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10 Easy Steps to Tax Filing Shashikant S Kulkarni Have you realized how close you are to July 31? It might not seem very close, but there are barely five weeks to go. By then, your income tax returns should be filed for financial year 2008-09. So, if you or your chartered accountant have not yet started calling up each other about your tax returns, it's about time you made the first call. It makes no difference whether you are working abroad at the moment: if you have any taxable income in India, it is time to pull up your socks. Typically, filing tax returns can be boring and complex with the added threat of penalties and harassment if you do not get the maths right. To come out smiling, all you need is a bit of preparation. The government expects you to have paid taxes on whatever you had earned, spent and invested in the last financial year. And it expects you to have done so on or before the last date for filing returns. All taxpayers need to file back or report any such income or expense details with the government in a prescribed format. Last year's Budget had much to offer to salaried taxpayers of the country and helped in saving the tax outgo. There were two ways in which the taxpayer benefited. One, the threshold level of income tax went up. This means that a greater part of the income comes under the zero tax category. To make the tax pill even sweeter, tax slabs were raised very generously as well. Earlier, the maximum marginal rate of tax of 30 per cent was applicable from the annual income level of Rs 2.5 lakh (Rs 250,000). This now stands doubled at Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000) for the financial year 2008-09. This means that instead of incomes over Rs 2.5 lakh being taxed at 30 per cent, now the part of income that is over Rs 5 lakh will be taxed at 30 per cent. This means a male taxpayer less than 65 years of age, with a gross income of Rs 5 lakh, will now save about Rs 44,000 in income tax. But then, how do you file the return? First, identify all your sources of income. You may earn a salary and have capital gains as well, if you are dabbling in shares. Al so, if you ha ve taken a home loan, the head 'i ncome fr om house property' also needs to be accounted for. Therefore, identifying the heads of income is the first step.
