To make tax return filing easier for taxpayers, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced that pre-filled ITR forms will be made available. These forms will now contain details of salary income capital gains from securities, bank interests, and dividends etc. and tax deductions.

Sitharaman said in her speech that the information will be collected from concerned sources such as banks, stock exchanges, mutual funds, the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO), state registration departments etc. This will not only significantly reduce the time taken to file a tax return, but will also ensure accuracy of reporting of income and taxes.

This proposal is aimed at making reporting of income other than salaries such as capital gains etc. for taxpayers easier.

Recently, the income tax department has started offering pre-filled ITRs for taxpayers eligible for e-filing ITR-1 on is e-filing platform www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in. Further, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) this year revised the format of Form 16 and Form 24Q (TDS return filed by your employer) which provided extensive details to the tax department. In addition to that, both the parts of Form-16 will now be issued from the TRACES portal of the department.

ITR- 1, which is mostly used by the salaried class to file their return, was issued in the similar format in which salary information in Form-16 is issued.

However, those who had capital gains are required to file their tax return using ITR-2 or ITR-3, whichever is applicable. The details in ITR-2 or ITR-3 have to be manually entered by taxpayers as they cannot avail the facility of filing ITR online as in the case of ITR-1.