How to file Income Tax returns? Step-by-step guide on ITR filing, documents required

While ITR filing can be done online, some people might find it confusing. Here is a step-by-step guide to what is required for ITR filing and how taxpayers can do it.

What documents are needed for ITR filing?

A salaries taxpayer wiling to file ITR for AY2025-26 will need the following documents for successful filing.

• Annual Information Statement (AIS): It is a comprehensive view of information for a taxpayer displayed in Form 26AS. AIS shows both reported value and modified value under different sections like TDS, TCS transactions, property purchases and savings account interest.
• Form 16: It is a TDS certificate that shows the salary earned and the TDS deducted from your salary. It is issued by the employer.
• House rent receipt (if applicable): A receipt detailing the house rent paid by you over the financial year 2024-25.
• Investment payment/premium receipts (if applicable): Statements detailing the investments made by you and the payments done towards the same must also be kept ready.

It must be noted here that ITR form is an annexure-less form, which means that no forms have to be attached along with it. However, the above mentioned forms/statements must be kept ready as the information they contain is needed while filing ITRs and they might be sought by the Income Tax Department at a later stage.

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How to choose which ITR form to file?

For salaried individuals, the Income Tax Department offers four different types of forms. These are ITR-1 (SAHAJ), ITR-2, ITR-3 and ITR-4 (SUGAM).

ITR-1 (SAHAJ) is only applicable for individuals. ITR-1 cannot be filed by a person who:

• is a Director in a company
• has held any unlisted equity shares at any time during the previous year
• has any asset (including financial interest in any entity) located outside India
• has signing authority in any account located outside India
• has income from any source outside India
• is a person in whose case tax has been deducted u/s 194N
• is a person in whose case payment or deduction of tax has been deferred on ESOP
• has any brought forward loss or loss to be carried forward under any head of income
• has total income exceeding ₹50 lakhs.

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ITR-2 is used by taxpayers who are not eligible for ITR-1 and who are filing ITRs as Hindu Undivided Family (HUF). Those filing ITR-2 must not have income from profits and gains or business or profession.

ITR-3 is filed by individual and HUF who earn income from profits and gains of business or profession.

ITR-4 (SUGAM) is applicable for an individual or HUF, who is Resident other than Not Ordinarily Resident or a Firm (other than LLP) which is a resident having total income up to ₹50 lakh and having income from business or profession which is computed on a presumptive basis and income from salary/pension, one house property, interest, dividend, agricultural income up to ₹5,000, etc.

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Step-by-step guide to filing ITR online

1. Log in to e-Filing portal using user ID and password.
2. On your Dashboard, click e-File > Income Tax Returns > File Income Tax Return (Please note that in this step, you may be flashed a message saying your PAN is inoperative as it is not linked with your Aadhaar. You can click on Link Now to resolve this issue).
3. Select Assessment Year as 2024–25 and Mode of filling as Online, then click Continue.
4. You may then choose to Resume Filing or Start New Filing based on your preferences (Please note that starting a new filing will discard any returns you have saved already).
5. You may then choose the taxpayer category in which you fall from Individual, HUF and Others. For the sake of this article, we will choose Individual taxpayer.
6. Based on the information given above, you may choose to file the type of ITR form that applies to you and then click Proceed. Let us say we chose ITR-1.
7. The portal will then show a list of documents that a needed. After going through them, you may select Let’s Get Started.
8. Select the checkbox applicable to you regarding reason for filing ITR and click Continue.
9. The New Tax Regime will be selected as default. If you want to opt out of New Tax Regime, select Yes in the Personal Information Section.
10. Enter/edit your income and total deductions details in the different sections. After completing and confirming all the sections of the form, click Proceed.

    You can view your tax liability (if applicable) by clicking on Total Tax Liability, which will show a summary of your tax computation based on details provided by you. You will get Pay Now and Pay Later options at the bottom of the page if you are liable to pay tax.

    If there is no tax liability payable, or if there is a refund based on tax computation, you will be taken to the Preview and Submit Your Return page.

11. If you click on Pay Now, you will be redirected to e-pay Tax service. Click Continue.
12. After successful payment through e-Filing portal, a success message is displayed. Click Back to Return Filing to complete filing of ITR.
13. Click Preview Return.
14. On the Preview and Submit Your Return page, select the declaration checkbox and click Proceed to Preview.
15. Preview your return and click Proceed to Validation.
16. Once validated, on your Preview and Submit your Return page, click Proceed to Verification (You will have to return to different sections and correct any errors that the portal shows before you can proceed with the ITR form’s verification).
17. You may then choose to e-Verify Now, e-Verify Later or Verify via ITR-V, in which case you will have to send a signed physical ITR-V to Centralised Processing Centre, Income Tax Department, Bengaluru-560500 by speed post within 30 days. After choosing, click on Continue.
18. Once you e-Verify your return, a success message is displayed along with the Transaction ID and Acknowledgement Number. You will also receive a confirmation message on your mobile number and email ID registered on the e-Filing portal.