Income Tax News: That awful time of year is back! Yes, you must begin filing your Income Tax Returns (ITRs), and the Income Tax Department has notified that the option is now available. In fact, the ITR filing date 2024 has been active since April 1, 2024.
Prepare Your Documents
So, dust off your bank passbooks and other proofs of expenditures, as well as any tax-saving instruments you have invested in, and gather them in one place to figure out how much you owe the taxman for the previous fiscal year (relevant to Fiscal Year 2023-24).
According to the Central Board of Direct Taxes, “The ITR functionalities i.e. ITR-1, ITR-2 and ITR-4, commonly used by taxpayers are available on the e-filing portal from 1st April, 2024 onwards for taxpayers to file their Returns. Companies will also be able to file their ITRs through ITR-6 from April 1 onwards.”
Notably, this is the first time in many years that the Income Tax department has authorized ITR filing from the first day of the new fiscal year. In fact, CBDT indicated in a letter that up to 23,000 ITRs for fiscal year 2024-25 have already been filed to date.
Understanding the Annual Information Statement (AIS)
The Annual Information Statement (AIS) is a summary of a taxpayer’s financial transactions included in Form 26AS, which includes information on all Tax Deducted or Collected at Source (TDS/TCS) as well as interest, dividend, stock market, and mutual fund transactions. When filing an income tax return, the taxpayer receives a thorough summary via AIS and Form 26AS, which he or she can accept as correct or provide feedback if there are any inconsistencies.
