• As a salaried person, you should get Form 16 from your current employer. If you have changed jobs during the current financial year, you should get Form 16 from all employers.
• You should have Form 16A which is a TDS certificate certifying tax deducted at source on interest received, income received on a freelance basis and commissions paid.
• Download your form 26AS which has details of all other income received and tax deductions. If your IT returns filed is different from this one, IT department can send a notice to you
• If you have paid advance tax, you should have the payment challan details ready.
• If you have a home loan, certificate showing the interest and principal paid on it should be sourced from the lender. Similarly certificate for interest paid on educational loan should be collected.
• You should keep details of property tax paid and any other income received if any
• You should keep the details such as date of transaction, amount, quantity and amount of purchase and sale of shares and MF schemes to compute loss/gain.
• You should be ready with documents like insurance premium receipts, FD advices, bond certificates, NSC certificates, NPS details.
• Obtain rental receipts if you are claiming HRA exemption.
• If you are claiming education allowance or medical reimbursement, ensure you have the necessary details.
• Ensure that you have the active bank Account Numbers, IFSC Code, PAN Number, Aadhar Number and IT Returns website access details in place. An active bank account is one in which transaction has taken place at least once in last 3 years.
• Check the Form 16 to check for discrepancies related to income, deductions availed etc.
• You can set-off short term capital losses against long-term capital gains. Losses can be carried forward for eight financial years. You should have details of these losses handy.

Many people miss out on the following things –

• To pay differential tax on FD interest
• To pay tax on Savings Bank account interest income if interest received in bank account is more than ₹ 10,000 per year per PAN.
• Miss out on availing benefits such as Sodexo, LTA, leave encashment to reduce tax burden
• Investing in ELSS which is one way to reduce tax burden without a long-term commitment.

Take care not to oversee the above points to ensure a smooth tax filing process.

As you can see above, there are quite a few things to be done to file your IT returns and so it is important that you begin the process of filing IT returns well in advance. There are other benefits too of doing it before the due date is close. You can revise your returns, losses can be carried forward. You will be able to do a thorough job of it and avoid last minute hassles.

Many people miss out on the following things –

• To pay differential tax on FD interest
• To pay tax on Savings Bank account interest income if interest received in bank account is more than ₹ 10,000 per year per PAN.
• Miss out on availing benefits such as Sodexo, LTA, leave encashment to reduce tax burden
• Investing in ELSS which is one way to reduce tax burden without a long-term commitment.

Take care not to oversee the above points to ensure a smooth tax filing process.