Income Tax Return filing in India
Every assessee in India are required to prepare and file their Income Tax return for the income earned in the financial year on or before the due date prescribed under the Act.
Income tax return filing is an annual affair and is major source of revenue for the government as all the assessee has to make final computation of their tax liability and pay the same to the government before or at the time of their Income Tax Return filing if already they have not made full payment of tax by way of advance tax or TDS.
Normally, for an individual and HUF assessee, the due date for filing the tax return is 31st July every year. Also, the due dates for company assesses are 30th October. However, for those company’s on which transfer pricing provisions are applicable, the due date is 30th November. However, at the time of COVID pandemic or some other unforeseen circumstances, CBDT may also extend the due date of tax return filing. For instance, during FY 2020-21, the due dates of ITR Filing have been extended many a times.
Computation of Tax liability
For individual tax payers, there are 2 types of regimes for computation of tax liability i.e. old regime and new regime.
Old or Existing Tax Regime for tax computation
As per existing regime, tax liability is computed as under:
New Tax Regime for tax computation
The new tax regime is introduced under Section 115BAC of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The tax rate under different income slabs will be applicable for the Assessment Year 2021-22. This regime is for all the taxpayers including the Resident Indians as well as the Non-Resident Indians that are below 60 years in last financial year.
Points to be kept in mind:
While ITR Filing, any individual or taxpayer must be aware about the following points worth remembering-
Accordingly, a tax payer needs to decide very carefully whether they want to pay tax under old regime or under new regime. On basis of such decisions, proper tax payable may be computed and finally, income tax return may be filed.