July 31 DEADLINE for Income Tax Returns: Here are steps you need to follow

July 31st is the last date to file annual income tax returns (ITR) for financial year 2018-19. Timely filing i.e. before deadline may save Rs 10,000 which government charges as late fine in case of delayed ITR filing. It is to be noted that for all the citizens except those ageing above 80, the ITR filing has be done online and not on paper. Also, it is crucial for the first-time filers to be able to differentiate between FY and AY. FY is the year in which an income is made while AY is the year in which income is assessed and returns are filed.

 Here are the simple steps that one can go through before filing Income Tax Returns-

 a) Make all the documents available which are mandatory to file ITR. The documents are- TDS certificates (Form 16), PAN, Aadhaar, bank account and salary income. The tax-payer is also suggested to keep documents having records of gross income, PF deductions and other incomes apart from salary.

 b) Login to the ITR e-filing account and choose the assessment year for which tax is being paid.

 c) Choose the correct ITR form or collect the suitable ITR form from the employer. ITR-1 should be used by those whose primary income comes from salary.

 d) Make sure that the amounts mentioned in Form 26 AS (This form is a record of earnings and deductions from the income which rests with the govt. It can be downloaded from through net-banking) corresponds to those in Form 16 AS. If the amounts anyhow are not same, rectify the issue.

 e) After the tax is filed, the tax-payers needs to do the verification process. Verification can be done by using Aadhar OTP or net banking.

According to latest media reports, the number of ITR filers has increased by 1.3 crore and the government is expected to get more revenues by the virtue of widened tax base.