Income tax is a tax paid to the central government on personal income. According to Income Tax Act 1961, every person who is an assessee [an Assessee is a person by whom any tax or any other sum of money (eg. interest, penalty, fine, etc) is payable under the Income Tax Act] and whose total income exceeds the maximum exemption limit shall be chargeable to the income tax at the rate prescribed in the Finance Act.

Section 139(1) of the Income Tax Act has been revised w.e.f 1/8/1998 with the view to make it obligatory upon any person to file return if he/she satisfies any one of the six conditions:

• Is the owner or the lessee (the user of equipment or property being leased/rented out for a time period) of a Motor vehicle
  
• Occupies specified floor area of an immovable property
  
• Incurs expenditure for himself or any other person on foreign-travel
  
• Subscribes to a telephone
  
• Is a holder of the credit card, not being an 'add-on' card, issued by any bank or institution
  
• Is a member of a club where the entrance fee charged is Rs.25,000/-or more then he is required to file a return in Form No.2C

To file your Income Tax returns, you need to submit Saral Form, depending upon the type of tax you are filing. There are different Saral forms i.e., Saral (Form 2D) and Naya Saral (2E) to file your income returns, depending on your profession/business/property.

Click here to download form Saral ( Income-tax return form for non-corporate assessees other than persons claiming exemption under section 11).

Click here to download form Naya Saral (Income-tax return form for resident individual/Hindu undivided family not having income from business or profession or capital gains or agricultural income)

The Central Government has notified a new income-tax return form, “Form 2F”, for the Assessment Year 2006-07, with a view to make filing of returns easier. This involves an easy two-step procedure. First, you need to transmit this return and schedules thereto electronically (without digital signature) in the Income Tax Department and thereafter, file a paper Return. The date of such transmission and acknowledgement number will be given electronically by the Income Tax Department. However, in case you do not transmit the Return electronically, the paper Return must necessarily be filed and will be treated as a valid Return. Keeping the assesses’ convenience in mind, the Income Tax Department has issued that the taxpayers can use either the Saral Form or Form 2F to file their returns this year.

Click here to access Form 2F.

House Property is regarded as a source of income for Income-tax purposes.  Income from house property is one of the heads of income under the Income tax Act. In ordinary parlance, your income from house property will presuppose that you have a house from which you are deriving income in the form of rent. 

Click here to know more about Property Tax in India.

Permanent Account Number (PAN)

PAN is an all India, unique number of 10 characters allotted by the Income Tax Department. It is permanent for your life, and will not change with change of your address or station, or change of your Assessing Officer, etc. A PAN number is essential for filing returns. For this, you need to apply for a PAN card if you don't already have one. You can avail a PAN card by downloading Form 49A and submitting it in the nearest PAN facilitation centre, or by filling an online form.

Click here to download Form 49A .
Click here to submit Form 49A online.
Check PAN status online.
Click here to calculate your Income Tax online.

E-Return

Income Tax Department has launched the Electronic Furnishing of Return of Income Scheme, under which eligible assessees can file their returns of income electronically through persons authorised to act as e-return intermediaries. The intermediaries will digitise the data of such returns, and transmit the same electronically to the e-filing server of Income Tax Department under their digital signatures. An eligible person opting to file his return of income under this Scheme shall approach and give his consent to any one of the e-intermediaries to act as his agent for the purpose of furnishing his e-return for the relevant assessment year.

Know more about E-filing of Income Tax Returns.

Tax Rebate

To makes things easier for you, you must be well aware of the various methods of tax rebates provided by the government. You can invest in various ways at the beginning of any financial year, so that the amount of net tax to be paid by you is comparatively reduced or Nil at the time of filing your returns. Some of the common tax-saving investments include:

• General Provident Fund (GPF)
  
• NSC/NSS
  
• Tax Deduction Scheme (TDS)
  

To know more about tax rebate as provided by the Income Tax Department, click here.