With the due date for filing your income tax return (ITR) coming closer, it’s important that you start collecting all the information required for filing your tax return – your income, investment, capital gains, and losses, among others.
The income tax department has different ITR forms for different categories of taxpayers, such those who earn income from salary, rent, investment, business, and so on. Therefore, the information or the document required for filing the tax return depends on the type of income one has earned during the financial year.
To make the process easier for the taxpayers, the income tax department pre-fills the information available in the ITR forms. Still, some of the information could be missing in the form, for which the taxpayer needs to check and verify the same before filing the return.
Out of the various documents related to different income categories, some documents are common and mandatory for every taxpayer. Here, we discuss the important documents one needs for filing taxes for the financial year 2022-23.
PAN Card: The permanent account number (PAN) is the first requirement for filing the tax return. Now, it is mandatory to link PAN with Aadhaar by June 30, 2023. According to a Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) circular dated March 28, 2023, if the PAN is not linked to Aadhaar by June 30, 2023, the PAN will become inoperative and the taxpayer will not receive any refund of income tax and neither any interest on such refund for the period for which the PAN is inoperative. Also, the tax deducted at source (TDS) and Tax collected at source (TCS) will be deducted at higher rates, as mandated under the Income-tax Act, 1961.
Aadhaar Card: One has to provide an Aadhaar number for filing the ITR. Now, one cannot file an income tax return without the Aadhaar. So, in case one doesn’t have an Aadhaar, one needs to apply for it as well as provide the enrolment ID to facilitate the ITR filing.
Bank Account Details: Bank account details are mandatory to be given in the ITR, including the name of all the banks where one maintains the account, account number, and IFSC. It is also required to select one account as primary to get the tax refund if there is any. One may refer to the bank passbook or cheque book to give these details in ITR.
Bank statement Or Interest Certificate: Before you start filing the return, it is better to keep the updated bank passbook or the statement to calculate interest income on the savings account, fixed deposits, recurring deposits, etc. Otherwise, you can collect the interest certificate from the banks or financial institutions to know the interest income.
Form 26AS: Form 26AS is a document that contains the TDS and TCS details deducted/collected by different authorised entities, including the employer, the bank, or some other entity during the financial year. One can download this document from the income tax department’s TRACES website.
Annual Information Statement (AIS): AIS is a comprehensive statement containing all the incomes earned by the taxpayer during the year. It is an extension of Form 26AS. Where Form 26AS shows information about TDS/TCS, high-value investments, and purchase of properties, AIS contains additional details of interest in a savings account, rent received, dividend, purchase and sale of properties and securities, foreign remittance, and so on.
Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS): TIS is a category-wise information summary for different categories, including salary, dividend, interest, etc., for reference, but it needs to be cross checked before filing in the return.
Form 16: Salaried individuals can easily file their tax return with Form 16, which the employer issues to its employees. Form 16 contains a break-up of the salary details, such as allowances, perquisites, etc., as well as the TDS deducted from the salary.
Investment Proofs: Any tax-saving investments made during the year should be kept ready for quick reference while filing the tax return. These documents could be tax-saver fixed deposits (FDs), equity-linked savings schemes (ELSS), investments in Public Provident Fund (PPF), National Savings Certificate (NSC), Senior Citizens Savings Scheme (SCSS), Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), insurance premiums towards life and health cover, donations given, and tuition fees for two children paid during the year.
These investment proofs are shown in Form 16 in Part B if the employee declares the same to the employer during the year, otherwise the employee will need to have the proof of such investments made during the financial year.
Demat Account Statement: Any dividend earned from shares or mutual funds has to be reported in the tax return. For this, one can take the demat statement from the broker or download it from the broker’s website to match the dividend figures given in the AIS.
Document To Show Capital Gain Or Loss On Property: For transactions, such as sale of property, the taxpayer should have the property sale deed ready for checking and verifying the details.
Home Loan Statement: In case of a home loan, one should get the home loan statement from the bank or the financial institution from which one has taken the loan to verify the principal amount and the interest component on the equated monthly instalment (EMI) paid on the loan during the financial year and claim tax benefit on it under relevant sections of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
