Nothing proves your financial wisdom and ethics like tax compliance – timely filing of ITR. Filing your income tax return is not as difficult as it sounds. Here is a step-by-step guide to e-file your income tax return using ClearTax. It is simple, easy and quick. Steps to e-file your income tax returns online:

How to File ITR? – Steps to e-File Your ITR

ITR e-Filing – Login & Required Documents

Before we get started, you should have the following documents at hand to pace up the process:

1. PAN
2. Aadhaar
3. Bank account details
4. Form 16
5. Other Income information
6. Investments details

Login

Login to your ClearTax account. You can file ITR yourself in 3 simple steps. To begin ITR filing, click on the ‘Start Filing’ link

Link Your PAN

Clear (previously ClearTax) allows you to access data from the income tax department and pre-fill information for preparing an income tax return. Link your PAN by entering ‘PAN Card Number’ and ‘Date of Birth’. 

The linking shall complete when you do an OTP verification. You can verify OTP by selecting ‘Aadhaar registered mobile number’ or ‘IT Department registered mobile number’.

Pre-fill Your Personal Information

To allow us to pre-fill your information from the income tax department, complete another OTP verification. This OTP verification is to capture all your personal information and income details in your income tax return with maximum security of your data.

This service feature saves you a lot of time and hassle with manual entries. We’ve made painstaking efforts to help you file the return in under 3 minutes. So proceed to do an OTP verification.

After OTP verification, the personal information and income details will be imported from the income tax department.

On the next page, you can preview all your details pre-filled. All you have to do is ensure that they are correct.

For more accurate filing, you can upload your Form 16. 

Upload Form 16 PDF and proceed.

And here are your salary details captured.

Did you switch jobs? 

We’ve got you covered. You can upload multiple Form 16s at a time. You can edit the values, if required, even after uploading the PDFs. 

Note: If you want to skip the pre-fill option, you can manually enter the details. 

Edit and Review Details

Personal Information

Go to the ‘Personal Info’ tab and check the pre-filled details. If you want to add or edit any information, you can make the changes and proceed.

Income Sources

Go to the ‘Income Sources’ tab. Hurray! Your salary details are also pre-filled. Just review the details to whether they are correct. If you did not select the pre-fill option earlier, you could upload your Form 16 or 26AS PDF to fetch the salary details.  

Next, you can enter income from house property, capital gain, business income, and other income sources. Then click on ‘Continue’ to proceed to enter tax-saving details.

Tax Saving

Under the ‘Deductions’ tab, review the investment details (e.g. LIC, PPF, etc.) captured. If you want to add more tax-saving details, you can edit the fields and claim tax benefits here.

Tip: Do you have kids? Claim benefits on their tuition fees under Section 80C 

Interests up to Rs 10,000 earned on your savings account maintained with a bank, post office, or co-operative society can be claimed as a deduction under 80E.

Enter the Taxes Paid Details

If you scroll down below, you can enter taxes-paid details. Add tax payments already made if you have any non-salary income, say, interest or freelance income.

You can also add these details by uploading Form 26AS. In the case of uploading Form 26AS, only the TDS details get auto-populated and not the income, hence required to enter the income details in the respective place.

You can claim relief under Section 89 of the Income Tax Act. Also, enter the self-assessment tax paid for the relevant financial year under the tab ‘Self tax payments’.

Other Disclosures

The Clear portal also allows you to make other important disclosures, as shown in the below screenshot.

View Summary, Compare, and Switch Tax Regimes

On the next page, you can also view the computation of your income tax. It will compare your tax under both old and new tax regimes.

The ClearTax portal allows you to switch the tax regime at this stage. You can also view and download your tax report.

Scroll down below, and you can go through all the details filled by you in each section and edit any of these items. To proceed, click on ‘File tax’.

Self-Declaration

You will need to declare that all the information in return, including the amounts, is correct. This step ensures that you have double-checked the information for its correctness and authorised ClearTax to file ITR on your behalf. To proceed, check the box and ‘Submit Declaration’.

Pay Taxes

You can view your tax due status in the computation. If any tax is due to be paid, you must pay the same and enter the challan details to proceed to e-file. Read this guide to know how to pay your tax dues.

If you see ‘Refund’ or ‘No Tax Due’ here, you can proceed to e-file. You will get an acknowledgement number on the next screen.

Make Payment

You can now make the payment for submitting your return through the Clear (previously ClearTax) portal. To do the same, click on ‘Pay and e-File now’.

Who doesn’t like some discount coupons while making a payment? 

Here you go! You can click on ‘view coupons’ and apply any one of the relevant coupons and avail the discount. Now make the payment from a host of payment options available to you. 

On completion, you will see a success message as shown below. 

ITR Submitted Successfully

If the ITR is successfully submitted to the income tax department, you can see the success message below.

e-Verify

Once your return is filed, e-verify your income tax return.

