The last day for filing your income tax return (ITR) for the financial year 2020-21 is on December 31, 2021. This year, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has extended the last date for filing ITR for FY2020-21 (AY2021-22) to December 31, 2021.
Generally, taxpayers are required to file ITR by July 31 of any year unless extended by the government.
The Income Tax Department is urging the taxpayers to file their ITR for the financial year 2020-21 or assessment year 2021-22 without any further delay. The department has been issuing reminders as the deadline to file a return is December 31.
What are the documents required to file ITR?
Form 16/ 16A is the certificate of deduction of tax at source and issued on deduction of tax by the employer on behalf of the employees. These certificates provide details of TDS / TCS for various transactions between deductor and deductee. It is mandatory to issue these certificates to Taxpayers.
The interest earned by an individual from a savings bank account, fixed deposits, recurring deposits, and post office savings account is considered to be ‘Income from Other Sources’ and is taxable. Thus, it is important to collect the interest certificates pertaining to these, in order to furnish the details of the total interest earned during the financial year.
You can lower your tax liability by claiming exemptions on the investments and expenditures that are eligible for exemption under Section 80C, Section 80CCC, and Section 80CCD(1) of the Income Tax Act. A few common tax-saving investments and expenses are Employees Provident Fund, National Pension Scheme, Life insurance premiums paid, Investments in ELSS schemes of mutual funds, and Public Provident Fund etc.
Form 26AS reflects the details of every tax deducted from your income by any deductor and deposited on your behalf.
For salaried taxpayers, it is important to keep the salary slip ready. The salary slip consists of all the basic details related to the salary of an individual including basic salary, Dearness Allowance (DA), TDS amount, House Rent Allowances(HRA), Travelling Allowances (TA), standard deductions, etc. These details are necessary to file income tax returns.
In case you have invested in shares, mutual funds, etc., you are required to collect a capital gain statement. This statement will be issued by your broking house. It contains the details of all the short-term capital gains that are required to be paid in case you have exited certain shares before the tenure of 1 year. Even though you may not have to pay taxes on long-term capital gains, you are required to mention them as well in your statement.
There is a stay order on the Aadhaar and PAN linking mandate, as the judgment is pending in the Supreme Court. However, it is recommended to keep the Aadhaar card ready as you are needed to provide your Aadhaar number in the ITR form. Aadhaar number makes the e-verification process simpler as you would just have to use the One Time Password (OTP) that is sent to your phone number which is registered with your Aadhaar.
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