Income Tax Portal Update: Common Offline Utility available for Filing ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3 and ITR-4

The income tax department has enabled the common offline utility for filing ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3 and ITR-4 to download. The taxpayers or the needful can download the same from the official website of the Income tax department. The last date to file ITR without penalty or fine is 31st July 2023.  The taxpayer has to select suitable ITR forms for the filing with the help of a tax expert.

Any taxpayer choosing offline mode (rather than online mode) to file Income Tax Returns needs to use the Offline Utility for ITRs. With the utilities, you can file Income Tax Returns (ITRs) by uploading the utility-generated JSON:

1. Post login to the e-Filing portal, or
2. Directly through the offline utility

This service on the e-Filing portal offers two separate offline utilities for filing ITRs which are as follows:

1. ITR-1 to ITR-4, and
2. ITR-5 to ITR-7

Prerequisites for availing this service

1. Registered user on the e-Filing portal
2. Valid user ID and password for filing ITR through the offline utility
3. Downloaded offline utility for ITR-1 to ITR-4, or ITR-5 to ITR-7

Steps to file Common Offline Utilities

1. Go to official e-filing website of Income Tax Department – https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal
2. Navigate to the ‘Downloads’ tab.
3. Select the appropriate Assessment Year
4. Download the utility (latest version)

The ITR utility software introduced by the income tax department eases the filing of Income Tax Returns. The ITR utilities are fillable forms that the users can download from the Income Tax  website, save on their computers, fill out, and then upload back to the website. Excel utilities are the names given to the forms because they are available in Excel format. These are also available in the JSON form.

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