I am a proud tax payer in India. Though I don’t see a direct benefit in paying Income Tax, after knowing of thousands of million rupees scams, still I feel like doing it. This year I thought of going the easier way by filing my income tax return online. Was it easy? Read on.
Let’s first see how the normal tax filing thing works. You get your salary after tax deduction and after a financial year ends, the company gives you a statement called Form-16. This form shows your earnings, savings, income tax calculation, tax paid and any refund applicable. Using this form you can fill out a ITR 1 form (also known as Saral form). Saral means Easy. Honestly it isn’t a tough thing to do. You just have to copy the corresponding details from Form-16. After you fill it up, you just have to submit it to the nearest Income Tax office, get the acknowledgement and you are done. (Last time I was in the Mohali Income Tax office, they were offering free tea and snacks to the tax payer. Isn’t it lovely? Otherwise who even bothers to see your face in a Government office).
So as I said, this time I thought of submitting the return via the website of Income Tax Department which I though would be easier, quicker and flaw free. Being tech savvy makes you really crippled. You tend to skip even the smallest of travelling trips. So I was happy that there is another thing I could do sitting at home.
To start off, I visited the Income Tax E-filing website. Registered on the website and logged on. Then I needed to use the Download section on the left hand panel which gave me the procedure to move ahead.
I was taken to a page where I was required to download a utility which is available in PDF and Excel format.(Either one can be used. I would recommend PDF). It has all the columns like the ITR-1 form I mentioned above. I was supposed to enter my earnings, savings, deductions, tax paid, employer information etc. Once done, there are some cute buttons meant to calculate the income tax. It calculates and checks the form is correctly filled. The final step in this utility is to generate an xml file. For people who are unaware what an xml file means, click here.
Anyways, once the xml file is generated, I had to go to the Submit Return section on the left hand panel, choose the assessment year and upload the xml file. And I just finished submitting my online tax return. Sounds easy?
Here comes the surprise, if you do not have the capability to e-sign documents, which I think 99% of people in India won’t have, you are required to take a print of ITR-V which is sent to you email after you submit the xml, sign it and send it to a PO Box in Bangalore. (Bengaluru).
Now all my happiness went down the drain, the main motive of submitting the return online was to skip the trip to the Income Tax Office. And now I had to go to an even worse place, a Post Office. Buy a Rs 5 stamp, post the envelope and wait for the confirmation. The Income Tax people are kind enough to give you a 120 day period to send the form. So now the last step is to send the form.
Wait, the story doesn’t end here! I did not get a confirmation for more than 3 months, and I thought they must be a bit slow to process. Immediately after 120 days were over, I get an email saying either my form-V or it was not filled correctly. So now I don’t even know what was the actual problem. A bigger mess.
Finally I went through the complete process again, and printed form-V. I just matched it with the form I sent last time and found both were different. God! I think there was some problem with the utility last time which did not generate the correct output.
So now I sent the form again, and still waiting for a confirmation. Its just a week since I sent it, but I am doubtful if this was a good idea in the first place.
My recommendation- DO NOT USE THE E FILING PROCESS. GO TO THE LOCAL INCOME TAX OFFICE INSTEAD.
P.S. The Income Tax E Filing Website says that you can send the form-V via regular post or speed post. However none of the post offices accept speed post to a P.O. Box.
