Income Tax: Filing ITR early this time? It is vital to know these 5 key points

The financial year 2023-24 culminated exactly 45 days ago and the last date to file income tax return (ITR) of July 31 is 75 days ahead. Although you still have ample time to get your act together and file your return at a later stage, this is high time for an individual taxpayer to at least begin the income tax e-filing process.

And before you take a plunge into the process, you can go through some of the key points which are vital to know beforehand. Here are key things to know for taxpayer beforehand:

1. Forms released: The income tax department has released all the relevant ITR forms and are available for taxpayers to fill them online. There is a provision of e-filing set up which you can download on your computer. It also enables you to download the pre-filled data.

The e-filing utility which you can download on your computer gives you three download or import options.

A. Download pre-filled data

B. Import pre-filled data

C. Import draft ITR filled in online mode as shown in the image below

2. Choose form carefully: Meanwhile, it is quite vital to choose the income tax form carefully. For instance, while ITR-1 is meant for taxpayers having total income up to ₹50 lakh from salaries, one house property, other sources and agri income up to ₹5,000 whereas if your income is coming from profits and gains of business or profession, you need to opt for ITR-3.

Additionally, if you are in a business or profession and your income which is up to ₹50 lakh is computed under presumptive tax provisions of 44AD, 44ADA or 44AE, you can fill ITR-4.

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3. Tax regime: It is vital to note you should specifically opt for the old tax regime if you want to avail some of the exemptions missing in the new tax regime. Since the new tax regime is the default regime, one has to opt for the old regime if you want to pay tax according to those provisions.

4. Calculator: You can even use the income tax calculator on the income tax department website to compute your exact tax based on the latest provisions. The calculator can be accessed here.

Additionally, you can fill in your income details to decide which regime is more beneficial to you by using another calculator which can be accessed here that gives a comparative analysis between the two tax regimes.

ALSO READ | Income Tax: Want to opt out of the new tax regime? Here is a step-by-step guide

5. Exemptions: Another salient feature which taxpayers must be mindful of is that they can avail income tax exemptions only if they invested in those tax-saving instruments before March 31, 2024.

Any investment made after this deadline can not be considered to avail exemptions while filing income tax return for FY 2023-24.