There may be various reasons for filing income tax returns (ITR), the primary one being to report the annual income of a taxpayer. A taxpayer needs to declare her/his income, expenses, investments made and claiming tax deductions. The Income Tax Act, 1961 makes it mandatory for individuals -- under various scenarios -- to file income tax returns. To do so, the Income Tax Department has provided electronic filing facility. You may be aware of the process to e-filing ITR, but here is a look at the corresponding documents required for each taxpayer to file ITR. (Image: Shutterstock)
Form-16: Form 16 is one of the key documents for taxpayers having income from employment as salary. This form consists of two parts, Part-A and Part-B. While part-A consists of all the details of the tax deducted by the deductor -- the employee during the year, part-B of form 16 consists of salary details including gross salary break-up details like exempt allowances, perquisites, the deduction for interest on housing loans, among others.
Form 26AS: Form 26AS is a consolidated annual tax statement. This is just like the tax passbook, which has all the information of all the incomes that have been reported, the taxes that have been deducted, and other specific financial transactions that have been reported against the assessee’s PAN.
Salary slips: This is required to cross-check the correctness of Form 16 by linking it with the nature of salary income such as basic, dearness allowance, house rent allowance, etc.
Interest certificates from banks and post office: All the interest certificates from banks and post office should be collected to compute and report interest incomes such as that earned on a savings account, fixed deposit or any other interest income.
Section 80C Investments: The investment made under PPF, NSC, ULIPS, ELSS, LIC qualify for deductions under Section 80C. So, one should ensure to keep slips, receipts of all the investments ready that were made for tax-saving purposes and put them in the form.