Thursday, August 5, 2010

Income tax return - all inclusive

Income tax return


The first thing you should know is, its always good to file Income tax return when you have any source of income no matter if you have any taxable income or not.

Some comman concerns about income Tax -

1) Why Pan Card??
A PAN number has been made compulsory for every transaction with the Income Tax department. Now a days Pan Card is mandatory for many financial transactions including opening of bank accounts, taking institutional financial credits , purchase of high-end consumer item, foreign travel, transaction of immovable properties, dealing in securities etc. A PAN card is a valuable means of photo identification accepted by all government and non-government institutions in the country.

2) Is Income tax return filing is mandatory, if I have a PAN card?
No. Return is to be filed only if you have taxable income.

3)Income tax return can be filled online & offline. For online filing (e-filing), various ITR filing services are available. Some good ones are -

itrust.in
taxsmile.com
incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in

All you need is details regarding your income and deductions applicable (like tax saving intuments etc).

For Offline filing, you can fill up ITR-1 form yourself and visit any nearest Income tax office to submit it and get acknowledgement. Still probnlems then visit any agent or CA. They may charge anything from Rs. 100 to Rs. 1000 and provide you full assistence in filing ITR.


4) What is form 16 ?
Form 16 is a summary certificate for all your tax related details from your employer mentioning all your income and tax saving expenses. You should have this document with you and everything from this you can mention in ITR-1 form.

5) What If I don't reveive Form-16 from my employer?
Its always better to have all your documents with you as a proof so best thing is to get Form-16 from the employer. Still, if there is any issue, then you can still file income tax return and you need to keep all proofs (salary slips, saving documents, House rent receipts, medical, ULIP documents etc) with you in case of any enquiry by IT dept.

6) What if all tax saving details or any source of income not mentioned in my Form-16?
You can add them in your ITR-1 form or mention that to agent at the time of ITR filing.

7) I am confused in terms financial year and assessment year?
See. Financial year is for what you are going to file the income tax and assessment year is the next year of financial year.

eg, If you are planning to file income tax in june-2010, then your financial year will be from 1st April 2009 to 31 March 2010, and assessment year will be 2010-2011.

8)What is corporate tax then??
When companies pay income tax, its corporate tax. :)

9)What are different sources of income with respect to income tax ?
Categorized in mainly 5 types as below -

Income from Salary
Income from House property
Income from Business or Profession
Income from capital gains
Income from other sources

10) How can I apply for PAN?
Its very simple to apply for PAN now. Either fill the form online (https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/pan/index.html) and send Pan Ack & supporting docs via Normal post to NSDL, or you can also fill the form (hardcopy) and send/deposit the same at UTI center.

Alternatively you can go to any agent for filling up PAN form.