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Parvatha Vardhini C.

Like the inevitable Monday morning blues, the annual tax blues are here to haunt us again. The deadline (July 31) for filing income-tax returns is fast approaching and you may be dreading that mandatory visit to Aayakar Bhavan.

Don't you bank online? Don't you pay bills online? Why not file your returns online?

E-filing of returns is becoming quite popular, going by statistics from the Directorate of Income-Tax.

For the assessment year 2009-10, about 48 lakh returns were filed online out of which ITRs 1-4 applicable to non-corporate assesses (like salaried individuals, HUFs, partners in a firm and those carrying on proprietary business or profession) amounted to 38.5 lakhs.

So save that half a day's leave, forget the long queues and become a part of the statistic for this year.

With all the data and documents in place, e-filing is expected to take only about 30 minutes of your time. For the tech-savvy who knows a bit of taxation laws too, incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in is the Web site you should hit.

At your doorstep

For others lost in the ocean, do a Google search. You'll find umpteen e-return intermediaries who can help fulfil your obligation to the taxman for a fee.

There's more to cheer for corporate employees as these service providers may be available on your own premises.

“With assesses like corporate employees, we work in an online-offline model,” says Nitin Vyakaranam, co-founder of Artha Yantra, a financial advisory firm, which runs taxyantra.com. Explaining this model further, Navin Kumar, co-founder, eLAGAAN says that one can exercise a choice between using the return preparation software ( to crunch the numbers) and then filing the returns manually or use their software and later proceed to file their returns electronically.

Once you have decided to e-file your returns, you have two options. If you have digitally signed your ITR, the process gets complete with the generation of the ITR V (acknowledgement) form.

Digital Signature

But intermediaries like Nitin and Navin don't recommend a digital signature for individuals as it is slightly expensive, has limited validity and almost no other use. In that case, you can still file your returns electronically.

On the successful uploading of your return, you must take a print out of the acknowledgement, fill it and send it across to the Central Processing Centre at Bangalore within a specified time period after transmitting the data electronically.

The CPC will then send an e-mail acknowledging the receipt.

Electronic filing scores over manual filing in four areas. One, it helps many who go on short stints abroad (in the course of their employment) file their returns on time even though they may not be physically be present in India. Two, intermediaries may serve as a digital storehouse for your income and tax records, freeing you of the burden.

Nitin recalls cases of people who have come back to him after three years asking for copies of these statements for obtaining a loan or a visa. Three, the processing of refunds is faster for electronically filed returns.

Four, both agree that e-filing is safe. eLAGAAN boasts of a 256 bit encryption when most banks, they say, use a 128 bit encryption.

Explaining that the manual filing of tax returns done all along has anyway been unsafe as far as confidentiality goes, Nitin says that safety is not as big an issue as convenience.

Year-long facility

Finally, for those who miss the deadline too, e-filing, and hence, e-return services, is available throughout the year.

Only that a filing beyond July 31 would mean that you cannot revise your return if necessary. You would also have to pay interest in case there is tax arrears and may miss out on carry-forward of certain losses.

More Stories on : Income Tax | E-Commerce & E-Business

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