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To file I-T returns, the choice for salaried individuals will be between the Indian Income Tax Return – 1 (ITR-1) and ITR-2 forms. If your earnings for the year are through salary income and interest earned on bank deposits, then ITR-1 is the form you should fill up. If you are a salaried individual and have made some money selling shares, or if you own a house, then ITR-2 is the form to be filled up.

Even if you are filling up ITR-1, this is a helpful guide. The main portion of ITR-2 has two pages, which are reprinted below. Other than these, there are four pages occupied by 15 schedules, most of which have been reprinted on the sides. The user has to first fill up the schedules and then get around to filling up the two main pages.

General information
Name and address are the first entries you should fill up.

Then come to filling up the permanent account number, popularly known as PAN. If you want to file a tax return, you must necessarily have a PAN. You cannot file a return otherwise.

To know the designation of your assessing officer, pull out a copy of your last year’s return. If you are filing a return for the first time, find out about it when you go to the income tax office.

To know the section under which returns are being filed, look at instruction number 9 in the list of instructions. For individuals filing returns before the due date, the right section is 11.

Indians living outside the country need to specify whether the returns are being filed by a representative assessee. Salaried Indian nationals can ignore this entry.

For better understanding we are taking example of one Mr. Ramesh Sharma.

Mr. Ramesh Sharma’s salary structure
Before moving onto the next entry, let’s take a look at Sharma’s salary structure.
Basic- 1,44,400
House rent allowance;72,000
Special allowance;96,720
Transport Allowance;9,600
Medical Reimbursement;15,000
Leave travel allowance ;15,000
Bonus ;1,80,000

Salary income
The information to fill up this schedule comes largely from Form 16 and your salary structure.

Salary includes your basic salary and the bonus earned during the course of the year. In the case of Mr. Sharma, the basic and bonus amount to Rs 3,24,000.

Allowances like leave travel allowance, medical reimbursement, house rent allowance (if an individual lives in a rented accommodation) and transportation allowance, etc are exempt from taxes. Nevertheless, these need to be mentioned in the form. You don’t need to calculate this entry separately — your form 16 will have the numbers.

Allowances not exempt include allowances like special allowance. It also includes the house rent allowance (HRA) if the individual owns a house and lives in it. Mr. Ramesh Sharma has bought a house for Rs 30 lakh this year and lives in it. He has taken a loan of Rs 25 lakh and paid the remaining amount from his own savings. Since he lives in the house, his HRA is taxable. The total of his special allowance (Rs 96,720) and HRA (Rs 72,000) works out to Rs 1,68,720.

The income chargeable to tax under this head works out to Rs 4,92,720.

Income from house
If you don’t own a house, this section is not for you.

If you have a house and you live in it, the entry that matters to you is the interest paid on borrowed capital. Mr. Ramesh Sharma has a 20-year housing loan of Rs 25 lakh at a fixed interest rate of 12%. His equated monthly instalment (EMI) for this works out to Rs 27,527. The interest component for the year works out to Rs 2,98,275.

In case of a self-occupied house, interest of up to  Rs 1,50,000 can be shown in a given year. So, even though Mr. Ramesh Sharma has paid an interest of Rs 2,98,275 during the year, he can show an interest of only Rs 1,50,000. To make this entry, take a look at the certificate issued by the bank, whose housing loan you have.

Given that Mr. Ramesh Sharma lives in the house he bought, and he pays an interest on the home loan he has taken, his income from house property is negative. That entry has been made in the table below.

For those who rent out their house, the entire interest part of the EMI can be set off against the rent earned during the course of the year.

Income from capital gains
All capital gains are not taxed at normal tax rates. Hence the need for a separate entry. Short-term capital gains from equity are taxed at the rate of 15% for the financial year 2008-09. Other short-term capital gains are lumped with income and taxed according to the tax bracket you fall in.

