How to E-File your Income Tax Return – Free Guide

When the last date of IT filing arrives close, every taxpayer worries about how to calculate the taxable income and online e-filing of the income tax return. The income tax return has to be mandatorily e filed in case your income is above the basic slab rate. However, paper returns can be filed by those who are above 80 years of age and do not have any income from regular business or profession. The filing is done by a professional like CA or you can do it yourself. You can use the official website for e-filing. There are two questions that rise in the mind-what is e-filing and how e-filing is done?

What is Income Tax E-Filing?

E-Filing stands for electronically filing and it is the process of electronically filing of income tax return via the internet.

Types of Income Tax E-Filing:

E-filing of IT Return online via three ways-

• By using Digital Signature Certificate (DSC)
• Without Digital Signature Certificate
• Using an e-Return Intermediary (ERI) with or without DSC

Step by Step Guideline to E-Filing of ITR:

Here we describe an easy procedure of e-filing using the official website of the income tax department. We would like to give a suggestion before starting the process of filing, first of all, you have to check out your bank statements, Form 16 issued and keep a copy of the previous return in hand.

To Upload Income Tax Return by Yourself:-

• Go to the homepage of the official website https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/ On the right side, you will see a downloads section. Click on “Common Offline Utility”
• After that, select the appropriate assessment year and download the utility
• Fill the utility and validate
• Now create a JSON file and save the same in the respective folder of your computer
• Log in to your ITR e-filing software panel and go to the Upload Return section of a software
• Select options such as income tax return and assessment year
• After that browse the JSON file and select it
• If you have an applicable Digital Signature Certificate then upload it
• It is a very simple step, just click on Submit button
• When the form is successfully uploaded then Acknowledgment details would be showcased. After that, you can get the printout of the Acknowledgment by clicking on the View link
• In case you have already verified your return through the DSC or Aadhar-based OTP/EVC then you don’t need to send the physical copy of ITR V at CPC otherwise a physical copy of ITR V duly signed has to be sent to CPC Bangalore.

To Upload Income Tax Return by E-Return Intermediary (ERI) Chartered Accountant:-

• A procedure is the same for filing a return except that in the case of filing through ERI, a return can be rejected by the department.
• For filing returns through the ERI channel, an option is provided on the right-hand side of the “Online activities” button. Select it.
• After that click on ‘return submit and click on ‘online activities
• After uploading the return, it will show the following message
  “File successfully uploaded on the website, Remaining credit is.”
• On the main page of computation, a link will be highlighted “Get Status”
• The status of the return filed through ERI is updated by the Income Tax Department from 10 minutes to 24 hours.
• In case of rejection of any return, a Token Number and date on which the return uploaded on the department server are given.

Note: The ERI option is not working for the current financial year. The above steps are taken from the previous FY.