1. What is SAHAJ?

SAHAJ is the newly designed ITR-1 which replaces SARAL Income Tax Return. It is the most modern Technology enabled Tax Payer Friendly Form.

2. Who can use SAHAJ?

This Return Form is to be used by an individual whose total income for the assessment year 2011-12 includes:

(a) Income from Salary/ Pension; or

(6) Income from One House Property (excluding cases where loss is brought forward from precious years); or

(C) Income from Other Sources (excluding Winning from Lottery and Income from Rose Horses)

Note:- Further, in a case where the income of another person like spouse, minor child, etc. is to be clubbed with the income of the assessee, this Return Form can be used only it the income being clubbed lolls into the above income categories.

3. Who cannot use SAHAJ?

This Return Form should not be used by an individual whose total Income for the Assessment year 2011-12 includes, -

(a) Income from more than one house property; or

(b)Income from Winnings from lottery or income from Race horses; or

(c)Income under the head “Capital Gains”, which are not exempt from tax,

E.g., short-term capital gains or long-term capital gains from sale of house, plot, etc.; or

(d) Income from agriculture in excess of Rs. 5,000; or

(e)Income tram Business or Profession.

4. Can I annex Form 16/FORM 16A to SAHAJ?

No document (including TDS Certificate) should be attached to this Return form. All documents enclosed with the return form will be detached and returned to person filing the return.

Note that you can attach only the supplementary Sch TDS1, TDS2, IT only after exhausting the items given in the Form.

5. Who are obligated to File SAHAJ?

All those individuals who have income from sources as given in Question 2 and if their Taxable Total Income exceeds the upper limit as given below would be obligated to file SAHAJ

 

Category	Amount
In case of Individuals below the age of 65 years (other than women)	1,60,000
In case of women below the age of 65 years	1,90,000
In case of individuals who are of the age of 65 years or mare at any time during the financial year 2010-11	2,40,000

6. In what ways can I file this return?

This Return Form can be filed with the Income Tax Department in any of the following ways,-

(i)         By furnishing the return in a paper form;

(ii)        by furnishing the return electronically under digital signature;

(iii)       by transmitting the data in the return electronically and thereafter submitting the verification of the return in Return Form ITR-V;

(iv)       by furnishing a Bar-coded return. Where the Return Form is furnished in the manner mentioned at 5(iii),the assessee should print out two copies of Form

NOTE.> One copy of IIR-V, duly signed by the assessee, has to be sent by ordinary post to Post Bag No.1, Electronic City Post Office, Bengaluru, Karnataka-560100. The other copy may be retained by the Assessee for his record.

