A Guide To Filling ITR-1 Form

Taxation in India is well classified based on the category of taxpayer. Individual taxpayers and HUF (Hindu Undivided Family) have been provided ITR-1 form to file their income tax return.

The form makes it easier for you to simply use your bank statement and salary slips to estimate your tax liability. The entire process of filing your tax return online takes less than 30 minutes if you have all the documents ready at hand. Let’s see in detail what the ITR-1 form is and how it works.

What is ITR-1?

The Income Tax department has categorized taxpayers into slab brackets based on their income and source of income. Income Tax Return (ITR)-1 which is also known as Sahaj Form is for those individuals who have an annual income up to Rs 50 lakhs. You can file your taxes easily using the one-page ITR-1 form.

You can file your income tax using ITR-1 if you receive income from one of the below sources:

• Income from Pension/Salary
• Income from one House Property (Exclude cases where the loss is carried forward from previous years.)
• Income from other sources (Other sources do not include winning from the lottery or other similar sources of income.)

If you are a businessman, you cannot use ITR-1 form to file your returns. You will need to file ITR-2 form.

What are Documents Required to File ITR-1?

Before you file an ITR, ensure you have the below documents with you:

• PAN Number
• Aadhaar Number
• All the bank account details
• Tax payment challans, if any
• Investment Proofs
  

  You must have made some tax-saving investment. For example, you might have bought a Term Insurance plan and you must be paying a premium for it every year. You need to have proof of premium paid to include that under tax saving investment.

Form 16

If you are a salaried person, Form 16 is the most important document for you. It is issued to you by your employer and contains details of your salary and any TDS deducted. Form-16 consists of two parts:

• Part-A: It consists of all the details of the tax deducted by your employer during the year. It has details of the tax deducted from your salary. It also includes your Permanent Account Number (PAN), PAN and TAN of your employer.
• Part-B: This part of the form consists of your gross salary break-up details such as exempt allowances, perquisites, etc.

Form 26AS – TDS Details

It contains details of your income on which taxes have been deducted. It also has information about the taxes that have been paid by or on your behalf by the deductor, mostly your employer. The TDS with employer depends on your tax saving investment declaration. So, ensure you submit those on time. If you don't submit your investment proofs, your TDS will be higher. However, at the time of filing ITR, you can mention all your investments and reduce your taxable income.

How to File ITR?

Once you have all the documents with you, you can go ahead and file your income tax returns. You can either submit your ITR-1 online or offline.

Offline

Not everyone is eligible to use this medium to submit the ITR. If you fall in one of below two categories, you can use offline mode:

1. If you are at the age of 80 years or more at any time in the year for which you are filing returns.

2. If your income does not exceed Rs 5 lakhs and you have not claimed any refund in the return of income.

In offline mode, the return is filed in a physical paper form. Once you submit your form, the income tax department will issue an acknowledgement at the time of submission.

Online

Through this mode, you can submit your form online and then e-verify your submission through net banking, Aadhar OTP, or EVC. If you don't want to e-verify your return, you can sign it and send it to the Income Tax Department’s CPC office in Bangalore within 120 days of e-filing.

Once you submit your form electronically, you will receive the acknowledgement on your registered email id. You can download the acknowledgement received on email or from the income tax site.

What Are the Different Parts of ITR-1?

The ITR 1 form is divided into seven different parts:

Part A – General Info

This section has general information like your name, address, PAN number, Aadhar number, Mobile number, Email address, Return filing details and nature of employment like Govt/Pensioners/PSU/Other.

Part B – Income Sources & Details

This tab includes details related to your gross total income. This is divided into four parts

Part C – Deductions from Gross Total Income

This part includes all the deductions and taxable total income. It has deduction under 80C, 80CCC, 80CCD(1), 80CCD(1B), 80CCD(2), 80DD, s80DDB, 80E, 80EE, 80EEA, 80EEB, 80GG, 80GGC, 80U. It also has the value of total deduction and total income.

Taxation in India also has provisions for you to reduce your taxable income up to Rs. 2.5 lakh by following allowed exemptions.

Few of the most popular deduction options under Section 80 are:

Part D – Tax Liability

This section includes all the valuation of tax payable. It has sub-sections like tax payable on total income, Rebate u/s 87A, Total tax, fee and interest, total tax paid, refund and exempt income.

Part E – Bank Details for Refunds

This includes your bank details like name of the bank, account number and IFSC code of the bank. You should add all the bank accounts that are linked to your PAN number in this section. You also have to choose the account in which you want the income tax department to initiate the refund if any.

Schedule IT

This schedule carries income tax details of self-assessment tax and advance tax payments.

Schedule-TDS -TDS details of TDS/TCS

When you start the return filing process, you may notice most of the details are auto populated. The details are picked up from your Form 16 and other TDS filings by the deductors. Before submitting the form, ensure all the details provided are correct. If there is some mismatch, you can manually correct it.