The earlier you file your return, the quicker would be the processing of your refund if any.

It is the time for filing your income tax return for the financial year 2017-18. If you have a refund due to you, the only way of claiming it from the government is by filing a return of income. Archit Gupta, Founder & CEO ClearTax said that though there is time until July 31, 2018, to file your return for FY 2017-18, the earlier you file your return, the quicker would be the processing of your refund if any. So do not push filing to the last day.

“The salaried should receive their Form 16 any time before the 15th June. Moreover, the scheme for ITR -1 is already out and those of the other forms are expected to be out shortly. Therefore, start equipping yourself with all requisite details from now on and make sure to file your return well before the due date to promptly receive your refund,” said Gupta.

However, you can even file your income tax return (ITR) before getting your Form 16 and get the refund as early as possible but that need to be done very cautiously. One should ideally take help from Chartered Accountant or financial experts before filing early ITR.

Tapati Ghose, Partner, Deloitte India said that if Form 16 has not been issued by the employer within the due date for filing the return, the employee should reconcile the computation prepared by him with Form 26AS available in the income tax portal. If Form 26AS is not updated, the individual should file the return but with utmost caution.

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Adding further to the statement, Ghose said that “Once the updated Form 16/26AS is available on income tax website, a reconciliation is required to ensure that the salary income and TDS have been captured correctly, else a revised return has to be filed.”

All individuals whose gross total income (before deductions) exceeds Rs 2.5 lakh and Rs 3 lakh (for senior citizens) are mandatorily required to file tax returns on or before the due date, July 31.

Ghose said that an individual may compute taxable salary based on his payslips, employment contract, supporting documents for various reliefs (house rent, leave travel, medical expenses etc.). “The Form 16 issued by the employer is a mirror image of the information filed by the employer in its TDS returns and will also be reflected in the Form 26AS on the department’s portal. A mismatch in the return filed by the individual and the Form 16/26AS is likely to trigger a notice from the department,” she said.

Conclusion

Salaried individuals should ideally wait for their Form 16 which is provided by their employer before filing their returns. This probably helps them filing their ITR very easily without doing much of paperwork or doing an intense calculation where chances of mismatch may likely to happen and one may need to file a revised ITR again. Also, unknowingly you may get a notice from ITR department if the ITR is wrongly filed. Hence, it’s better to file ITR as soon as you get the Form 16 from your employer where the details of gross salary and TDS is available in Part A of Form 16 and the detailed break-up of the salary is present in Part B. This will help you in the hassle-free filing of your income tax returns.