Important: Uploading ITR alone does not complete the return filing process. Verification of return is important to complete the return filing process.

Check our guide on how to e-Verify your return.

Read our Guide on how to link your PAN with Aadhaar.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is income tax return filing important?

The income tax department has mandated to file the return to individuals only in case their income is above the basic exemption limit or if they meet specific criteria like expenditure on foreign travel is more than Rs 2 lakh and electricity consumption of Rs 1 lakh or more, deposits of an amount/aggregate of an amount above Rs 1 crore in one or more current accounts, and other conditions that the government will notify.

Later, the government provided additional conditions via a notification dated 21st April 2022. It has notified below conditions where the taxpayer is required to file ITR:

• Total business turnover/sales/gross receipts during the FY exceeds Rs 60 lakh.
• Total gross receipts of the profession exceed Rs 10 lakh during the FY.
• The aggregate of TDS and TCS during the FY is Rs 25000 or more (for senior citizens, there is an increased limit of Rs 50,000).
• Total savings bank account deposits are Rs 50 lakh or more during the FY.

Other scenarios where it is mandatory to file ITR includes:

In the case of a resident whose asset is located outside India or has signing authority for an account based outside India. It is always good to file your ITR even if you are not eligible due to the benefits.

• Filing of ITR creates a valid proof of income.
• ITR is required for applying for any loan in the future.
• Banks require ITR even for applying for credit cards.
• ITR is required for VISA applications, etc.
• Hence it is advisable to file ITR even if your income is below the basic exemption limit.

What is income tax?

Income tax is a direct tax on your income. It means a portion of your income is paid to the government. The government charges this amount for expenditures related to health, education, providing subsidies to agriculture, infrastructure etc. It is paid by an individual/HUF/any taxpayer depending on income levels or gains in a financial year. A company has to pay income tax irrespective of the level of income. The government passes laws prescribing the rate of taxation on your income from time to time.

How to pay income tax online?

You have to pay your taxes before filing your tax return. If you are a salaried individual, then most of your tax liability is deducted from your salary by your employer in the form of TDS and paid to the government on your behalf. If you are liable to pay advance tax, you have to pay 90% of it before the 31st of March every financial year. You can file your ITR once the financial year ends.
The window to file ITR is generally open till the 31st of July of the relevant assessment year. However, the due date to file ITR may get extended, and the IT department will notify the same through notifications. It is always advisable to file your ITR within the due date. It’s worthwhile noting that you attract a late filing fee of Rs 5,000 on failing to file ITR within the due date of the assessment year.

How to save income tax?

There are many ways to save income tax through proper tax planning. Income tax Act provides certain deductions and exemptions that can be claimed, reducing your total taxable income and tax outflow. Below are some of the most common deductions and exemptions:

• Deduction up to Rs 1.5 lakh under 80C – Investment in tax saving options like 80 C- investing in ELSS, LIC, mutual funds, the deduction for tuition fees for children, the deduction for the principal amount of home loan, etc.
• Additional deduction of Rs 50,000 above Rs 1.5 lakh in 80 CCC(1B) for a contribution towards the National Pension Scheme of the Central government.
• Section 80D allows deduction of the medical insurance premium paid for self, spouse, dependant children (Rs 25,000/50,000 ) and dependent parents (Rs 25,000/50,000)
• 80G allows a deduction for donations made to recognised institutions and trusts as per specified limits.
• House rent allowance exemption is allowed partially or fully under Section 10(13A).
• Deduction for higher education loan under Section 80E.
• Deduction for a home loan paid under Section 24 up to Rs 2 lakh for the self-occupied and full amount if rented property

How to get an income tax return copy online?

• Log on to www.incometax.gov.in with credentials.
• Click on ‘e-File’> ‘View Filed Returns’.
• A window displaying a list of ITR filed will open.
• Now go to the relevant assessment year and ‘Download Receipt’.
• The ITR-V acknowledgement will be downloaded.

How to file an income tax return online?

You can file your ITR return online through the income tax e-filing portal or ClearTax. If you wish to file the return through the government portal, you have to file it using the “Offline” mode or the “Online” mode.

• In offline mode, you can log on to www.incometax.gov.in and download the JSON utilities of the appropriate ITR form from the tab Downloads>Income tax returns and download the utility of the relevant ITR form. A ZIP file will get downloaded. Please extract the ZIP file and fill all the relevant fields in the utility. The JSON file generated should be uploaded by logging in to your e-filing account. The verification of return through various options available and then submitted.
• To file ITR through offline mode, log on to the e-filing portal using PAN, password and enter the captcha. Go to the ‘e-file’ tab and open the ‘File Income Tax Return’ link from the drop-down. Fill in the relevant details such as assessment year, submission mode, filing type and ITR type. Upload the JSON file generated and submit the return. In the next step, e-verify your ITR.

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