A parliamentary panel raised the request for a common Income Tax Return (ITR) form to simplify the tax filing process for individuals and non-business taxpayers with the Ministry of Finance on Thursday.
According to a report by PTI, the ministry had proposed a user-friendly common income tax form for all taxpayers, except trusts and non-profit organisations in November last year. It had invited comments from stakeholders for the same.
The Standing Committee on Finance, chaired by BJP MP Jayant Sinha, had flagged the complications associated with the current tax filing process. It noted that the process was not user-friendly for any individual with income from multiple sources, such as salary, rent, and business income. Individuals had to depend on either a professional accountant or an expert in ITR filing to file their returns. Therefore, it requested the I-T department to make the process easier and simpler for the common man.
In its reply to the recommendations, the ministry has said, to make tax filing more convenient, pre-filled details of certain income, like salary, are being provided to individuals. The I-T department is further expanding the scope of pre-filing information by including details like house property income, bank interest, and dividends.
Further, the ministry is working on introducing a common ITR form, to simplify the tax filing process. It plans to merge all existing forms for the same, except ITR-7. It expects the proposed reform in the filing process to make things far easier for non-commercial and individual taxpayers.
“As a result of this new form, the time and energy of the taxpayer would be saved and he will be relieved of the additional burden of going through all the parts of the ITR as is the requirement under the existing ITRs,” the ministry said, as reported by Moneycontrol.
The committee further implored the ministry to expedite the process.