All salaried individuals need to wait at least more than two months to file income tax returns (ITR) for the financial year 2023-24. As per the usual schedule, employers issue Form 16 around mid-June, i.e before June 15. For FY 2023-24 (assessment year 2024-25), Form 16 should be issued by June 15, 2024.

Form 16 is a crucial document that plays an instrumental role in filing income-tax returns (ITR), especially for salaried individuals. It is the responsibility of employers to provide their employees with Form 16 at the conclusion of every fiscal year. This significant document details the quantity of tax deducted from an employee’s pay, which has also been consequently submitted to the government on behalf of the said employee.

There are two parts of the Form 16. Form 16-A summarises an employee's tax deductions made by the employer and sent to the I-T department. It represents the employee's tax situation but should not be mistaken for Form 16. Both Form 16 and Form 16-A serve different purposes.

Form 16-B consolidates financial details like salary, deductions, and additional income for an employee. It includes data from both the employee and the employer, offering a comprehensive overview of the individual's financial situation.

The Income Tax department has set July 31 as the deadline to file ITRs of the given financial year, unless extended by the government. Therefore, if a company issues the Form 16 on June 15, the taxpayer exactly has 45 days to file his or her tax returns. 

The I-T Department has established a dedicated portal for e-filing income tax returns, which has recently notified six forms for this year's filing, along with ITR-V (verification form) and ITR acknowledgement form.

Last week, the I-T Department said the income tax return forms, ITR-1, ITR-2 and ITR-4, for FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25) are available for e-filing on its portal. Taxpayers eligible to file their tax returns can now login and fill their ITRs for FY 2023-24 using these ITR forms. 

The Income Tax department had earlier released the offline Excel utilities of ITR-1, ITR-2 and ITR-4. The offline JSON utilities for ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-4 and ITR-6 for FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25) have also been released.

There are seven types of ITR forms, ranging from ITR 1 (Sahaj), ITR 2, ITR 3, ITR 4, ITR 5, ITR 6, and ITR 7, for different individuals, businesses, and companies.  ITR-1 and ITR-4 are simpler forms that cater to a large number of small and medium taxpayers.

ITR-1 can be filed by a Resident Individual whose:
•    Total income does not exceed Rs 50 lakh during the FY
•    Income is from salary, one house property, family pension income, agricultural income (up to Rs 5000/-), and other sources, which include: 
o    Interest from Savings Accounts
o    Interest from Deposits (Bank / Post Office / Cooperative Society)
o    Interest from Income Tax Refund
o    Interest received on Enhanced Compensation
o    Any other Interest Income
o    Family Pension
•    Income of Spouse (other than those covered under Portuguese Civil Code) or Minor is clubbed (only if the source of income is within the specified limits as mentioned above).

ITR-4 (Sugam): ITR-4 can be filed by individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs), and firms (other than LLPs) with total income up to Rs 50 lakh and having income from business and profession. These taxpayers have income from Business and Profession, which is computed on a presumptive basis and income from salary/pension, other sources (interest, dividend etc.), one house property, and more”.

How to file ITR

Taxpayers can file their ITR either online or partially online, partially offline. One can file the IT returns partially online, partially offline using the JSON and Excel utilities.

Online: One can file income tax return online by logging into online accounts on the e-filing income tax portal. 

Going to the ‘File income tax return’ tab, most of the taxpayer’s data is pre-filled from their Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Form 26AS. One can cross-check from your documents and complete the form. Documents you need to file the ITR online are Form 16, Form 16A, any other TDS certificate, interest certificate, salary slips etc.

One can file ITR offline using utilities of JSON and Excel which can be downloaded from the e-filing income tax portal. Taxpayers can also get a pre-filled data in the offline utilities from your e-filing income tax account.

Once the required details are filled in the offline utilities, the same is required to be uploaded on the e-filing website.