ITR Filing: In order to make filing of income tax returns easier, information on capital gains from equities or debt-related investments, dividend from mutual funds, interest on bank deposits and savings accounts or other incomes from investments will soon be a part of the pre-filled ITR forms. A taxpayer will have to check the details and if there is no discrepancy, then he can file the returns. It will also save the hassles of calculating the capital gains.

According to media reports, the government is in talks with the markets regulator to get details of investment returns of taxpayers. The pre-filled forms will have salary break-up from Form 16.

In this year’s Budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that pre-filled ITRs will be made available to taxpayers which will contain details of salary income, capital gains from securities, bank interests, dividends, etc., and tax deductions will make the filing of accurate tax returns simple. Information regarding incomes and tax deduction at source will be collected from banks, stock exchanges, mutual funds, EPFO, state registration departments, etc. The finance minister also announced implementation of faceless scrutiny assessments.

Pre-populated tax forms
At present, taxpayers use online portals for tax filings, wherein personal details like name, father’s name, address, Aadhaar number, bank account number and tax-paid information are pre-populated in the tax form. The government will provide pre-populated tax forms to taxpayers with information from their Form 26AS, financial transactions and government bodies such as banks and EPFO linked to their Aadhaar and PAN. While filing returns, ITR-1 and ITR-4 forms have pre-filled information about the assessee.

For assessment year 2019-20, the government had extended the deadline for filing ITR to August 31. Taxpayers must verify the pre-filled ITR form before submitting it for assessment. The data in the pre-filled form should match that of Form 16 issued by the employer. An individual can file ITR-1 if his total income is less than Rs 50 lakh. The source of income should be income from salaries, one house property, other sources like interest from bank deposit. If there are any capital gains, then the individual cannot file ITR-1.

Individuals earning up to Rs 50 lakh and declaring it under presumptive taxation scheme should use ITR-4. However, ITR-4 form is not applicable to an individual who is either a director of a company or has invested in unlisted equity shares. Individuals having income from capital gains will have to file ITR-2 form.

Document Identification Number
In order to keep a trail, starting from October 1 every communication to be issued by the income-tax department will have a Document Identification Number (DIN). It will be relating to assessment, appeals, enquiry, penalty, prosecution, etc. It will bring in transparency in the functioning of the tax administration as almost all notices and orders of the I-T department are being generated electronically.

However, the department has underlined that under five specific circumstances communication can be issued manually which include, technical difficulty in issuance of DIN, unavailability of concerned official in the office, delay in PAN migration, unavailability of PAN and functionality to issue communication in the system. Communication issued manually will be permitted only after recording reasons in writing and with the prior written approval of the Chief Commissioner or Director General of Income-Tax.

ITRs are randomly selected for scrutiny, where the I-T officer seeks additional information to verify taxable income as stated by the assessee. Scrutiny notice can be of two types: limited or complete scrutiny. In the former, the taxpayer is required to submit details with respect to specified transaction/ query for which scrutiny has been initiated. Under complete scrutiny, a tax officer can ask the taxpayer to show a detailed list of documents/information. Individuals can reply to the notice online through one’s I-T account.