A short-term capital loss can be set off against any short-term capital gain you have made on selling shares or any other taxable short-term capital gain. But this loss cannot be set off against long-term capital gain on selling shares, because long-term capital gain made on selling shares is not taxable. Nevertheless, you can set off the short-term capital loss against any other taxable long-term capital gain like sale of gold or property or debt mutual funds.

Long-term capital gains made through stocks sold through a stock exchange, which are not taxed, are not to be mentioned in this section. There is a separate schedule EI (exempt income, which is not shown here) for that.

Other long-term capital gains are taxed at the rate of 10% without indexation and 20% with indexation. Indexation is essentially a process that takes inflation into account while deciding the cost of acquisition of a particular asset. For this, index numbers are available in the instructions that come with ITR-2.

What about long-term capital loss on selling shares? Long-term capital gain on selling shares or units of equity mutual funds is tax-free. As a result, long-term capital loss on selling shares is also tax-free. Put simply, any long-term capital loss incurred on selling shares or units of equity mutual funds cannot be set off against any long-term capital gain, even taxable long-term capital gain made on selling units of debt mutual funds or for that matter property.

Income from short-term capital gains
Full value of consideration indicates the total value of sale of the assets. In his case, Mr. Ramesh Sharma sold shares for Rs 64,000 and liquid funds for Rs 50,000. So, the total value comes to Rs 1,14,000, which is the entry to be made here.

Cost of acquisition is the price at which the assets are bought. Mr. Ramesh Sharma bought the shares for Rs 84,000 and liquid fund units for Rs 48,000, putting the total cost of acquisition at Rs 1,32,000. The difference between sale value (Rs 1,14,00) and cost of acquisition (Rs 1,32,00) is the short-term capital gain or loss. This, in Mr. Ramesh Sharma’s case, works out to a loss of Rs 18,000.

Short-term capital gain under section 111 A is the capital gain made by selling shares. In Mr. Ramesh Sharma’s case, there is a loss of Rs 20,000 (Rs 64,000 — Rs 84,000).

Short-term capital gain other than section 111 A  is the remaining capital gain. In Mr. Ramesh Sharma’s case, this is Rs 2,000 ( Rs 50,000 — Rs 48,000).

Other income
Dividend income from stocks and mutual funds is tax-free. Hence, dividend entry should include only dividend from foreign stocks. In Mr. Ramesh Sharma’s case, this remains blank. Interest income includes interest received on fixed deposits (FDs) and money in the savings accounts. Mr. Ramesh Sharma receives an interest of Rs 4,000 on FDs.

Losses of current year
If an individual has made a loss under any of the sources of income, he can adjust these losses against other sources of income to reduce his tax liability. For Mr. Ramesh Sharma, the loss from house property is Rs 1,50,000.

Capital losses can be adjusted only against capital gains and not against any other source of income.

Mr. Ramesh Sharma has also suffered a short-term capital loss of Rs 20,000 on selling shares. He has been able to adjust Rs 2,000 against short-term capital gain and Rs 3,481 against long-term capital gain. This still leaves Rs 14,519.

This remaining loss cannot be set off this year as there are not enough capital gains available to do so. It will therefore have to be carried forward and entered in schedule CFL (carried forward loss) and also as entry 14 in computation of total income. The schedule CFL is not shown here.

Losses can be carried forward for a maximum of 8 years

Tax deductions
There are 13 sections (only 3 are shown below) under the schedule VIA of the Income Tax Act, which allow you to get tax deductions.

Section 80 C allows a maximum of Rs 1 lakh for investments into life insurance, Employees Provident Fund, tax saving mutual funds, Public Provident Fund, repayment of home loan principal etc. Mr. Ramesh Sharma has utilised this limit.

Section 80 D allows a deduction for payment of health insurance premium. The maximum limit is Rs 15,000 or Rs 20,000 for senior citizens. On his part, Mr. Ramesh Sharma pays a premium of Rs 7,500.

