ClearTax

Awesome. The best thing for you is to efile your Income Tax return as soon as possible. The earlier you submit, the sooner you'll get the tax refund. Start here for efiling

Typically you'll need to have the following items at hand. This might vary on a case by case basis.

• PAN number
• Form-16 issued by your employer
• Bank statements / passbook for Interest Income on bank deposits.
• Statements of Interest Income besides Bank deposits
• TDS certificates issued to you by your bank and others
• Form 26AS - The Income Tax department of the Indian government shows you the tax credit you have received for Tax deducted at source. This typically should match all your TDS certificates. Link to Indian Government site to view Form 26AS
• Section 80C investment statements. Investments done under LIC, NSC, PPF qualify for Section 80C deductions.
• Charitable donation statements. Donations that can be claimed for tax deductions under Section 80G. Typically the receipt issued by the institute you donate to mentions the eligibility under Section 80G.
• Interest paid on housing loan. Interest on housing loan is eligible for tax saving upto Rs 1,50,000. This is for a self-occupied house.

The following documents may also be needed for tax filing

• Stock trading statement. The stock trades that were made during the year may be taxed under Capital Gain.
• Section80CCF investments. Upto Rs. 20,000 can be claimed as tax deduction under this section
• Education loan interest payments.

Once you're logged in and have started working on a return, notice the first link on the top.
It should show you the Assessment Year you're currently working on. Eg: A.Y. 2012-2013.
To change the Assessment Year, simply click on the link. This will take you to a page where you can choose the desired year.
Press the "Save" button once you're done selecting and you'll be redirected back to where you were.

The Income Tax department does not like to accept Tax returns which have taxes due. They like to give you a nice little refund. Use ClearTax to figure out how much you precisely owe. Then pay the government what you owe.
Once you are done paying, use our site to quickly efile your tax return.

There are two ways. One online, the other offline. Most banks (almost all) will accept your income tax payment. So if you find that convenient, use our nifty FREE tool to generate a challan. This challan (Challan 280) has all the details you need for making the payment to the bank. Print it and you are done. If you don't know how much you owe, find out that first by creating a free account.
If you wish to make the payment online, go to this government website and make the payment! Select Challan 280. Use our free calculator to figure out what you owe.

Short answer: Use ClearTax. Slightly longer answer: Besides the regular calculation of sum of all Income - Tax deductions - Tax slab exemption; you still have to calculate the Interest under section 234 which might be due. That is somewhat non-trivial to do. We highly recommend you use our free income tax calculator to do it. It also handles interest due under section 234. We don't charge for this service and we stand behind the tax calculator's correctness.

Interest paid on a housing loan is eligible for tax deduction for self occupied property. The loan amount should be spent on either acquisition or construction of the house property.

• If the loan is taken after April 1, 1999, then you may claim upto Rs. 1,50,000 as tax deduction on interest paid every year.
• If the loan is taken before April 1, 1999, then you may claim upto Rs. 30,000 as tax deduction on interest paid every year.

You can save upto Rs. 30,000. Slightly tricky so pay attention. If you take a loan for doing the renovation, then you can claim the interest paid on this loan as a tax deduction (subject to a max of Rs. 30,000). Note that this house has to be occupied by you.

Eligibility rules for this deduction: A deduction on a self occupied house property is available only after you occupy it. But typically a loan is taken before you take possession of the house property. This period (from borrowing until possession of the house) is termed as the "pre-construction period". Any interest paid during this pre-construction period is claimable for a tax deduction after you acquire/construct the house property. For 5 successive years after pre-construction, every year you can claim One-Fifth (1/5) of the interest amount you paid during pre-construction. So for example if you paid Rs 1,00,000 interest during pre-construction. You can claim Rs. 20,000 every year for 5 years.
What do you need to provide:

• The previous financial year when construction completed. Basically if construction completed on 17th July 2010, you need to specify 2009-10
• The total interest amount you paid during the pre-construction period. So from date of borrowing till 31st March of previous financial year. Note that 31st March is when financial year ends in India.

Actually leaving the field blank in the application is not a bad idea. At least in Delhi the department assigns the correct AO and issues the PAN card.
If you want to figure out the AO - you can use the Income Tax Government website: Go to this link. Select your state and go from there. (Note that only Internet Explorer worked for me, so use IE). The AO assignment is based on the first initial of your last name.