The government is considering to re-introduce one-pager ‘‘Saral” form for filing income tax return. The form was discontinued in 2007-08 and instead of that ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3 and ITR-4 were introduced for individual taxpayers.
A senior government official said that a large number of people, who file tax return, have salaried and interest income only. Such people can file the return in the Saral form also, since the tax department already has all informations about their income streams, which are stored under PANs (Permanent Account Numbers).
Government aims to make filing of return simple, the official added. The official maintained that with the new Saral form, the taxpayer may not have to submit documents like Form 16 and other certificates to prove deduction of tax at source. He said that these informations are already there with the department and could be verified easily. In earlier avatar individuals had to file all these documents along with Saral form. Now, companies file these informations on behalf of their employees. Under TDS, employer deducts tax from monthly salary of an employee and deposits it with the government. Similarly, a bank before crediting interest in an account, deducts taxes and deposits the same with the government. While depositing these taxes, employer and bank also file the returns — showing the income of the employee and the taxes collected. The department discontinued Saral later and introduced a new series of forms — ITR-1, ITR-2, ITR-3 and ITR-4 — for individual taxpayers to file return without furnishing any documents. This was also introduced to enable a taxpayer to file return online. But, the process of filling these forms is complicated as it requires a lot of information like cash flow during the year.
The new requirement of providing Unique Transaction Numbers (UTN), which will be assigned to every transaction in which tax has been deducted at source, has made the entire system dysfunctional. Under this system, the department has to provide UTN on every TDS paid on one’s salary every month. But, the Form 16 has no details of UTN. Similarly, UTNs have not been given to other TDS certificates also. At the same time, the department is accepting the returns without UTN. The last date of filing return is July 31.
