ITR filing for AY2024-25: The income tax return filing season is currently underway, with the deadline for filing tax returns for FY2023-24 set for July 31, 2024. Taxpayers falling into the categories of individuals, bodies of individuals, or associations of persons can file their income tax returns by July 31, 2024, without any late fees.

ITR-1, also known as Sahaj Form, is for resident individuals meeting specific income criteria. Those eligible to file under this category are individuals whose total income for the financial year does not surpass Rs 50 lakh.

Their income sources include salary, income from a single-house property, family pension income, agricultural income (up to ₹5,000), and other sources such as interest from savings accounts, deposits (bank/post office/cooperative society), income tax refund interest, interest received on enhanced compensation, any other interest income, and family pension.

Filing income tax return using ITR-1 on e-filing portal

The pre-filling and filing service for ITR-1 Form is accessible to registered users on the Income Tax Department’s e-filing portal. This service empowers individual taxpayers to submit their ITR-1 Form either online via the e-filing portal or by using the offline Excel utility. This user manual specifically outlines the process for filing ITR-1 through the online mode.

ITR-1 Form has some pre-filled sections

ITR-1 Form consists of some pre-filled sections that you need to validate/edit before submission, along with one summary section where you must review your tax computation. These sections are – Personal Information, Gross Total Income, and Total Deductions.

Here are the key changes made to ITR-1

• Individuals filing the ITR-1 Form need to specify their preferred tax regime in their tax return filing.
• New Tax Regime is now the default tax regime, following amendments introduced by the Finance Act 2023 in Section 115BAC. For individuals, HUFs, AOPs and BOIs, the new tax regime will apply automatically. However, those who want to continue with the old tax regime need to explicitly indicate that they opt out of Section 115BAC(6).
• Individuals with income (excluding income from a business or profession) must specify their preferred tax regime in the income tax return filed for the relevant assessment year under Section 139(1).
• An additional section, Section 80CCH, was introduced by the Finance Act 2023. This section specifies that individuals who enrol in the Agnipath Scheme and subscribe to the Agniveer Corpus Fund on or after November 1, 2022, are entitled to a tax deduction for the entire amount deposited in the Agniveer Corpus Fund.
• To accommodate this change, ITR Form 1 has been updated to incorporate a new column, allowing taxpayers to provide the relevant details regarding the amount eligible for deduction under Section 80CCH.