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Tax-filing is a tedious and complicated process. Even though the income tax department is trying to make it easy for tax payers, the need of tax consultants is prominent. All India ITR (www.allindiaitr.com), a government autho-rised e-filing website, recently launched a platform offering income tax return services for the Indian armed forces.

The website has focused on the tax-filing process of army officials, more so because of their tight schedules. All India ITR has provided an option where submission of only the necessary documents is required following which a tax expert will discuss the tax situation of the concerned person and file their return for them. Regardless of where they are stationed, this service can be availed either by online submission of documents or by getting in touch with a tax expert via their toll-free number, 1800-102-5807.

Announcing the new service, Vikas Dahiya, Founder and CEO of All India ITR, said, “Our armed forces epitomize gallantry which impacts millions of lives in an unprecedented manner. It is our privilege to extend this offer to our courageous armed forces, where once registered with us, we will be at their service through the year.”

On asking about the tax filing process, CA Abhishek Soni, CEO & Co-Founder at Tax2win.in, told BE about various  benefits of ITR and the dos and don’ts of income-tax filing.

1.  Benefits of filing income tax:

l    Accidental Claims: This is one of the benefits that come into the picture when you meet with an accident and want an accidental claim from the insurance companies. If you have your income tax returns with you then the court applies the simple formula to arrive at the claim amount. The formula for the claim is by multiplying the yearly
income in ITR with years of expected life of the deceased.

l    Refund:  An individual is eligible to claim the refund of the extra amount you paid to the department. There is no bigger joy than getting back your money from the Income Tax Department.

l    Eligibility in loan application: Income Tax Returns of the last three years is one of the basic documents required for loans. As this helps the banks in judging your pay back capacity.

l    Obtaining visa: For travelling abroad, foreign consulates of many countries ask you to furnish the last three years income tax returns or current year’s income tax return. The absence of any return can reduce the chances of you getting visa especially under the visitor, investor and work permit category.

l  Carry forward of losses: Filing ITR can help you carry forward your losses under different heads like house property, capital gain to be set off from future income.

l Protection against black money: If you diligently file your income tax return every year, then your savings will never be at risk of being termed as black money by the income tax officials, as any income not reported to the Income Tax Department comes under the radar of black money.

2. Dos and Don’ts of filing an income tax:

l  Choose the correct ITR to avoid non- compliance by the IT department.

l  Keep track of tax deduction at source (TDS) to avoid duplicate payment in the following ways:

1.  Collect and Verify the Form No.16 for the precise details of exemptions and deductions available.

2.  Collect and Verify form No.16A for the precise details of the amount of income, TDS, and PAN details.

3.   Verify your Tax credit through Form 26AS in government records.

4. Report all your sources of income in your ITR. The majority of people forget to report the following income sources:

a. Capital Gains on the switch of Units of same mutual funds house

b. Interest on fixed deposits and on saving bank account to avoid notices.

c.  Notional rent in respect of owning and occupying more than one house property.

5. You should report all your sources of income, even if your income falls under the exempt income category.

6.  Link your Aadhaar with PAN card before August 31.

l  In case you have already filed ITR do not forget to e-verify within 120 days of filing. Failure to verify your return within the time allotted makes it equivalent to non-filing.