Out of the 4 crore income tax returns (ITRs) filed during the financial year 2011-12, 1.64 crore and 2.15 crore in 2012-13 were filed online. Majority of these were voluntary e-filers. This acceptance of the facility has made the government confident to make it mandatory for people with more than Rs. 5 lakh of total income (includes income from salary, professional, rental, capital gain on shares/property etc., business, interest on deposits or any other source).
Although e-filing has been made mandatory for individuals having total income above Rs. 5 lakh, they are not required to use digital signature.
What’s your status for Assessment Year 2013-14
Source
of
income
Total Income
Efiling
mandatory
DSC
required
Opt
for
Salary, interest, capital gain, rental income, professional or business income
Rs. 5 lakh
and above
Yes
No
Salary
TaxOptimizer
Salary, interest, capital gain, rental income, professional or business income
below
Rs. 5 lakh
No
No
Salary
eFile Plus
Professional or contract employees
Rs. 25 lakh
and above
Yes
Yes
Business
TaxOptimizer
Professional or contract employees
below
Rs. 5 lakh
No
No
Business
eFile Plus
Business income
or F &O
Gross receipts below
Rs. 100 lakh
No
No
Business
eFile Premium
Business income
or F &O
Gross receipts above Rs. 100 lakh
Yes
Yes
Business
TaxOptimizer
Efiling Mandatory for 5 Lakh+ Earners
If we analyze the reasoning of the government around this measure, this step can be seen as a pilot run for making online filing of ITR mandatory for all taxpayers. The I-T Department may have started with the section of people earning more than Rs. 5 lakh as the amount of refund claimed by them is high. Hence, making them efile mandatorily will prevent any delay in paying back this amount. That way, government will save on the interest amount paid by it to taxpayers who have paid more tax than due.
Moreover, the general direction of the Income Tax Department indicates that the complete process of filing ITR and after-filing procedures will be made electronic. The department has already mandated for TDS deductors, the download of Form 16 and 16A from NSDL website.
From assessment year 2013-14, e-filing with digital signature has been mandatory for:
- individuals having business income with receipts of Rs. 100 lakh
- professionals with income of Rs. 25 lakh
Why Efile?
Efiling is anyway the simplest way to file your ITR. All you need to do is visit http://www.taxspanner.com/ts/ebe/, fill in your personal details and attach your digital form 16. All electronically filed returns are processed on priority basis at the I-T Department’s Centralized Processing Centre at Bangalore. Thus, refunds are issued faster on efiled returns. E-filing is a much more streamlined process than paper-filing and is also more environment-friendly.
