Filling Income Tax Return made easy with new ‘Sahaj’ ITR form being implemented from today.

Filling the ITR has become further easy as the income tax department has unveiled a new tax return form, Sahaj, which will be effective from April 1 2017 for individuals having an annual income of up to Rs 50 lakh. The one-page simplified form makes it mandatory to disclose any cash deposits of more than Rs 2 lakh in bank accounts between November 9 and December 30, 2016, the period when the demonetization drive was in force.

Taxpayers will have to mention their 12-digit Aadhaar number as well as the PAN number. In case you don’t have an Aadhaar number you will have to provide details of the 28-digit Aadhaar enrolment number if you are eligible for it. The forms will be applicable for the assessment year 2017-18. The total number of return forms have also been brought down from nine to seven. The one-page simplified I-T return (ITR) form has columns for details on salary income besides income from other sources, including house property and bank interest. It has fewer rows compared to the previous forms.

The department’s motive to introduce this form is to reduce the compliance burden to a significant extent on the individual tax payer. This will benefit more than two crore tax-payers, who will be eligible to file their return of income in this simplified form. The tax department also said that there is no change in the manner of filing returns compared to last year. All these forms are to be filed electronically.

Those who are 80 years or more have the option to file their returns in paper form. An individual or a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) whose income does not exceed Rs 5 lakh and who has not claimed any refund can also file in paper form.

Normally, the tax department notifies new I-T return forms sometime after the start of the financial year. This is the first time that the department has notified it on the last day of the 2016-17 financial year. Successive governments have tried to simplify IT return forms. The government intends to undertake several measures to ensure that the tax department is tax-payer friendly. To get more details and to fill ITR online, click on the link below – 

https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/