The preparation of the process of filing income tax returns begins with the collection of various documents that will go into compiling the working for the taxable income and the tax to be paid there. Within this there are a few important things that one must not miss out and hence if these are available with the individual beforehand then there is no problem in making the various computations and paying the required amount of tax. Here is a closer look at some of the important documents that would need to be present.

Form 16

One of the basic requirements for the salaried is the presence of the Form 16. This is useful due to a number of reasons where the first one is that for the salaried individual all the information is present at a single place so a lot of the work for the individual taxpayer is done as this becomes the basis on which most of the details in the tax return is available for use. In addition to this there is also an idea of the kind of deductions that have been considered by the employer and the individual can then check these against the documents that they have and the actual amounts invested so that they are able to claim the right amount. The different incomes that are considered in the Form 16 will also give an idea about the incomes that still need to be added at the time of the filing of the return.

Interest deduction certificate

If there is a housing loan that an individual has then there would be the equated monthly instalments that are repaid during the year. These consist of two parts -
interest and capital repayment. Depending upon the rate of interest that is applicable plus the time period and the amount on the loan that remains outstanding there will be a split in the EMI amount between these two heads of interest and capital. The financial institution to whom the housing loan EMI is paid would give a certificate at the end of the year that would give the break-up of the interest and the capital and this would be required for the purpose of claiming the tax benefit for the year on housing loans.

TDS details

There would be several other incomes for the individual which could include the likes of fixed deposit interest or even some professional income and when this is received there is likely to be a tax deduction at source on the amounts earned on them. This will be required for the purpose of filing the tax return because the credit of the tax deducted would have to be claimed at the time of the return filing. If there are TDS certificates then these have to be collected for all the different sources of income and this would help in the matter because there would be both the presence of the income earned from these routes as well as the tax deducted on them at the same place that can be used for the tax workings.

Investment details

There are other documents like the PPF investment slip or the premium paid receipts on various insurance products which would be both the life insurance ones and the health insurance that would be essential for the income tax return filing. In addition investments that give a tax benefit like some investment in equity linked savings scheme or even the senior citizen savings scheme and so on would require some proof of these investments. If there is a copy of the receipts or the statements that show the respective investments made during the year then it makes the entire return filing process even easier as the details can be considered without much trouble.