e-verify your return:

If your Aadhar name matches with your PAN name and you have registered your phone in the Aadhar deptt, click on the Verification by Aadhar card.

You will be sent and OTP, enter the OTP on the online form and your ITR is e-verified.

Select the EVS option from Net Banking in other cases as it is most effective in case Aadhar card trump card doesn't work.

From ITR site, you will be given link to open your bank website. I have ICICI account so I shall be sharing info on that.

The link will redirect you to ICICI home page. Login from there. In the top menu, hover on the third one (PAYMENTS & TRANSFER)..click on the last link MANAGE YOUR TAXES.

In the left hand menu section, there is group of links under heading “Manage your Taxes”. The second last link says “Income Tax e-Filing”. Click on it.

Click the agree combo box and click Submit button. You will be re-directed to the ITR website and you can confirm the e-verification from there.

Done Dana Done...as simple as that.

You have successfully filled in your ITR and e-verified the return as well.

If you found this post useful, share with your friends so they don’t have to pay for ITR return either.  

“It always seems impossible until it's done.”

“It always seems impossible until it's done.” 

Eliud Kipchoge blew away the marathon world record, achieving a time of 2:00.24.

How did he manage to cut Dennis Kimetto’s world record of 2:02:57 by over two and a half minutes? A pace which is 7 seconds per mile faster than world record pace?

With focus, preparation - and science.

Nike began planning the project, “Project2” in 2013, when they set the target of cutting running economy by 3% - with the goal of trying to achieve a sub-2-hour marathon.

Over the last 4 years they went through 100 different shoe prototypes in their top-secret “Innovation Kitchen” led by Geng Luo Ph.D, who said “For a shoe nerd like myself, this is heaven.”

The result? The “Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4%” - a super-light shoe with a mix of rubber, plastic and carbon-fibre. The shoe increases your running efficiency by an amazing 4%, and all three podium places at the Rio Olympics, including Eliud Kipchoge who Gold, wore shoes.

Nike then brought three selected runners (Eliud Kipchoge, Zersenay Tadese and Lelisa Desisa) to their HQ in Portland, Oregon, where they went through tests and training with treadmills, refrigerated rooms and wind tunnels, where they found the perfect drafting pattern.

Lead physiologist, Brett Kirby, Ph.D says: “What we saw could be akin to running downhill at like two-and-a-half percent grade.”

They then found the ideal course: Monza race track, with the idea flat surface, the right temperature and close to sea level to ensure maximum oxygen in the air.

And finally, they equipped the runners in ‘superman pants’ - Aerodynamic, half tights with compression bands to support the muscles.

Today, Eliud, accompanied by rotating pace runners and a pollution-free Tesla pace car, broke the record with a time of 2:00.24 - narrowly missing the sub-2-hour mark.

Derek Clayton’s 1968 marathon world record of 2:08:33 held for 12 years. In the 39 years since, it’s been broken 13 times, each time slicing seconds off the record.

Today, Eliud Kipchoge has combined human spirit, superhuman effort and modern science to achieve a bigger drop in the record in 2 hours than all record-holders combined have achieved in the last 20 years.

63 years ago, Roger Bannister beat the 4 minute mile for the first time. Since then, over 2,000 runners have done the same. Roger changed the mindset of a generation of what was possible.

Now it's just a matter of time before Eluid breaks the 2 hour barrier, and does the same.

Everything changes when you shift from “It’s impossible” to “How can I make it possible?”