In a bid to increase ease of compliance, the Income Tax Department has proposed to introduce a user-friendly common ITR form for all taxpayers by merging all the existing returns of income except ITR-7. The ITR form will also reduce the time for filing the ITR. Presently, taxpayers are required to furnish their Income-tax Returns in ITR-1 to ITR-7 depending upon the type of person and nature of income.

Present ITR Takes Much Time

The current ITRs are in the form of designated forms wherein the taxpayer is mandatorily required to go through all the schedules, irrespective of the fact whether that particular schedule is applicable or not, which increases the time taken to file the ITRs. Except trusts and non-profit organisations, all taxpayers can file returns with the proposed new common ITR form. Common ITR Form for All Taxpayers on Anvil, I-T Dept Invites Stakeholder Comments.

In Tandem with International Practices

The proposed draft ITR takes a relook at the return filing system in tandem with international best practices. It proposes to introduce a common ITR by merging all except ITR-7. However, the current ITR-1 and ITR-4 will continue, offering an option to taxpayers to file the return either in the existing form (ITR-1 or ITR-4), or the proposed common ITR, at their convenience.

Ease of Filing

The draft ITR aims to bring ease of filing returns and reduce the time for filing the ITR by individuals and non-business-type taxpayers considerably. The taxpayers will not be required to see the schedules that do not apply to them. It intends the smart design of schedules in a user-friendly manner with a better arrangement, logical flow and increased scope of pre-filling. It will also facilitate the proper reconciliation of third-party data available with the Income-tax Department vis a vis the data to be reported in the ITR to reduce the compliance burden on the taxpayers.

Customised ITR

Basic information comprising parts A to E, schedule for computation of total income (Schedule TI), schedule for computation of tax (schedule TTI), details of bank accounts and a schedule for the tax payments (schedule TXP) are applicable for all taxpayers. The ITR is customized for taxpayers with applicable schedules based on certain questions answered by the taxpayers.

On Distinct Value in Each Row

The questions have been designed in such a manner and order that if the answer to any question is ‘no’, the other questions linked to this question will not be shown to the taxpayer. Instructions have been added to assist the filing of the return containing the directions regarding the applicable schedules. The proposed ITR has been designed in such a manner that each row contains one distinct value only. This will simplify the return filing process. Govt Releases Draft Common Income Tax Return Form for Public Consultation.

Ease of Compliance

The utility for the ITR will be rolled out in such a manner that only applicable fields of the schedule will be visible and wherever necessary, the set of fields will appear more than once. As evident from the above, the taxpayer will be required to answer questions which apply to it and fill the schedules linked to those questions where the answer has been given as ‘yes’. This will increase ease of compliance. Once the common ITR Form is notified, after taking into account the inputs received from stakeholders, the online utility will be released by the Income-tax Department.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 02, 2022 04:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).