Any person who earns above Rs 2.5 lakh annually is mandatorily required to furnish his or her Income Tax Return (ITR) within a stipulated timeline. The appropriate ITR form to be filled by an individual depends upon factors like nature of income, type of taxpayer, residential status, quantum of income earned etc.

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Tax authorities have notified seven ITR forms for the financial year 2017-18 (assessment year 2018-19) in the month of April 2018, which reflects the Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT’s) commitment to ease the ITR filing process as it provides adequate time for taxpayers to complete the entire process.

Numerous new schedules/columns have been introduced in these forms seeking more information/details from trusts, taxpayers who have opted for presumptive taxation schemes, those who invest in shares of unlisted companies, so on and so forth.

The ITR-1 form, is to be filed by an individual who is a resident of India and has an income of up to Rs 50 lakh from salaries, one owned house property and other sources as income. A detailed break-up for salary and house property now needs to be furnished such as taxable allowances, perquisite value, profits in lieu of salary and gross rent, local taxes paid, standard deduction and interest on housing loan.

Similar changes have been made to the ITR-2 form, which is applicable to non-residents (NRs) and not ordinarily resident (NORs) individuals/HUF not having income under the head "Profits and Gains from Business or Profession".

Apart from this, ITR-2 now requires details of deduction claimed against capital gains under each of the sections separately. In addition, it has a provision for NRs to furnish details of any one foreign bank account’s swift code and IBAN to receive any tax refund due. Other important changes include reporting of fair value of consideration for unquoted shares u/s 50CA, additional information to be reported on long term capital gain not chargeable to tax or chargeable at special rates in India as per DTAA, reporting of income received under Section 56(2)(x) without consideration or inadequate consideration etc. under Schedule OS etc.

Following the introduction of the goods and services tax (GST), ITR-3 and ITR-4 forms now require relevant details like GST payments, outstanding credit, GSTR number and turnover/gross receipt reported under GST return.

These ITR forms require additional details to be furnished like disclosure on income from transfer of carbon credits, relevant clause of Section 35(AD)(5), value adopted as per Section 50CA, financial data of business i.e. capital, secured/ unsecured loans, advances, other liabilities, total capital and liabilities, fixed assets, balance with banks, loan and advances, other assets etc.

With an aim to bring parity with Ind AS, the newly notified ITR-6 requires companies covered by Ind AS to include balance sheet and profit and loss account as per Ind AS.

For charitable trusts/other institutions, political parties, business trusts etc, a mandatory filing of particulars of authors, founders, trustees or managers of the trust or institution is required to be done while filing ITR-7 form. This was not required to be reported in the previous year’s ITR form. It is evident that tax authorities are now looking for additional details from this type of taxpayers.

The introduction of Section 234F wherein the ITR forms require to submit details regarding 'fees on late filing of ITR' and Section 194IB wherein tenant’s name and PAN for TDS on rent needs to be disclosed.

In light of above changes and additional requirements, it becomes important for a taxpayer to diligently comply with the same to ensure an accurate and hassle free tax filing process.

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Source: Moneycontrol.com

First Published:Jul 26, 2018 8:02 PM IST