How to prepare your income tax return file?

Income Tax Return (ITR) filing season for FY 2022-23 (AY 2023-24) has already started. In this important blog, we will discuss in detail how to prepare your Income Tax File, before you visit your Chartered Accountant (CA) for filing your ITR.

Following documents should be there in your ITR file, preferably in printed copy. Soft copies of these documents should also be preserved safely.  

(1) For salary / pension income:

(a) Form 16 received from your employer / pension statement

(b) If no TDS is deducted by your employer from your salary, then you may not get Form 16 from your employer. In that case, you should have salary certificate / monthly salary slips.

(2) For income from house property:

(a) If you have rent income from any let out house, office or shop, then latest renewed rent agreement / live and licence agreement

(b) Copy of PAN and Aadhaar of the tenant(s)

(c) If you are a co-owner of the property, then details your share (%) in the property

(3) For income from capital gain:

(a) If you have purchased / sold any property (land, house, office, etc.), then sale deed of the same and original purchase deed of the property sold. Your CA will guide you regarding any exemption available to you from such capital gain.

(b) If you have sold any gold/silver jewellery/bars, then details of their date of purchase, purchase price, date of sale and sale price.

(c) Profit & Loss account / capital gain statement provided from your demat account provider, which shows the short term / long term gain/loss incurred on sale of shares.

(d) Profit & Loss account / capital gain statement for units of mutual funds sold.

Please note that when you sale any shares / mutual funds, then data in the following format is to be provided in ITR:

Name of share/MF	No. of units	Date of purchase	Purchase price per unit	Date of sale	Sale price per unit	LTCG/STCG

(4) For income from other sources:

(a) Interest certificates obtained from all the banks where you have savings / fixed deposits accounts

(b) If you have investments in any of the schemes operated by post office, then updated passbook of the same

(5) Passbooks / bank statements of all your bank accounts / joint bank accounts covering the transactions for the entire financial year.

(6) Passbook / statement of schemes like Public Provident Fund (PPF), Sukanya Samriddhi Yojna (SSY), Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS), etc.

(7) If you have a housing loan, then interest certificate along with the loan repayment schedule

(8) Details of other investments and payments like life insurance premium, medical insurance premium, investment in ELSS, children’s school fees, National Pension System (NPS), etc.

(9) If you have made any donations then receipt of the donations, which must have PAN of the donee organisation.

(10) Any other details or documents, which may be required while filing the ITR.

(11) Please note that if you are filing the ITR for the first time, then you should keep in the file copy of your PAN card and Aadhaar card also. Make sure that the Aadhaar card has a valid working mobile number linked to it. Also make sure that your PAN is linked with your Aadhaar.

All the above points are applicable mainly to individuals having salary / interest / rent income only. If you also earn income from any business or profession, then you will have to keep your books of accounts up-to-date throughout the year. For detailed information related to this, you should consult your CA.

If you will follow the above steps for preparing your ITR file, then ITR filing process will become smooth and error-free.