Kolkata: The ITR filing deadline expires in just seven days. Taxpayers should file ITR without delay. Taxpayers must get familiar with the process of filing ITR for the financial year 2025-26. Timely filing of ITRs is important since one has to pay penal amounts delaying it beyond the July 31 deadline. As is known to many, the new tax regime is the default tax regime and therefore one has to file ITR carefully. Taxpayers who might be interested in availing of deductions under the old tax regime will have to choose the it while filing their returns. We will focus on how to file taxes using ITR-1 form.

According to the Income Tax Department, ITR Form 1 (Sahaj) is to be used for the following purposes:

There are five pre-filed sections in ITR1 which must be validated before submitting. The sections are as follows:

There are two preconditions for filing ITR online. One needs an active PAN (Permanent Account Number) and one must have an ID and a password for the income tax filing portal. It can be created if you don’t have one. The steps go as follows:

Step 1: Log in to the e-Filing portal using your user ID and password
Step 2: On your Dashboard, click e-File > Income Tax Returns > File Income Tax Return.
Step 3: Select Assessment Year as 2026–27 and Mode of filling as Online, then click Continue
Step 4: In case you have already filled the Income Tax Return and it is pending for submission, click Resume Filing. In case you wish to discard the saved return and start preparing the return afresh,click Start New Filing
Step 5: Select Status as applicable to you and click Continue to proceed further
Step 6: Select the ITR form and click Proceed
Step 7: Once you have selected the ITR applicable to you, note the list of documents needed and click Let’s Get Started
Step 8: Select the checkbox applicable to you regarding reason for filing ITR and click Continue
Step 9: For AY 2026-27 New Tax Regime is the default Tax Regime. Option “No” will be Auto Selected for the question “If you want to opt out of New Tax Regime”. Select “Yes” in the Personal Information Section, if you wish to file your return under Old Tax Regime
Step 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
Step 10a: In case there is a tax liability
Step 10a(i) : If you click on “Pay Now” you will be redirected to e-pay Tax service. Click Continue
Step 10a(ii): After successful payment through e-Filing portal a success message is displayed. Click Back to Return Filing to complete filing of ITR
Step 10b: In case there is no tax liability (No Demand / No Refund) or if you are eligible for a Refund
Step 11: On the Preview and Submit Your Return page, select the declaration checkbox and click Proceed to Validation
Step 12: Once internal validations is successful then click on Preview
Step 13: Click on Preview of Return and proceed to validation
Step 14: Once return is successfully validated with Upload level validation then click on Proceed to Verification
Step 15: On the Complete your Verification page, select your preferred option and click Continue
Step 16: On the e-Verify page, select the option through which you want to e-Verify the return and click Continue

Source: Income Tax portal

Income tax experts emphasise that taxpayers must verify Form 16, AIS, Form 26AS and other relevant information before filing their returns. Care must be taken to ensure all income and tax details are correctly reflected to facilitate smooth and error-free compliance. Incorrect information, suppressed income, mismatch of data in ITR and AIS can easily attract Income Tax notices which can cause difficulty and even penalty for the taxpayer.

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Avijit Ghosal has been writing on topics of business, industry and investment for the past three decades. He also writes on the broad economy, infrastructure and issues in banking. He has worked for economic dailies such as the Business Standard, The Economic Times, business magazines such as Business Today, English broadsheet the Hindustan Times and Bengali daily Anandabazar Patrika before joining TV9 Network.