The Income tax return for salaried individuals (having income up to Rs 50 lakh) just got simpler with the CBDT coming up with a single page form, as against seven page one earlier.

The new income tax return form-1(SAHAJ), which would apply for assessment year 2017-18, could be used for those receiving income from Salary/One House Property/other income (interest etc). This simplified one page form is expected to benefit more than two crore taxpayers.

Demonetisation

Interestingly, the new form SAHAJ requires reporting of cash deposited in a bank account from November 9 last year to December 30, 2016. This is required to be filled only if the taxpayers have deposited Rs 2,00,000 or more during the demonetisation period.

Quoting of Aadhaar has been made mandatory. In case an individual has not received Aadhaar card but applied for the same, they can give their enrolment ID.

Commenting on the latest CBDT move, Amit Maheshwari, Partner, Ashok Maheshwary & Associates LLP said that the simplification of the ITR form 1 (SAHAJ) reflects the Government intent to make it a non adversarial and simplified tax regime especially for salaried individuals who typically fall under the low risk category.

Amit Singhania, Partner, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co, a law firm, said that qualitatively the new ITR-1 (SAHAJ) requires the disclosure of the same amount of information as of earlier ITR-1 except for the details of Assets and Liabilities (which was required to be given in old ITR-1),

Archit Gupta, Founder & CEO, ClearTax, said that the new ITR-1 (SAHAJ) will greatly ease the e-filing process for taxpayers who fall below the Rs 50 lakh annual income threshold. A new section to mention exempt long-term capital gains has been included in the form, he added.

Aseem Chawla, Partner, Phoenix Legal, a law firm, said that the new ITR-1 Sahaj has removed information fields not commonly utilised. It has only retained deductions which are frequently sought by taxpayers and has merged schedules of tax collected at source and tax deducted at source to make the return form simpler and shorter.

srivats.Kr@thehindu.co.in

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