7 most common Income Tax filing mistakes; here's how you can avoid them

Taxpayers often don’t know or don’t remember which bank account is associated with their income tax returns. Photo: Pixabay

Although there still are a few months left for one to file income tax returns (ITR), many do not like to wait till the last moment.

This year, Income Tax Department has introduced a new ITR form called Sahaj for individuals having income upto Rs 50 lakh and who is receiving income from salary one house property / other income (interest etc.).

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As per the income tax regulations, the due date of filing income tax return for FY16-17 is July 31, 2017 for individuals, and September 30, 2017 for businesses.

With less than three months in hand, taxpayers are tend to make mistakes while filing the income tax returns.

ALSO READ: Income Tax Filing: What is Sahaj? Here's all you need to know about new ITR-1 Form

Speaking with Zeebiz, Archit Gupta,Founder and CEO Cleartax.com, said that there are seven most common ITR filing mistakes and here's how you can avoid them:

1. Not including interest income

When taxpayers earn interest income from sources like savings bank account and fixed deposits, this interest income has to be included in the tax return under the head of income from other sources.

2. Wrong bank account information

Taxpayers often don’t know or don’t remember which bank account is associated with their income tax returns. This is a problem because people have many bank accounts and the right one has to be used while filing returns.

3. Including tax saving deductions

If someone has changed jobs in the year, they might have multiple income sources. But tax saving deductions under Section 80C can be used only once. Taxpayers have to make sure the deductions entered are accurate.

4. House property income

Income from house property can come in different forms and has to be computed accurately to be included in tax returns. The ITR form also changes when a salaried individual has income from house property.

ALSO READ: Income tax filing: 9 changes that came into effect from April 1

5. Computing capital gains

Often, taxpayers earn capital gains from investments of different types. Short-term capital gains are taxed differently from long-term capital gains and have to be included at the time of computing income.

6. Entering the correct details manually

The ITR forms carry a number of rows and columns that need to be filled out at the time of filing one’s income tax returns. The details have to be entered in a particular format, which if not done properly can lead to errors in the returns. For example, dates have to be entered in the DD/MM/YYYY format only. If the date is entered in any other format, the returns would be incorrect.

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7. Not verifying tax returns

The process of filing income tax returns doesn’t get completed till the returns are verified. Your returns can be verified physically or electronically. The e-verification method is easy and quick when you use your netbanking account or generate an electronic verification code.

Hence, before you start filing income tax returns make sure you do not make silly mistakes!

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