Filing your income tax returns is a mammoth task. This year, however, government has extended the deadline multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the last date to file your returns is January 10, Sunday. The deadline for filing tax returns by businesses too has been extended till February 15. Yet, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) data tells that many taxpayers have still not filed their returns despite extending the deadlines.
As per the latest data by the Income Tax India, more than 5.16 crore ITR for AY 2020-21 have been filed till January 6, 2021. Yesterday alone 8,43,506 ITRs were filed.
Interestingly, 94,478 and 86,004 taxpayers filed their returns in an hour on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, according to the I-T department.
The aforementioned statistics show that filing an income tax return is no more a complex process and any individual can file within a few minutes. If you are still anxious about the process of filing ITR, here are some of the apps and websites that help you to file your income tax returns for free and are registered with the I-T department.
1. ClearTax Black
In ClearTax Black app, a user has three options to file their tax return: Upload Form-16, log in to ITR portal to autofill data and fill data manually.
All the three options take the user to ITR flow that asks them to fill/verify data regarding income sources, deductions, taxes paid, bank information, tax summary, and personal/permanent information.
After reviewing the data, users can proceed to e-file if there are no tax dues. If there are tax dues, then the user has to pay the challan and enter the challan in the 'taxes paid' section on the app.
Once the dues are cleared users can proceed to e-filing. It takes about 6 minutes to complete the e-filing after clicking proceed to e-file.
Users will receive an acknowledgment number on the app once the filing is completed. Users can also e-verify from the app
2. SBI YONO app
If you are an SBI customer and have not filed your ITR, the bank's YONO app will help you with that.
The State Bank of India is allowing its customers to file an Income Tax Return for free using its banking and lifestyle app Yono. However, if you want CA-assisted services, then you will have to pay a minimum of Rs 199.
3. Income tax portal
The income tax department also allows taxpayers to file their tax returns for free. Taxpayers can visit the income-tax e-filing portal -- incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in to file their returns.
Additionally, the I-T department has introduced a 'Jhatpat Processing' initiative to ease the income tax return filing experience for taxpayers. This feature is only applicable to taxpayers whose ITRs are verified and bank accounts are pre-validated. Besides, there are no arrears, income discrepancies, tax deducted at source (TDS), or challan mismatch.