Step-by-Step Guide for Online Income tax Filing

Income Tax Guide: Creating Your Income Tax Filing Account

In the beginning, you need to create an account on the IT portal if you already don’t have one. This is easy and the investors need not seek many directions from the income tax guide. People who are absolutely new to online processes may need to follow the procedures step by step, but once they have followed all the steps; they won’t have trouble in filing their income tax online from next time.

For creating your own income tax filing account, you need to log on at the official website of the income tax department of India. As soon as you log on to the portal, on the right-hand side you will be able to see directions for registering your account.

Income Tax Guide Step One: The Registration/Login Process on the IT Portal

Once you click on the tab that says register yourself, you will be guided systematically towards completion. The income tax guide lays down the steps you need to follow to register yourself on the portal.

Selection of user type:

An investor would first need to specify his/her type, whether individual, HUF, other than individual/HUF, external agency, chartered accountant, tax deductor/collector, third-party software utility developer. After specifying the user type say ‘Individual’, you need to click on the continue tab and thereupon the registration form for the individual page will open up. 

Filling up the registration form:

Here, you would need to provide details including your Pan, name (surname, middle name, first name), date of birth and residential status (resident/ nonresident). 

Verification of registration:

In this step of income tax guide, the individual needs to verify his/her registration by the mentioned process. The individual would need to create an account id and password and save these for future log in. 

Completion of registration

In the last step of the registration process in the income tax guide, the individual’s registration will be complete, and registration completion notification will appear on the screen. After that individual can log on into his/her account any time for filing income tax return.

Income Tax Guide Step 2: Online Preparation and Submission of ITR

Step 2 of the income tax guide lays down the stepwise procedure of preparing and submitting the income tax return form. Here, it should be noted that only ITR1 and ITR 4S can be filed online.

Once you are logged on to your own account, you will see the dashboard; there you can click on the option ‘Filing of income tax return’. If you want to view e returns filed earlier, then you can click on the tab ‘view returns/form’.

Follow the income tax guide stepwise process on the filing of income tax return as mentioned below:

• Once you click on the filing of income tax return, you would need to specify assessment year, ITR form name and submission mode. 
2. The assessment year and financial year both start from April 1 and end on March 31. The assessment year is always one more than the financial year. For example, if you are filing income tax return for the financial year 2017-18, the assessment year will be 2018-19. 
3. Suppose you choose form ITR 1 then you would need to fill in all the columns. Some data will already be present. Tax filers need to provide PAN number, and essential personal details like Aadhaar and data is imported from these in the form. 
4. The process is sequential, and income tax guide leads you through completion. If you require tax details to be filed then access form 26 AS by clicking on ‘my account’. 
5. The next steps of the income tax guide will tell you to upload your digital signature if applicable. Before uploading your digital signature, please ensure that the digital signature has been registered with e filing. Complete all the filling work of the form. Several times filing columns can pose a problem regarding what amount to fill. Refer to the income tax guide for filing the columns whenever in doubt. 
6. In the final steps of the income tax guide, you will be asked to submit you're filled in form by clicking the submit button. If you don’t want to complete the entire form filling process in one go, then you can always save your form and return to it later. You would also need to verify your income tax filing. 

You can verify just after completion of filing, or you can also verify later. Once you have completed the last step of form filing as per the income tax guide of verifying your form filing you are through with the filing work, and you can click on the save option and save the form filed by you. 

7. Income tax guide steps would caution you to check the figures the form returns you with your personal calculations before you choose to verify. After your form filling is verified making changes will be a tedious process. So income tax guide advises you to fill correctly in the first go. If you are not sure regarding any data, then save your form, make sure and then fill later. 
8. After completion of verification process, email is sent by the income tax department which has a copy of the verified form attached. Save this form for future reference. You can also access past income tax filing from your account on the income tax portal. If tax payers sometimes would need to change data in verified forms of past years, then that is also possible. Follow the simple steps of the income tax guide and make online tax filing a simple task.

Income tax guide comprises several sections on how to fill certain columns. For example, if you are filling ITR 1 form, then you can refer income tax guide on how to file for tax exemptions and deductions under the various sections of the IT Act.