Do-it-Yourself: Income Tax E-Filing

Like most of us, I waited till the last few weeks to file my income tax returns. I had always relied on the guy at my office gate to file my returns for about Rs.100/-

I have filed my Taxes in Australia and in the US without any help. But have never attempted it with our very own income tax department. This year I wanted to try out filing the Indian Tax returns on my own.

I started by looking at the various options that I had. Some of them are given below.

• www.taxsmile.com/
• https://myitreturn.com/
• http://easyitfiling.com/

All the above charge you anywhere between Rs.149 and Rs.999.

But if you file directly with the income tax website, there is no charge. 

• https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in

You only need your form-16, bank account number and MICR code.

Below is the process for filing directly with the income tax website.

1. You need to download an excel version of the ITR form. 
2. Fill all the details from form 16
3. Generate XML file from the excel. (there are macros in the excel to generate XML)
4. Upload the XML file in the income tax website.  https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in
5. Your ITRV will be generated online. A copy will be sent to your email ID.
6. Print the ITRV form and send it to Bangalore IT office by normal post.
7. In a few weeks, you will receive the acknowledgement.

If you have a digital signature, you need not do step 6 above. Digital signatures cost from Rs.300 to Rs.1000.

The process is very simple with all the other websites.

1. Fill in the details of your income from form 16
2. Submit the returns online.
3. Print and mail the ITRV to Bangalore as in the earlier process.

I found that http://easyitfiling.com/ was the simplest and easiest as the name suggests. 

In this, you just need to upload your form 16 and it will extract data from your form 16 in PDF and fill the form automatically.

 BTW, I filed my Tax for free at our income tax department site. And so did my wife!