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ShareYou can save a visit to your chartered accountant or the income tax office by filing returns online. The income tax department has given taxpayers the option beginning the last financial year and even changed the format of its forms to make them more cyber-friendly.
However, the process can be called totally online only for people who have a digital signature. Otherwise, in spite of filling the form online and submitting the file to the income tax department online, you will have to go to the income tax office and submit two signed copies of the form duly filled up.
The digital signature basically ensures that an unidentified person doesn't file your return. Also, "The signer of a document cannot later disown it by claiming that the signature was forged," as per the income tax department.
A digital signature certificate should be of Class 2 or 3 only, and it should also be ensured that the certificate is obtained only from one of the authorised certifying agencies.
Currently, seven certification agencies -- Tata Consultancy Services, National Informatics Centre, Institute for Development & Research in Banking Technology, Mahanager Telephone Nigam Ltd, Customs & Central Excise, (n)Code Solutions Ltd and Safescrypt -- are authorised to issue digital signatures.
The procedure for the same can be learnt from the websites of these agencies. However, the digital signature comes with both a price tag, which currently makes it a not-so-viable option for many individual tax payers. Also, it is valid only for one or two years, which means you have to get a new digital signature every year you file an e-return.
Currently, a digital signature costs around Rs500-2,000, depending on who you get it from and whether it is for one year or two years. If it works out cheaper for you compared with a trip to the chartered accountant, do consider it by all means. The convenience of filing taxes online, from the comfort of your home or office needn't be reiterated.
Once a digital signature certificate is in your computer, you can visit the website https://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in and use your Form 16 and permanent account number to fill the relevant form at the website.
There are eight income tax return (ITR) forms to choose from, depending on your sources of income. You need to download the software based on the relevant ITR form http://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/html/downloads.jsp.
Fill this form and save it in the .xml format. After this, you need to register on the website and create a username and password.
After logging in, select the relevant form number and upload the form you saved in the .xml format. This is when the digital signature has to be attached to the form. An ITR-V form would be generated on successful completion, which is the proof you can save to indicate that you have filed the returns online.
But, for persons not having a digital signature, two copies of the ITR-V form have to be printed. The verification portion in the form would have to be filled manually and submitted within 15 days at the local income tax office.
Similary, taxes can be paid online via the website https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/etax/Index.html. Remember, paying taxes online will require a netbanking account of any of the 19 banks, a list of which is available on the website.
At any rate, filing returns online means you have the services of your chartered accountant and the income tax office 24 hours a day. Happy e-filing.
