Deadline to file income tax return for an individual is 31st July of the assessment year relevant to the previous year for which income tax return (ITR) is to be filed. For instance, for the financial year 2018-19 due date of filing was 31st July 2019 (extended by CBDT to 31st August 2019). Similarly for the financial year 2019-20, last date of filing income tax return would be 31st July 2020. Missing these deadlines will attract late filing fee, interest on tax unpaid and penalty. To make the process of IT return filing easier, you need to keep all the necessary documents ready before preparing your Income Tax return. Whether you prepare your ITR on your own or by taking the help of a chartered accountant, these below mentioned documents are a must to prepare and file your tax return.
Here is the list of documents that every salaried individual must keep in order to prepare income tax returns.
Form 16 – Most important document for ITR filing
As a salaried individual, form 16 is a must have documents for filing ITR. Employer issue from 16 as a TDS certificate to employees stating the details of income tax that has been deducted and deposited for the whole year against employee’s PAN. It’s mandatory for all employers to issue form 16 by downloading from traces portal if TDS has been deducted from salary.
Form 16 has two parts: part A and part B. It provides the following details to employees;
- Who has deducted income tax from your salary,
- PAN, TAN and address of the employer,
- What tax has been deducted and deposited to your PAN
- Total salary paid to you and income tax deducted out it and deposited in your PAN
- Salary break up
- Exempted allowances and perquisites
- Income tax deduction claimed employee
In case of any discrepancies, you must take up the matter with employer before filing your return of income.
Salary slips for the whole year
It’s always better to recalculate your income tax liability instead of relying upon the employer’s calculation. Your employer may have made some mistakes in calculating your income tax liability. Hence it’s advised to collect salary lips for the whole year to recalculate your income tax liability by taking into account your exemptions and deductions eligibility.
Your salary slip must have income tax deducted details for the month before calculating net salary. Calculate tax that has been deducted as per your salary slips for the whole year and compare it with the actual income tax deposited as per the Form 16. If any discrepancies found then take it with the employer to rectify the mistake before filing. Here is a list of details that you can calculate from your salary slips;
- Total income tax deducted by employer from your salary for the whole year – TDS on salary
- Employee provident fund contribution eligible for section 80C deduction
- House rent allowance received from employer per month and for the whole year
- Break up of each allowance
- Break up of basic and dearness allowances
Interest certificates from banks – Documents to know your other income
Many salaried individuals do not know that the interest on deposits with banks and post offices are taxable under the head income from other sources. In case TDS has been deducted then your bank will issue form 16A for the tax that is deducted out of interest.
You have to get all the interest incurred for the whole year from these deposits with bank or post office to include in taxable income. You can approach bank to issue interest certificate for the whole year or else calculate it from your passbook or bank statement.
As an individual, you can claim a deduction under section 80TTA on the interest from savings account maintained with a bank or post office. Section 80TTA deduction is up to Rs 10,000 for a financial year. This means if your total interest on saving bank account from all the banks and post office is Rs 25,000, then you can claim Rs 10,000 as tax deduction and balance amount of Rs 15,000 will be taxable.
Form 16A, 16B and 16C – TDS certificate to know other tax deductions
Similar to form 16, assessee should get form 16A, 16B and 16C in following cases;
- Form 16A – When tax has been deducted from any payments other than salary
- Form 16B – buyer will issue form 16B if you have sold your property to him and he has deducted tax from the consideration paid to you.
- Form 16C – If you are a landlord and TDS has been deducted from your rent. As per tax laws, an individual is required to deduct tax if monthly rent payment is more than Rs 50,000. In this case form 16C has to be issued by that individual to the landlord.
All these tax deductions must reflect in your form 26AS. You should also include respective incomes to your ITR, otherwise department may send you notice.
Form 26AS – Tax Credit Statement
Form 26AS is an online tax credit statement with all the details of tax that has been paid by you or credited to your PAN. Here is a list of details showing few tax credits you can find in your form 26AS;
- TDS amount deducted by your employer
- TDS amount deducted by your bank
- TDS amount deducted by any other organisation from your income
- Advance tax if any paid by you
- Self assessment tax paid by you
Based on your income, interest certificates from bank, form 16, 16A, 16B, 16C and salary slips, you have to make sure that form 26AS reflects all the tax credit that you are eligible to get.
Home loan statements – Documents to know interest and principle break up
If you have taken a home loan from banks or financial institutions, then don’t forget to take tax benefits of it while filing your return of income. You can also provide home loan statement with a declaration of calculating income/loss from house property to your employer to claim a tax deduction under section 80C and/or benefit of loss from house property, if any.
Home loan statement will give you break up details showing how much is towards principal and interest for the whole year.
If you have not submitted home loan statement and your calculation to employer, then collect this document and include tax benefits in your return of income. In this case, you need to keep these documents with you to show it to IT department in case asked for.
Aadhaar, Bank accounts and other details
Providing Aadhaar number is a must while filing IT return online individuals. You can link your Aadhaar to PAN in order to e-verify your ITR after filing instead of sending hard copies of acknowledgements to CPC, Bangalore.
You are also required to provide the following details of your bank account;
- IFSC
- Bank Name – Auto populated after entering IFSC, but need to cross check
- Account Number
You need to tick the account number in which you are interested to collect refund, if any.
Next most important thing is mobile number and email ID. All communication like successful filing of IT returns, issue of refund and in case of defective return and other notices are received through SMS to the mobile number and email ID provided by assessee. Therefore, it’s important to provide your own mobile number and email ID in the ITR.
Tax saving investment proofs – Documents to claim deductions
Under section 80C, 80CCC and 80CCD (1), you can claim a tax deduction up to Rs 1, 50,000 in a financial year. To claim this benefit, you need to collect documents to prove that you have paid or invested the money during the previous year.
In addition to section 80C, 80CCC and 80CCD(1), as an individual you are also eligible for tax deduction under section 80D to 80U of income tax act, 1961.
Here is a list of few documents that is considered as tax proof to claim deduction;
- Public provident fund statement
- Life insurance premium receipt
- Tuition fee payment receipts
- Investment proof for investing in ELSS schemes of mutual funds,
- Employee Provident Fund statements – You can get the details of your EPF contribution from salary slips
- Health insurance premium payment receipts
- Interest on education loan payment receipts.
If you are a salaried individual, then you need to submit these documents to your employer. On the basis of documents submitted and declaration provided, your employer will recalculate your tax liability to calculate and deduct TDS on salary.
If you are a non salaried person, then you have to calculate your tax liability on your own based on these documents and file your IT return accordingly.
Do you need to submit any documents or proofs with tax return?
Taxpayers often asks questions like Do I need to submit my documents or proofs with tax return to IT department? What documents are required to be submitted to the IT department?
No, you do not required to submit any documents or proof to IT department while filing your IT return or after that. Nothing is required to be attached even while sending ITR-V to CPC Bangalore office.
However, you need to produce these documents if IT department has asked for it during scrutiny.
Please note, according to section 139AA of income tax act, 1961, providing Aadhaar details in your IT return is mandatory. Without Aadhaar details you cannot file your IT return. Therefore, you need to provide it in return of income. If you are taking the help of a tax expert for filing return of income, then provide it to him so that you will not have unnecessary delay in filing. If you have applied for Aadhaar but haven’t issued yet, then you can file your return of income with the enrolment ID.
