The deadline to file income tax return (ITR) is approaching. By now, many salaried employees would have received Form-16 from their employers.
Ideally, individual taxpayers should file their ITR early to avoid the last-minute rush. A registered taxpayer can visit the income tax website and file ITR on their own. However, some find it difficult to understand certain taxation terms and rules while many would have multiple sources of income, which makes the tax filing process a bit complicated. Such individuals have traditionally been filing their ITR with chartered accountants. However, in recent times, various online platforms have come up that make life easier for the taxpayer. Here, we discuss what’s on offer and the associated costs.
Options, filing process
Various platforms and websites are available to file the ITR. Check whether the platform you choose is among the registered e-Return intermediaries. The list is available on IT department’s website. ClearTax.in, TaxSpanner, EZTax and MyITreturn.com are some of the popular intermediaries.
To get started you need to create an account with these platforms and provide your PAN and other personal details. These portals collect the basic documents required from you for ITR filing, such as Form 16, Annual Information Statement, bank statement and Form 26AS.
Further, as per your sources of income and complexities associated, you may be required to provide capital gains statements and the like They can put you in touch with CAs and tax experts to assist you and charge as per their plans, your sources of income, and complexities involved.
These platforms also provide you with tax calculators to compare taxes as per your income level under old and new regimes.
Also read: ITR refund status: Know how to check your income tax refund status
Costs and plans
Cost of filing ITR through online platforms depends on the plan and package selected, the level of hand-holding you need, complexities associated and sources of income. Earlier, certain websites used to allow you to file a simple return on their platform. However, now most platforms charge ₹200-400 for the same. The expert-assisted plans have higher charges.
For a salaried person, these platforms provide plans based on the level of salary income and other complexities. For instance, platforms such as ClearTax, TaxSpanner and EZTax provide a basic expert-assisted plan for persons with salary income less than ₹50 lakh, single Form 16 and other basic items like interest income for which ITR-1 needs to be filed. Cost for such plan ranges at ₹1,000-2,000, which can go up to ₹1,500-3,000 if your salary income is more than ₹50 lakh, multiple Form 16, income from more than one house property, and dividend income more than ₹10 lakh (for which ITR-2 needs to be filled). Further, if a salaried individual has incurred any capital gains and losses from shares, mutual funds and sale of assets like property and gold, the applicable plan will have higher cost compared to other plans ranging at ₹3,000-5,000.
MyITreturn here provides plans based on the number of entries relating to capital gain transactions. For up to 50 entries they charge ₹3,000 while the cost is around ₹5,000 for more than 50 entries. There are more plans that these platforms provide if you have income earned outside India or through crypto-based trading, the charges for which can even go up to ₹10,000.
The charges of the plans for self-employed and professionals are higher than for salaried individuals and again depend on the income level/turnover. The cost typically is in the range of ₹4,000-7,000.
Also read: I-T Department enables online filing of ITRs 1, 4
Apart from tax filing services, these platforms provide assistance in case you have received a notice from the IT department, and charge a certain amount for the same. For instance, TaxSpanner can charge you around ₹9,000 to assist in notice-related matters and prepare follow-up responses.
Platforms such as Clear and EZTax offer mobile-based applications as well to file returns. However, you may not be able to access all ITR forms in a mobile app.
What you should do
If you are tech-savvy, know a bit about taxation and have a fairly simple IT return to be filled with not many sources of income, you may file on your own on the I-T department portal for free.
If you are an individual who has started earning recently, you can use online platforms as here, initially, you just need to provide Form 16 and the ITR form can be selected by the platform itself.
If you find the above option tedious, you can go for the premium plans that offer expert assistance on filing via video calls and you don’t need to file on your own.
However, as one’s income grows, one may not be comfortable sharing data with portals. In such cases, one can either seek to understand the online process by learning from the portal or turn to a trusted chartered accountant (CA) for personalised services.
Of course, those filing returns through a particular CA or a CA firm over the years would prefer to continue doing so, sincethe CA has a better understanding of the person’s situation and income streams, which makes the process easier.