Making it easier to file your income tax returns from this assessment year 2019-20 or financial year 2018-19, the Income Tax department is gathering data from various records to make your ITR form pre-filled with details of income and taxes paid.

"Download Prefilled XML is available for ITR 1, 2, 3 and 4 for AY 2019-20. For other ITR's it will be available shortly," the I-T department said in a recent note put out on its website.

Most individual taxpayers are required to file their tax returns under Forms 1, 2, 3 and 4. Since pre-filled data is now available on the e-filing website, you will not have to manually enter all details of income earned and taxes paid or deducted. The income tax department is collecting all data related to your income and taxes paid/deducted from various sources such as mutual fund houses, stock exchanges, EPFO, and banks, etc.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also announced in her budget speech that salary income, capital gains from securities, bank interests, and dividends etc. and tax deductions will be pre-filled in the ITR forms to make tax return filing easier and accuracy of reporting of income and taxes.

Which ITR form is meant for you?

The income tax department says the pre-filled tax claim data is as per the details available with e-filing application subject to assesse's independent verification. Therefore, you must still cross-check all data on the ITR form before submitting it.

Pre-filled data in ITR form:

1) The Income Tax department is using PAN database to fetch your PAN, name and date of birth.

2) When you log in the Income Tax e-filing portal, you will be asked to update your profile. The department will use details like address, Aadhaar card, mobile phone number and e-mail id from your profile to pre-fill the ITR.

3) Details of any advance, self-assessment tax paid by you and any TDS (tax deducted at source) on your behalf will also be pre-filled in the ITR. The income tax department will get the data from Form 26AS.

4) If you are a salaried individual, even the details of your salary income, allowances and deductions will be pre-filled using Form 24Q.

5) If you own a house property, details will be fetched using the last filed ITR while any income thereof will be fetched from Form 26AS.

6) For any interest earned from term deposit that you might hold, data will be similarly fetched from Form 26AS. The ITR will also have pre-filled data on dividend income, income from lotteries, etc.

7) In case you earned interest on income tax refund, under Section 244A of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the details will be pre-filled.

8) If you got salary or pension in arrears or in advance during the financial year, you are eligible to claim income tax relief under Section 89. These details will be already be pre-filled in the ITR using Form 24Q.

9) Bank account details shall also be pre-filled from the last filed ITR and e-filing profile.