Section 80 E allows a deduction for repayment of education loan. The deduction is allowed only for the interest portion of the EMI up to a maximum of Rs 40,000. In case of Mr. Ramesh Sharma, the total interest on the education loan works out to Rs 10,000.

Total tax to be paid
As can be seen in entry 13 in computation of total income, the total taxable income is Rs 2,29,200. The entire amount will be taxed at normal taxes rates. This is primarily because Mr. Ramesh Sharma has no capital gain. As we have seen, he has suffered from capital loss. Since he has faced a loss, no special rates come into play.

The company has already deducted a tax of Rs 10,000 and his tax liability on Rs. 2,29,200 work out to Rs. 8,158 so  Sharma will get a refund of Rs 1,842. In case of refunds, it is mandatory to quote the MICR code.

Some Suggested Posts related to above  

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65 Comments

  1. U KISHORE says:

    i have a salary income . I also received 40,000 from stocks (short term capital gain i.e all profits made within a year) after giving all brokerage and STT taxes. Could you please let me know what extra tax I need to pay wrt stocks. ITR1 or ITR2?

  2. varun says:

    sIR,
    we are a school society registered under societies’ registration act 1860.Please guide us which itr should we file for the year f.y.2015-16.Is icome of a school society tax exempt?

  3. RAVICHANDRAN says:

    I am filing my IT Return in ITR 2 form. I am able to validate all the pages except Sch OS.
    I am getting the message “Section description in Sr. No. 3 is mandatory in Sch OS”. Serial No.3 is for
    Income from owning and
    maintaining race horses. Since I do not own or maintain any race horses I filled the value as 0.
    But when I go to validate the Schedule OS, it is giving me the above message.
    As such I am not able to file my return.

  4. BK JUNEJA says:

    Hello,

    I have a doubt regarding filling Section CG-OS in ITR2.

    Suppose that I invested 10000 rupees in stocks and then sold the stocks at 11000 and then again rotated the money by reinvesting the 11000 again in stock, and then sold at 12000 rupees. So, my trade book would show as follows:

    Buy Amount Sell Amount

    10000 11000
    11000 12000

    Total 21000 23000

    But the money I originally invested is only 10000, and my net amount in hand after all transactions is 12000.

    – See more at: https://taxguru.in/income-tax/how-to-fill-and-file-income-tax-return-itr-2.html#comment-431180

  5. Ravi says:

    I am in the modst of tax filing using ITR 2. I have earned Dividends earned from stocks listed in US (ESPP), which is accured in US brokerage account. First question is where do I enter dividend in OS schedule (Dividend?). If so, since dividend is in USD, what US$ cinversion rate should I use?

  6. Sateesh says:

    I am filing my IT Return in ITR 2 form. I am able to validate all the pages except Sch OS. I am getting the message “Section description in Sr. No. 3 is mandatory in Sch OS”. Serial No.3 is for Income from owning and maintaining race horses. Since I do not own or maintain any race horses I filled the value as 0. But when I go to validate the Schedule OS, it is giving me the above message. As such I am not able to file my return. Can anybody help me to identify the problem and set it right.

    Thanks.

  7. Sateesh says:

    I am getting an error message in Sch OS which says “Section description in Sr.No 3 in Sch OS”. I do not own any race horse. So I have filled the column 0. But when I go to validate the Schedule, it is not validating and giving the above message. As such I am not able to file my tax return. Can anybody help to get over the problem.

    Thanks.

  8. Bevin says:

    We sold our Ancestral home for 110 lac of Which I received 25 Lakhs. We paid a brokerage of 1.35 Lakhs and the buyer also deducted Rs. 1.1 Lac as the 1% Tax under 194IA. How do I how make the entries in ITR-2 (CG). Can I claim the Amount paid under 191-IA, and also claim the Brokerage under LTCG col. 1 b-iii-Expenditure wholly and Exclusively in connection with transfer. What is the amount to be shown in Full value of Consideration, and what is the amount to be shown in Value of Property as per stamp value authority. bevin

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