How to file your taxes online?

God has given us the monsoons to fill us with joy every June. And compensated by having us deal with our income tax in July! For the uninitiated, it is not enough to have a part of our salary deducted every month. You need to inform the government also the same – that the government has taken its part.  Price of civilization. Well, all governments love files (unfortunately, not the ones in a computer), and so someone named this process filing an income tax return. This phenomena sees no hope on ending at least for one more century. OK, let’s get into the gory details:

1. Go to the official eFiling website – https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/index.do

2. Register your account using the link at the right. Your PAN card number will be your login id.

3. Login to your account.

4. Study this – Income tax involves a financial year(FY) and an assessment year(AY). The assessment year is the year in which tax returns have to be filed. For the income earned in the previous financial year. Read the last two sentences 3 times. So, for your income earned during FY 2009-10, the AY would be 2010-11.

5. Under the Download section on the left, move to eFiling AY 2010-11 and click Individual, HUF. Download the Excel for ITR-1 or ITR-2

* ITR-1 is for salaried people with no other sources of income and do not claim any tax exemption on housing loan interest

* ITR-2 is for salaried people who has income from share markets OR who claim tax exemption on repayment of housing loan interest

6. Enable macros in Excel and open the downloaded file.

7. Fill in.

* For ITR-1, move to the Income Details tab and fill in your basic personal details. Take extra care in filling your PAN No. Most entries can be directly copied from your Form 16. In the second TDS tab, you always need to fill in the first entry, the tax deducted by your employer.

* Filling ITR-2 is a little more complex. Remember that for claiming exemption on housing loan, you need to show that amount as Income from House Property – in negative! (and this is supposed to be a simplified process now). We are not going into the gory details for the ones who invest in shares.

8. Now come to the last tab, click Validate button and correct any errors – here, the Excel sheet does a decent job.

9. Finally click the Generate button. You will be asked to save an XML file.

10. Now, come back to our website. Under the Submit Return section, select Assessment Year 2010-2011. Select your ITR Form (1 or 2). Select No in Digital Signature. Click Next.

11. Select your XML file and Upload it. You will get a successful message and will be prompted to download another form! Fondly called ITR-V. It is not Victory (nobody wins against government), V is for Verification.

12. Take a print out of this form, and sign it.

13. Finally, send it to Income Tax Department – CPC, Post Bag No – 1, Electronic City Post Office, Bangalore – 560100, Karnataka. Send by ordinary post only – no courier, no speed post.

14. Wait for an email to arrive at the email id you filled in your ITR form – confirming the receipt of your post. Should take a week or two. If nothing arrives in a month, repeat from Step 12 until it does.

This article has been syndicated from technoparkliving.com, the new online monthly magazine exclusively for technopark professionals