Disclose deposits of Rs 2 lakh or more post note ban in new ITR forms

By ET Bureau 

NEW DELHI: Those who deposited cash of Rs 2 lakh and more in their accounts during the demonetisation drive will have to make a declaration in their income tax returns for the fiscal year that's just ended, as a follow up to the government's efforts to eliminate black money through the note-swap exercise. 

The tax return form notified by the income tax department -— now simplified to one page for most payers—includes a provision for such a declaration. 

In part E of the form that seeks other information from the assessee including bank details, another column has been added seeking details of cash deposited between November 9 and December 30 last year if the aggregate amount over this period was Rs 2 lakh or exceeded that. 

The last date for filing declarations under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana ended on March 31. 
The tax department said parts relating to tax computation and deductions have been rationalised and simplified for easy compliance. The one-page ITR Form-1(Sahaj) is for individuals with an income up to Rs 50 lakh, one residential property and other income such as interest. This will cover most taxpayers. 

"This will reduce the compliance burden to a significant extent on the individual taxpayer," the department said in a statement. "This initiative will benefit more than two crore taxpayers who will be eligible to file return of income in this simplified form." 

Number of tax forms have been reduced from nine to seven by unifying ITR-2, ITR-2A and ITR-3 into one ITR-2 form. ITR-4 and ITR-4S (Sugam) have been renumbered as ITR-3 and ITR-4 (Sugam), respectively, it said. 

All returns have to be filed electronically except for ITR-1 (Sahaj) or ITR-4 (Sugam) by those who are 80 years or more as well as individuals or Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) with an income of up to `5 lakh and no refund claims. In such cases a paper form can be filed. 

PMGKY DEPOSITS 
Income tax offices were to have stayed open until midnight on Friday to accept last-minute deposits under PMGKY scheme. 

The scheme gave one last chance to those who deposited unaccounted cash after the demonetisation announcement on November 8 to come clean after paying 50% tax and penalty and putting another 25% of the amount declared in a non-interestbearing deposit for four years. 

The department had sent out messages to those who made large deposits to explain their source. Those making declarations under the scheme can file returns by April 10 if they have paid taxes and penalties till March 31.

Source : economicstimes.com