How to File ITR Online? A Complete Guide

ITR is also known as An Income Tax Return.  It has been mandated by the Income Tax act that was passed in 1961, that every taxpayer has to file ITR under different situations and scenarios. An ITR Form allows taxpayers to proclaim their expenses, income, taxes, tax deductions and investments and many more.

An ITR form is simply a form that is filed by the taxpayers in order to report their annual incomes. But there can be a lot of other reasons to file ITR such as claiming deductions in tax, carrying forward losses, claiming refund on income tax, etc.

The process to file ITR has been made quite easy by the Income Tax Department by facilitating e-filing or electronic filing of an Income tax Return. It is important that the taxpayer already possesses all the required documents that are needed to file ITR. The following steps need to be followed by an applicant in order to file ITR electronically or file ITR online:

Step 1: Calculation of Tax on Income

According to the provisions of the Income Tax Law, the taxpayer will have to calculate his income. This calculation needs to be based on his income from all the sources like freelancing, salary, interest on income, etc. the taxpayer can also claim deductions like tax-saving interests in his Income Tax Return under the section 80C and many more. The taxpayer also needs to consider the credit for TCS, TDS or any other tax paid by them in advance.

Step 2: Form 26AS and TDS Certificates

The taxpayer needs to go through his TDS Certificates which he received and summarise his TDS Amount for all the quarters of that financial year. In order to prepare a summary of his TDS and the amount of Tax that he paid during the particular financial year, the taxpayer needs to fill Form 26AS.

Step 3: Select your Income Tax Form

Before going further into the process to FIle ITR, first of all the taxpayer has to decide on which ITR form they need to file. A taxpayer can either file ITR online or offline as per your convenience. For online taxpayers, only two types of forms are available, ITR 1 and ITR 2. All the other income tax return forms can only be filed offline by uploading and generating XML sheets.

Step 4: Downloading ITR Utility

Visit the official portal of the Income tax department and click on “Downloads” which is available in the top menu bar.

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Select the year of assessment and then download either MS Excel or Java or JSON utility based offline utility software. However, the Java and Excel utilities have been discontinued by the income tax department since the assessment year 2021-21.

Step 5: File your details in the file

Once you have downloaded the offline utility, you will have to fill in all the required details related to your income and then check the payable tax amount or the amount of refund that you can receive on the basis of the calculations performed by the utility. In the downloaded form, you can easily fill in the income tax challan details.

Step 6: Validation of Entered Details

On the right hand-side of the downloaded form,  a few buttons must be visible. In order to ensure that all the required details have been successfully entered in the form, click on “Validate.”

Step 7: Conversion of file to XML format

Once the details have been successfully validated, click on the “Generate XML” option that is present on the right-hand side of the file. This will convert the format of the file to XML.

Step 8: Uploading of XML File

Now you will have to log in to the income tax portal to File ITR Online. Then, you have to click on “e-File” tab and select the “Income Tax Return” Option.

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You now have to fill in the details like PAN, year of assessment, number of the ITR Form and the mode of submission. Also, do not forget to select the “Upload XML” option from the drop-down menu which is corresponding to “Submission Mode”.

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Then, attach your XML file and click on the “Submit” button. Then, you need to choose one of the verification modes: Aadhaar OTP, EVC(Electronic Verification Code) or sending the signed copy of ITR-V manually to the CPC in Bengaluru.

How to download a copy of an income tax return?

The taxpayer needs to follow the following steps in order to download a copy of the ITR:

• Visit incometaxindiaefiling.com.
• Log in using your credentials.
• Choose the option “Income Tax returns” and enter the assessment year for which you want to download your ITR and then click on submit.
• A window will appear on the screen with a list of ITRs filed.
• Click on the  acknowledgement number of ITR-V that you want to download.
• A PDF of your desired ITR-V will be opened which can be downloaded.

Why is it important to File ITR Online?

It is important to FILE ITR Online because it has been mandated by the government for those individuals who have income above the basic exemption limit. Also, to file ITR Online, the candidates must meet some criterion like either the expenditure on foreign travel is more than Rs. 2 lakh or the electricity consumption is 1 lakh or more or the amount that is deposited in current accounts is above Rs. 1 Crore in financial year 2019-20 or onwards. It is always beneficial for an individual to file ITR even if he does not meet the eligibility requirements in order to enjoy the benefits.

• An ITR is a valid proof of an individual’s income
• An ITR is required to to apply for a loan
• An ITR is required to apply for credit cards
• An Itr is required to apply for VISA

Therefore, it is beneficial for all individuals to file ITR even if the income of the individual is below the basic exemption limit.