Income Tax: Return still not filed? Don’t fret, follow these points for a seamless experience – hopefully!

If you have not yet filed your income tax return (ITR), you must be a brave individual. So, you should continue to demonstrate your bravery and not panic at this stage. Moreover, you still have three more days (including today) to go before the deadline ends on 15 September.

Although 5.95 crore returns were filed by Friday, and even if a 10 percent greater number of taxpayers file their returns this time, around 8 crore returns would get filed this time (based on the last year’s data of 7.28 crore). This means around 2 crore returns are expected to be filed in these three days.

ITR 2025: Remember these points

I. First of all, if it’s your first time, then you will have to register on the I-T portal before being able to log in. Read more about this here.

II. After you log in, you can evaluate your total tax with the help of the tax calculator, which you can find here. With the help of a calculator, you can find out how much tax liability arises after factoring in your current income and deductions.

III. You can then opt for the tax regime that leads to lower tax. The Income Tax portal also gives comparative tax as per the old and new tax regimes. You can find the calculator that gives you comparative figures here.

IV. It is important to have access to the necessary documents which have details with regards to your income and tax liability. These documents include Form 16, interest certificate, AIS (Annual Information Statement), and TIS (Taxpayer Information Summary).

While Form 16 is issued by the employer, an interest certificate can be downloaded from net banking. AIS and TIS can be downloaded from the I-T portal.

V. Another important thing to remember is to choose the correct income tax form. While ITR-1 and ITR-2 are used by salaried professionals, ITR-3 is meant for taxpayers with business and profession. This time, you can file ITR-1 even if you have long-term capital gains upto ₹1.25 lakh.

VI. There could be some discrepancy between the information you have (Form 16) and what the tax documents reveal (26AS). In such cases, the discrepancy needs to be reconciled. If there is a discrepancy, the taxpayer may even receive a defective return notice from the income tax department.

You can read more about here.

VII. Almost everyone is facing a problem in downloading the necessary forms because the site is slow now. So, you should not panic and try to stay calm.

VIII. Ideally, if this is your first time, you could engage a chartered accountant or a tax expert to file your return. This may turn out to be costly, but it will save you a lot of money that you would have had to pay in case of a defective return.

IX. Last but not least, make sure to verify your return. If you fail to verify the return, your return could become invalid.

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