The income tax department has notified the new set of return forms, including a three-page simplified one, for taxpayers to file their returns for assessment year 2015-16.

With the finance ministry uploading the new forms, taxpayers will now be able to file their returns. The new deadline is August 31. The new simpler forms replace the ones notified earlier that were withdrawn after hue and cry over seeking details of foreign travels and bank accounts. The most simplified form, ITR-2A, to be filled by those individuals and Hindu undivided families or HUFs who do not have income from either business, profession or by way of capital gains and do not hold foreign assets, only asks for the passport number of the taxfiler, with the words “if available“.

Taxpayers will have to declare “total number of savings and current bank accounts“ held by them “at any time during the previous year (excluding dormant accounts).“

The form also has space to fill up the IFSC code of the bank and in an additional feature, tax filers have been given an option to indicate their bank accounts in which they would want their refund credited. The I-T department, in the new ITRs, has also sought the Aadhaar number of filers as also email ids.

“The inclusion of Aadhaar and emails are to ensure a regime of online ITR filing in the country,“ a senior official said.

The department has also provided for an additional four-page schedule to this simplified form for those who wish to file anymore details, applicable in a caseto-case basis.

In the ITR-2, for individuals and HUFs having income from business or profession, the form remains simple but they will have to declare if they hold any foreign assets abroad or have income from “any source outside India.“ The new ITRs have replaced the 14-page form that was notified earlier this year, triggering a major controversy with individuals, industrialists and MPs saying tax filing would become cumbersome as those forms had sought details including foreign trips and bank accounts details. -