The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has released the income tax return (ITR) form to be used by individuals earning business income for the assessment year 2018-19. Assessment year is the year immediately succeeding the financial year.

ITR 4, or commonly known as Sugam, is to be filed those by individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) who have opted for the presumptive income scheme for income earned from business and profession during the financial year 2017-18 under sections 44AD, 44ADA, and 44AE of the Income-tax Act, 1961 .

Who can fill ITR form 4?
To be eligible for filing ITR form 4, gross receipts of professionals and self-employed should not exceed Rs 50 lakh during a financial year under section 44ADA. For non-professionals who earn income from business, to be eligible for the scheme, gross receipts in a financial year should not exceeding Rs 2 crore. Further, individuals engaged in goods transportation with not more than 10 good carriages can file ITR 4 if they have opted for presumptive income scheme under section 44AE.

Changes made in ITR form 4
This is not the first time the government has made modifications to ITR form 4. "Until FY 15-16, ITR form 4S was applicable for such class, then for FY 16-17 it was renamed as ITR 4 along with various other changes. Keeping with the trend, this year, too, various changes have been made in ITR 4, while the name of form remains unchanged. These changes include quoting of GST number and the amount of turnover as per GST return, the number of details of financial particulars has been increased, the codes for selecting nature of business or profession while filing return have been changed, and so on. Therefore, it is clearly evident that day by day, the department is increasing the reporting requirements allowing little wiggle room for tax evaders," adds Abhishek Soni, CEO, tax2win.in, a tax-filing firm.

The CBDT, in a press release issued in April, had stated that there is no change in the manner of filing of ITR. All ITR forms are to be filed electronically. However, those who are required to file ITR-1 (Sahaj) or ITR-4 (Sugam), can file it in paper form if they satisfy the below mentioned conditions:
a) The individual is of age of 80 years or more at any time during the previous year; or,

b) The individual or HUF's income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh and who has not claimed a refund while filing ITR.

Earlier on April 14, 2018, the tax department had notified ITR form 1 for salaried individuals. As per the changes made in the single page form, only resident individuals (other than not ordinarily resident) who can use this form should have income up to Rs 50 lakh, and earn income from salary, have one house property and other income such as interest while providing break up of their salary income and income from house property. The deadline to file ITR is July 31, 2018.