The new financial year started on April 1, and with this, the new income tax return (ITR) filing season began. The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), as part of its routine annual exercise, recently rolled out ITR forms (1-7). Now, millions of taxpayers are keenly awaiting the government to release corresponding ITR utilities to facilitate e-filing of returns on the Income Tax Department’s portal for the assessment year 2025-26.

So, if you are among the lakhs of salaried individuals preparing to file ITR on last year’s income, then definitely pay attention to important information. Before filing the return, you must have all the necessary documents ready. And when it comes to salaried people, Form 16 is considered one of the most important documents. This is the same form that you get from your employer and which contains a complete account of your annual income and the tax deducted on it. So, before knowing when this new Form 16 will be available for crores of employees working across sectors in the country, you should understand everything about this key document required to file ITR.

Also read: All ITR forms notified for AY 2025-26 but you still can’t file your income tax return – Find out why

What is there in Form 16?

Actually, Form 16 is divided into two parts — Part A and Part B.

Part A contains your basic profile, such as your name, address, PAN number and TAN number of your office or company. Apart from this, it shows how much tax was deducted from your salary every quarter and deposited to the government. If you want, you can confirm this information from your salary slips.

Part B is a little more detailed. It contains information about your total salary, tax-exempt allowances like HRA and travel allowance, and deductions made under section 80C, 80D etc. For example, how much you invested in things like PPF, LIC, health insurance – details of all these are available in it. This part is most useful while filing ITR.

The government has introduced some changes in the format of Form 16 this year. Now let’s talk about this year’s changes.

Form 16 is being made a little more clean and useful this year. Now it will tell more clearly which part of your salary is tax-free, which allowances are not taxed and on which benefits tax had to be paid. This form has now become more informative than before.

Also read: ITR Filing 2025: No more tax filing hassles with digital Form 16 — Know how it works

The advantage of this will be that when you sit down to file your ITR, you will not have any problem in understanding your salary, tax deduction, and taxable income. This will make the process of return filing easier and faster, and the chances of mistakes will also be reduced.

When will companies issue Form 16 to their employees this year?

Now, let’s discuss the most important thing – when will you receive Form 16 this year, and what does the Income Tax Department say on the deadline for companies to issue Form 16 to their employees for ITR filing AY 2025-26.

All salaried taxpayers, who form a significant chunk of non-audit tax return filers in the country, must remember that Form 16 is not mandatory or necessary to have for ITR filing. The key document only helps you file ITR in a hassle-free manner as it has all the requisite data necessary for filing return in a hassle-free manner.

Also read: ITR-U form notified to allow taxpayers correct errors in previously filed returns; check key changes, penalty and more

According to CA (Dr.) Satish Surana, salaried taxpayers typically start tax return filing only after receiving Form 16 from their employers, which can be issued as late as 15th June under Rule 31(3) of the Income-tax Rules. Similarly, non-salaried taxpayers relying on Form 16A (for TDS on non-salary income) also wait for the due issuance date before finalizing their returns, adds Surana.

Taxpayers are still advised to prepare the necessary documentation in advance and not leave filing to the last few days to avoid late fees under Section 234F and interest implications under Section 234A, says Surana.