The income-tax department of India has released new tax return forms for the financial year 2018-19 a few days back. There are four types of Income Tax Return forms- ITR 1, ITR 2, ITR 3, ITR 4, and every person is required to fill the form that comes under their sort, on the basis of income, residential status, etc.

Here’s a deeper insight by one of the  financial consultancy firms in India.

‘Income Tax Return’

Income Tax is calculated on the basis of a person’s income and is levied by the Central Government. The provisions relating to Income-tax are governed by the Income-tax Act, 1961. However, Income Tax Return is a form in which the taxpayers state their tax payments of the financial year, and this procedure is referred to as ‘Income Tax Filing’.

It is a statutory requirement for all the eligible individuals or businesses to file their income tax returns, and they have to file it before the deadline, i.e. 31st July of each year, but for businesses requiring audit, it is 30th September, and for the businesses requiring TP report, it is 30th November. As noted by top tax firms in Delhi there are several forms on the Indian Tax Department of India website that can be used to file the returns for different taxpayers (resident, non-resident, individual, non-individual, etc.) having different incomes from different sources (salary, business, interest earnings, investments, capital gains, dividends, etc.).

If the excess tax is paid by the taxpayers during the given year, they are refunded the balance by the Income Tax Department as an income tax refund.

‘ITR Forms for the Financial Year 2018-19’

To begin with, taxpayer need to understand the difference between Financial Year and Assessment Year. Financial year is the year in which the income is earned, whereas assessment year is the year subsequent to the financial year, in which the evaluation is made.

At the start of the new financial year, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had released the new ITR forms. In the new forms, some of the on hand schedules have been modified and some new schedules have been established.

Let’s have a look at them in detail-

ITR-1

• A company’s director or people having investments in unlisted companies in the previous year cannot use ITR-1 now. From this year, even if someone’s income includes income of any other person on which tax has been deducted, they cannot use this form.

• Unlike last year, the new ITR-1 requires a thorough estimation of income from salary, from house property and income from other sources (interest incomes from the bank accounts, fixed deposits, etc), which was constrained to single figures till last year.

• The new ITR-1 form has been withdrawn for a non-resident.

• There is a standard deduction policy in ITR-1 now, in which the standard amount that can be deducted by a salaried individual/pensioner is Rs. 40,000.

• For senior citizens (above 60 years) the limit of tax deduction at source on interest income has been raised from Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 50,000.

• Now, only very senior citizens (above 80 years) using ITR-1/ITR-4 can file physical returns, unlike last year, where two categories of taxpayers could use this advantage, which included the individual tax payers whose taxable income did not exceed Rs. 5 Lakhs.

ITR-2

• People who are filing for this category have to provide history of their stay in India for the income tax department to establish their residential status to for income tax purposes. A resident will have to state that they were in India for 182 days or more during the last year or they have been in India for 365 days or more within the four prior years. A resident but not ordinarily a resident will have to mention that they have been a non-resident in India in 9 out of 10 previous years or have been in India for less than 729 days during the 7 preceding years. A non-resident will have to provide details of where they were staying until previous year.

ITR- 3

• Like ITR-2, people filing for ITR-3 will also have to provide the history of their stay in India. Furthermore, PAN/TAN of the tenant has to be provided if any rental proceeds are derived from the house property on which tax has been deducted.

• Those who are filing ITR-3 will have to reveal information concerning turnover/gross receipts reported for goods and service tax.

ITR-4

• Unlike last year, one cannot use ITR-4 if their taxable income exceeds Rs. 50 Lakhs. They will now have to file ITR-3 in that case.

• Now non-residents will not be allowed to file this form, and only residents will be able to use ITR-4 after fulfilling certain conditions.

• As mentioned in ITR-1, only very senior citizens will be able to file physical returns.

‘Changes in the ITR Forms for the Financial Year 2018-19’

• ITR-1 Sahaj form meant for individuals now have excluded directors of company or individuals having investment in unlisted equity shares.
• ITR 4 – Sugam now cannot be used by individuals/HUF who are with non-resident partnership firms, directors of companies or individuals with investment in unlisted equity shares or having more than one house property
• Companies that use ITR-6 to file returns will now have to submit details of new schedules for shareholding of start-ups, shareholding of unlisted company.
• Reporting requirements for exempt agricultural income will now be more exhaustive as individual will now have to give details of location of agriculture land, total area and quality of land.

Overall, whether your engaging one of the Top Tax Firms in Delhi or any of  the financial advisor in Delhi or

other cities of India, they would certainly suggest taxpayers need to be very vigilant with their tax filing owing

to additional reporting requirements of ITR firms. We suggest individuals to hire taxation experts to undertake

their return filing.

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footprints in London. SARC is manned by 17 consulting partners and more than 300 professionals. The

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