Income Tax Return Filing: Check Common Mistakes To Avoid At The Time Of Tax Filing

Income Tax Filing - Mistakes may result in delay in getting the refund besides posing other difficulties. You can seek the help of professionals such as chartered accountants, tax filing websites, or tax return preparers.

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Income Tax Filing: Even as the deadline for filing income-tax returns (ITR) for FY 2019-20 (AY 2020-21) has been extended by a month till 31 December, 2021 in view of the pandemic, it’s better that to file it before time instead of leaving it for the last minute. It is important to get all the required information and documents in place to complete the process within the time limit. The Income-Tax (I-T) Department has notified seven forms—from ITR 1 to ITR 7. Always make sure that you select the right one, based on your income level, sources of income, and other criteria as mentioned. Also Read: Are You Worried About I-T Returns Refund For FY19-20? Know The Reason For Delay At the time of filing tax returns online, you may end up making errors because you have to provide a lot of inputs. It is better to avoid any mistakes which may cost you dearly. Here are some of the common mistakes that an income tax assessee can avoid at the time of filing returns.

• Choose the correct form: The first step to filing returns is to choose the correct form. Out of the seven forms, only four are for individuals and are applicable depending on their situation. Also note incase of filing the wrong form, it will considered by the IT department as a failure to file returns.
• Check on basic details: It’s most important to ensure basic details such as Permanent Account Number (PAN), name, date of birth and address are filled correctly. Your name and date of birth should match with that mentioned on your PAN card.
• Avoid errors in bank details: Most of the times you end up filling wrong details of the bank in the ITR form, especially the IFSC code of the bank. As the refunds are issued only through ECS, it's important to ensure you submit the correct bank details, like the 9 digit account number. Also, make sure that the mentioned bank account on the form is an active account. Enter the correct bank account number along with the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) code for the account in which you want the tax refund credited.
• Check on other details: Make sure that you have put the correct Tax Deducted Account Number of the employer or other deductors in the tax deducted at source (TDS) information sheet. In case of a mistake, the income tax (I-T) department may not allow tax credit for TDS from the deductor concerned. You may face this issue even when incorrect income tax challan number is used at the time of paying self-assessment tax apart from filing the wrong assessment year. In both these cases, tax credit is not received for the year concerned.
• Mention income correctly: Some of the incomes that people typically forget to report include that from sale of shares or mutual fund units, and interest earned on a savings account or fixed deposit. It is important to report report all equity shares and mutual fund units transactions leading to gain or loss. Also, remember that interest earned on a savings bank account is also important, even if earnings up to ₹ 10,000 per annum are tax exempt.
• Provide the right correspondence details: Another common mistake is the submission of email ids. Ensure you mention your personal email address and not your official email address in case of communication. It is better to provide official address because you may change jobs which will make the communication from the IT department diffciult. The same goes for your mobile number, give in details of your personal mobile number and not your official mobile number.