7. What are the unique features of SAHAJ? How is SAHAJ Better than SARAL

Key Features/Attributes	SAHAJ	SARAL
Presence of Bar Codes for Automatic Classification of Income Tax Returns in a Bulk Processing Set up	Present	Absent
Presence of Registration Marks for Identifying the size, orientation of the document during scanning and data entry process	Present	Absent
Use of Dropout Ink to reduce Interference during Data Capture	Present	Absent
PAN No. on all Pages. This is for traceability of every page during document Preparation works which involves Stapling and Unstapling the returns	Present	Absent
Use of OMR Fields for Automatic Recognition	Present	Absent
Use of Whole Rupee Method Boxes	Present	Absent
Automatic Data Validation with prefixated number of boxes	Present	Absent
Use of Separate Negative Boxes to make sure that Taxpayer’s don’t fill Negative values in Positive Fields	Present	Absent
Large Combo Type Boxes for First Name and other fields	Present	Absent
Instruction Built in the form	Present	Absent
Simplification of Address Field	Present	Absent
Schedule AIR	Absent	Present
Mobile No	Present	Absent
Provision for Official Phone Number	Present	Absent
Tax Status Field to know whether Tax Refundable, Tax Payable etc for Processing Priority	Present	Absent
Separate Parts       for           Gross      Total       Income                and Deductions	Present	Absent
Unique Legends present in the Form helping in Identification of zone around a field	Present	Absent
Bank Account Details	Mandatory for every one	Only for Refund cases
Entering 0 in Gross Total Income if the value is negativ	Absent, Taxpayer can fill Negative Value	Present
Income Tax Ward/Circle	Present	Present but under a more complex name Designation of Assessing Officer
Simplification of TDS1, TDS2, IT Schedules	YES	NO
Number of columns to be filled in Sch TDS1	4	8
Number of columns to be filled in Sch TDS2	4	7
Number of columns to be filled in Sch IT	4	5
Provision of Supplementary Sch TDS1, TDS2, IT Schedules for using after exhausting the fields available in the form	Present	Absent
Reordering Sch TDS2 at the end                so that the supplementary Sheet act as a continuation	Present	Absent
Linkages to FORM 26 AS to Verify and Fill the forms	Present	Absent
Account No. Size	17	15
Separate Section of Stamping Receipt No and Seal. A bar coded Receipt No. can also be envisaged in the present setup	Present	Absent
INSTRUCTIONS
Line by Line Instructions	Present	Absent
Examples for every field	Present	Absent
Elaborate Computational Sheets using WORKSHEET	Present	Absent
Detailed Explanation of Deductions	Present	Absent
Mapping Form 26AS to Schedules	Present	Absent
Common Mistakes	Present	Absent
FAQ’S	Present	Absent

 

8. Can I use SAHAJ if I have carry forward Losses?

No, you need to use ITR-2 for carry forward of Losses.

9. Please explain me how to use SAHAJ for Filling Schedules from Form 26AS? This is available in the Instructions, Please refer to the same

10. Can I use SAHAJ for declaring Income from Capital Gains?

No, use ITR-2 and above

11. Would SAHAJ enable me to get my refund faster?

Surely, since the entire process is automated the refund processing time would be substantially reduced. Many Processing Mistakes noticed are because of lack of awareness among Taxpayers on how to fill the form. Taxpayers are advised to look into the common mistakes in Instructions to make sure that they don’t commit any mistakes as given in the list. This would enable faster dispersal of refunds to the Taxpayers.

We have added following more Question answers to the above FAQ released by Income Tax Department

12. What happens if you have no income from house property?

In this situation two cases arise:

a) If you are repaying a home loan using which you bought the house;

b) If you do not have a home loan outstanding.

In both the cases you are eligible to fill the Sahej form on the condition that you fulfil all the other conditions. If you are repaying a home loan, then the interest that you pay on the home loan is essentially negative income from your house property.

The Income Tax Act currently allows tax payers to adjust a maximum of Rs 1.5 lakh (Rs 150,000) paid as home loan interest from taxable income.

If you already paid off your home loan and are staying in the house then there is zero income from house property and that in turn makes you eligible for this form.

13. What happens if you have income from stocks and equity mutual funds?

In this case you will not be eligible to use the Sahej form and will have to use the other Income Tax return forms depending whether you are a salaried individual or not.

This is the show spoiler in what is otherwise a very good move by the IT department.

A lot of salaried individuals do invest in tax-saving mutual funds to save taxes. As long as investment was limited to these mutual funds, taxpayers should have been allowed to use the Sahej form.

Also a lot of salaried middle class India over the years has taken to investing in mutual funds through the systematic investment plan (SIP) route.

Such individuals could also have been allowed to use the Sahej form subject to an upper limit on the amount being invested per year.

14. Has AIR (Annual Information Return) been done away with?

Sahej and all the other income tax return forms (ITR 2 to ITR 8 ) seem to have done away with the Annual Information Return filing.

The filing required a disclosure of transactions like payment made by Rs 2 lakh (Rs 200,000) or more through a credit card, bank deposits of Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) or more, purchase of mutual fund units worth Rs 2 lakh or more, purchase of property worth Rs 30 lakh (Rs 3 million) or more, etc.

However, there is a small caveat that I would like to build in here. The instructions that normally accompany these forms have not been put out till now. So this cannot be said for sure.

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