Income Tax Return (ITR) filing online for AY 2023-24: As many as 14,65,641 ITRs for income earned in FY 2022-23 were filed till May 28, of which over 12 lakh returns by verified while 3834 verified ITRs were processed, according to data on the Income Tax e-filing website at the time of writing.

Salaried employees will be soon able to file their returns for AY 2023-24 after receiving Form 16 from their employers by June 15. As the tax-filing season has started, the following is a step-by-step guide for salaried taxpayers.

Most of the salaried employees would be eligible for ITR-1 (Sahaj), which is applicable when the total income of the taxpayer is not more than Rs 50 lakh during the financial year and his/her income is only from salary, one house property, family pension income, agricultural income up to Rs 5000 and other sources such interest from bank deposits (including savings account interest) interest from Income Tax Refund, any other interest income etc.

Steps to file ITR online for salaried

Step 1: Visit Income Tax e-Filing portal, https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/

Step-2: Login to e-Filing portal by entering user ID (PAN), Password, Captcha code and click ‘Login’.

Step 3: Click on the ‘e-File’ menu and then click the ‘Income Tax Return’ link.

Also Read: Top 9 Income Tax Return (ITR) filing mistakes to avoid

Step 4: According to information on the Income Tax website, PAN will be auto-populated on the Income Tax Return page. You need to select ‘Assessment Year’, ‘ITR Form Number’, ‘Filing Type’ as ‘Original/Revised Return’ and ‘Submission Mode’ as ‘Prepare and Submit Online

Step 5: After selecting the above details, click on ‘Continue’.

Step 6: In this step, read all instructions carefully and fill in the applicable and mandatory fields of the Online ITR Form. Also, click on the ’Save Draft’ button to avoid loss of data due to session timeout. The draft will be available for 30 days from the date of saving or ITR filing or till there is no change in XML schema of the notified ITR, whichever is earlier.

Step 7: Check gross total income, total deduction, taxes paid and tax liability (if any) thoroughly to ensure maximum tax saving.

Step 8: Select the appropriate Verification option in the ‘Taxes Paid and Verification’ tab. You can select any of the following option to verify the Income Tax Return:

  • I would like to e-Verify
  • I would like to e-Verify later within 120 days from date of filing.
  • I don’t want to e-Verify and would like to send signed ITR-V through normal or speed post to “Centralized Processing Center, Income Tax Department, Bengaluru – 560 500” within 120 days from date of filing.

Step 9: Click on ‘Preview and Submit’ button, Verify all the data entered in the ITR.

Also Read: Why investing just to save tax is not a good idea?

Step 10: Submit the ITR. If you choose ‘I would like to e-Verify’ option, you can do e-verification through any of the following methods by entering the EVC/OTP when asked for.

  • EVC generated through bank ATM or Generate EVC option under My Account
  • Aadhaar OTP
  • Prevalidated Bank Account
  • Prevalidated Demat Account

Note: It is important to verify the ITR through any of the given options as the return filing process is not complete until it is verified.

Step 11: Enter the EVC/OTP within 60 seconds. If you fail to do this, the ITR will be auto-submitted but you will have to verify it later by using ‘My Account > e-Verify Return’ option or by sending a signed ITR-V to CPC.

You can also view the uploaded ITRs on the Income Tax e-filing website.