ITR Filing for FY 2017–18 Last Date Tomorrow, Avoid These Common Errors While Filing Return to Stay Away From Income Tax Notice

New Delhi, August 30: With the deadline of filing of income tax return (ITR) tomorrow, scores of taxpayers may end up making errors which would land them in last-minute trouble. It must be noted that due date for filing of income tax return for the financial year 2017-18 (the assessment year 2018-19) is tomorrow, August 31, 2018

Also, the Income tax return for the assessment year 2018-19 can be revised by March 31, 2019. Mistakes committed in an ITR filing can be rectified by filing a revised return, but this procedure will take a lot of time. To avoid last minute hassle and avoid unnecessary problems, here are some common mistakes that you can avoid during ITR filing to escape a chance of getting a tax notice from income tax authorities.

Here are a few errors a taxpayer can avoid:

1. A taxpayer should also ensure that ITR data is in sync with that of Form 26AS. In case of any discrepancy, the income tax department could issue notice, seeking an explanation for discrepancies.
2. It must be noted that Form 26AS is basically a consolidated tax credit statement that has all details of various taxes deducted on your income at source.
3. Taxpayers should be aware that if they fail to either e-verify the ITR or post it to Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) of the income tax department in Bengaluru, a return will be treated as an invalid return.
4. It must be noted that while filing ITR, the taxpayer is asked to digitally sign or e-verify it. In case, you do not e-verify your return, you can sign the acknowledgement copy of ITR and post it to CPC, Bengaluru which has to be sent within 120 days of the filing of the return.
5. The most important thing is, taxpayers should be not presumed that if the tax has already been paid, they don’t need to file the return. Reports by LiveMint inform that if you are resident in India, you have to file ITR if taxable income exceeds basic exemption limit, irrespective of tax liability. The basic exemption limit is ₹ 3 lakh for senior citizens (age above 60 years), ₹ 5 lakh for super-senior citizens (above 80 years) and ₹ 2.5 lakh for all other individual taxpayers.
6. If a taxpayer fills the wrong ITR form, he/she may be in trouble as no proper information would be provided, prompting the income tax department to issue a notice for under-reporting income.
7. If you have changed jobs during the year, you have to report income earned from all the employers in your tax return.

In April, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had released new income tax return forms for filing returns for the financial year 2017-18. The new forms -Sahaj (ITR1), Form ITR-2, Form ITR-3, Form Sugam -ITR-4, Form ITR-5, Form ITR-6, Form ITR-7, and Form ITR-V have been notified for the Financial year 2017-18 or assessment year 2018-19.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 12, 2018 12:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).