Income tax return e-filing made easy by ClearTax

The tax season is upon us! June and July of every financial year are typically called the tax season in India because income tax returns for the previous financial year have to be filed by 31st July. For FY 2016-17, which is the period between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017, the last date to e-file income tax returns is 31st July 2017.  

Filing income tax returns is a very important task that citizens of India should do. Income of up to ₹2.5 lakh annually is exempt from tax. But even if you don’t earn taxable income, you should file returns because it helps to be compliant. Tax returns are also an important document to have at the time of seeking a loan or applying for a visa. You also need to e-file to get a refund on the TDS deducted on your behalf. Remember that you have compulsorily e-file returns if your annual income was above ₹5 lakh. 

While e-filing tax returns is important and should be done by everyone, it is a very cumbersome process. There are a lot of documents to get hold of, a lot of terms to understand and numerous conditions to apply. This is why people procrastinate tax filing till the last day and also end up making mistakes in their tax returns. These mistakes can lead to their returns not getting processed and maybe even income tax notices. The solution to all of these hassles is ClearTax. 

ClearTax was built with the intention of easing the process of e-filing income tax returns. And with each passing year, our tax-filing platform has only become more robust and improved. Here are seven ways how ClearTax makes e-filing simple. 

E-filing with Form 16

When you have the required information for filing returns on hand, you can fill it up and finish e-filing on ClearTax. But even if you don’t have the understanding or patience to fill out income tax forms by yourself, you can e-file by just uploading your Form 16 on ClearTax. Our software reads your Form 16 and automatically prepares your tax returns for you. All you then have to do is verify the information and submit it to finish e-filing. 

E-filing with multiple Form 16s

A lot of taxpayers would have changed jobs during the previous financial year. This would make e-filing even more tedious because you would have to compile information from more than one place and make sure you don’t claim the same tax-saving deductions twice. But all of this becomes easy with ClearTax. You can upload more than one Form 16 and once again, get your tax returns prepared automatically by our software. 

Pull data from Form 26AS

Form 26AS, also called the tax credit statement, is an important document for e-filing tax returns because it contains all information about the tax deducted at source (TDS) on your behalf. This includes TDS deducted on salary and payments as well as TDS on interest income from other sources like fixed deposits. ClearTax can pull data from your Form 26AS to help you e-file tax returns and ensure you don’t miss out on TDS related information. 

E-filing with capital gains and house property income

Most salaried individuals have income just from their salary, but quite often there can be income from capital gains or house property as well. These gains can be from the sale of stocks or mutual funds or as rental income from a house you own. All of this income needs to be included in your income tax returns as well. ClearTax has various guides and plans for taxpayers who have such income to help them easily e-file returns. 

E-filing for freelancers and businesses

E-filing of income tax returns is not limited to salaried individuals, which is why ClearTax offers e-filing services for businesses, professionals and freelancers as well. Freelancers can also e-file presumptive tax returns under Section 44ADA on ClearTax. We have guides on how to e-file returns for non-salaried taxpayers as well as all the required information to furnish advance tax payments, TDS returns, etc.  

E-filing for NRIs

Income tax returns for non-resident Indians can be tricky. They might receive income directly in their bank accounts in the country of residence, but if the income is earned in India, it will be taxed in India and NRI has to e-file tax returns in India to show that income. ClearTax offers services and guides for NRIs to e-file tax returns as well. 

Going beyond income tax return filing

ClearTax now offers a platform to invest in mutual funds as well. We offer a portfolio of mutual funds for tax-saving investments as well as wealth building. These portfolios of funds can be customised as per the investor’s risk profile and goals. This mutual fund platform is another endeavour by ClearTax to ease the financial lives of Indians. Choosing the right mutual fund is difficult, but not when you invest through ClearTax.  

This is how ClearTax simplifies the cumbersome process of e-filing income tax returns. It takes just 7 minutes to e-file on ClearTax by uploading your Form 16. Get started right away.