Income Tax Return Filing FY 2024-25: The Income Tax Department has been aiming to make the e-filing of income tax returns easier for taxpayers, and one such step in that direction is pre-filled ITR forms. If you have been filing tax returns, you would know that the ITR forms have been pre-filed on the tax portal for some years now. With pre-filled ITR forms, the Income Tax Department aims to enhance accuracy, encourage timely filing of income tax returns and reduce compliance burden on taxpayers.The process of filing electronic Income-tax Return forms by taxpayers has evolved over a period of time and we have seen that every year Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) introduces new features in the process to enhance user experience, reduce revenue leakage and ensure full compliance. “The Government has strived to achieve a mature ITR filing process wherein all the information is accurately pre-filled in the form and taxpayers’ role is limited to verification of the information. In order to achieve this level of automation, the CBDT has invested in the technology upgradation, mandated various agencies to share data with CBDT which is filtered and used to prepare a pre-filled ITR,” says Preeti Sharma, Partner, Tax & Regulatory Services, BDO India LLP.Also Read | ITR filing FY 2024-25: Do you need to file your income tax return if TDS has been deducted? ExplainedPreeti Sharma explains that till last year, your pre-filled ITR form was automatically capturing the following information:
- Personal Information, such as name, PAN, date of birth, address, etc.
- Income details, which have been reported by registered persons in India under a Statement of Financial Transactions such as
- Salary, from Form-16 submitted by employers
- Interest income, from Banks & Financial Institutions Reports
- Dividend income, from Companies & Mutual Funds Reports
- Tax payment details (TDS, TCS and advance tax)
- The IT Department can also track sale and purchase of land or immovable properties, with the tax deduction or collection requirements that have been introduced in India recently.
The CBDT has already launched online utility for ITR-1 (Sahaj – Available for Individuals & HUF) and ITR-4 (Available for Individuals & HUF with Presumptive Business or Professional Income) with limited enhancements. However, the new online form ITR-2, ITR-3 for Individual tax-payers is still to be launched. According to Preeti Sharman, it is likely to be more advanced with pre-filled data such as:
- Pre-filled Capital Gains schedule – mapping the information received from brokers & Depository Reports and scrip wise bifurcation of capital gain rather than a cumulative amount.
- Pre-filled Deductions tab, which have been reported by the employer.
- Update of all the bank account numbers already linked with your PAN and Aadhaar in the Bank’s systems.
This pre-filling of ITR forms has the following advantages:
- Minimizing human efforts and errors
- Full disclosure of income
- Easy access to past records – for comparison purpose / reporting of previous year’s income / carry forward of previous year’s losses
- Reduced litigation as any mismatch of details reported in tax return with information available with the tax department is addressed at this stage only.
- Pre-filled ITRs makes it easier for a taxpayers’ to file ITR correctly without in-depth knowledge of taxation, thereby reducing the dependence on experts (for simple cases).
