10 Things You Must Do Before Filing Your Income Tax Return

Filing a return for your income tax purpose is sure a vital issue and requires to be handled with utmost care and responsibility, thus there are certain areas which shall be focused upon and are listed below:

    * Identify source of Income: an assessee should primarily be able to identify all his income in separate groups as income from house property, income from salary, income from capital gain, etc., so that total income can be generated by summing up the total income.

    * Reference of basic documents: Returns shall be filed on the basis of documents that show the receipts and expenditure of the assessee. The presence of receipts acts a document of proof. Sales ledger and purchase ledger along with P/L and Balance sheet is also required.

    * Computation of tax liability: Proper computation of tax liability shall be carried for the purpose of determination of tax liability. For this purpose the return to be filed shall be with the help of a Chartered Accountant who is an expert in this field. He shall verify all the documents and the basis on which such return has been computed.

    * Choice of right form: One should know exactly what kind of form is required to fill before he files his income tax return. Taking an instance, any salaried class person should have the knowledge that he shall submit his return in either form no-ITR-1 or ITR-2.

    * Filling up the application form: Application form should be taken very seriously as they form the prime basis on which verification and scrutiny is carried on. Assessee should ensure that all hi personal details are filled in are correct and other information are true to his knowledge as any contradiction can lead to serious troubles.

    * Claiming of deductions: All deductions shall be claimed by the assessee at the time of filing of return as missing out on any one can result in a higher tax liability of the assessee. The most common deductions in such respect fall under the section 80C, 80G and other housing loans.

    * Information with regard to Specified investments: Proper disclosures shall be made by the assessee with respect to any investment made by the assessee as they too provide exemption in many areas. Summary of all bank accounts along with income of minor child shall also be included for such purpose.

    * Claiming a loss: This is one point where one should not miss out. Claiming of loss while filing of return is an area one can very well reduce his tax liability by way of any is which had previously occurred and no set off was allowed against it then.

    * Filing by the due date and at the right jurisdiction: Filing of income tax return is the most essential part as any delay in such would attract various provisions of the law. The due date of filing of return is 31st July for each financial year. The assessee can file return in any form, that is, either electronically or manually.

    * Maintaining documents for future references: Maintenance of the documents for future reference is an important issue as they are very useful as a source of formation of various statements which forms the basis of filing income tax returns at the time of scrutiny process. Future documents are needed to be maintained for at least a period of 8 years.