That dreaded time of the year is back! Yes, you must start your Income Tax Return filing (ITR filing) and for that the Income Tax department has announced that the facility is available. In fact, ITR filing date 2024 has been live since April 1, 2024. So, brush off all the dust from your bank passbooks and other proofs of expenditures as well as tax saving instruments you have invested in, gather them in one place and figure out how much you owe the taxman for the last fiscal (relevant to Financial Year 2023-24).
According to the Central Board of Direct Taxes, “The ITR functionalities i.e. ITR-1, ITR-2 and ITR-4, commonly used by taxpayers are available on the e-filing portal from 1st April, 2024 onwards for taxpayers to file their Returns. Companies will also be able to file their ITRs through ITR-6 from April 1 onwards.” Notably, this is the first time in quite a few years that the Income Tax department has enabled ITR filing from the first day of the new fiscal.
In fact, CBDT, in a note, revealed that as many as 23,000 ITRs for A.Y. 2024-25 have already been filed till date.
But hold on! Should you really be in a huge hurry to get rid of this heavy task as early as this, or should you wait? Well, here is a case for doing your ITR filing later.
In its report, the Indian Express quoted tax experts as saying that ideally, taxpayers should wait. The reason? The Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Form 26AS are not updated till March 31, which is the last date of the previous fiscal. So, to avoid any divergence in your claims and the final data that appears in these forms, for whatever reason, it is better to wait for them to be fully updated.
These two important notes provide the exact details about the Tax Deducted at Source (TDS), bank interest and other financial information regarding your transactions.
So, to avoid making errors, avoid any hurry for your ITR filing 2024 and it would better to wait for the updating of AIS and Form 26AS.
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