Easy step by step guide to e-Filing of Income Tax Returns for the AY 2013-14

Breaking News : The last date of filing Income Tax extended upto 5.8.2013, e-file your return now

The month of July will start in few days and all salaried class employees and self employed individuals have to fill their Income Tax Returns for the Financial Year 2012-13, Assessment Year 2013-14 by 31st July, 2013.

Normally this would not have been a problem, you could have filled the Saral for AY 2013-14 and sent it to the local ITO for submission.  However this year onwards the Income Tax Department has made e-Filing compulsory for individuals whose Gross Taxable Amount is about 5,00,000.00.  

For those whose Income is below 5,00,000.00, there is no need to file the returns as be current Income Tax laws.  But if you still want to file your returns, you can use the Saral Forms and send them to local ITO as you did last year.  

I am writing this easy step by step article for those who want to e-File a return using Income Tax login.

First and foremost go to here Income Tax e-Filing Website and create a login id and password.   There is a green button saying Register Yourself on the Right hand side of the Website, click on it and get yourself registered.  Give your current active email id for registration details and the password should be one capital, one alpha numeric and 8 characters or more.  Optimal password would be Aaaa@12345 (replace with the words of your choice).  Another thing to remember is the 'Secret Answer', this one will help you recreate your password if you have forgotten it (it really helps because most of us tend including me forget the password as Income Tax filing comes once a year).  

Now if you have done the above correctly proceed.  Before proceeding, another word of caution, use a PC with genuine Winsows OS on it.  Pirated version is known to give problems while validating the xml file.  You will need to keep your PAN number and Form 16 at hand while e-Filing the return so be sure they are nearby.

Now open the Income Tax e-Filing Website and download ITR1 and save it to a location preferably on your C drive. The downloads are below the Register yourself button on the right hand side.  The file is zip one which you can extract there itself.  

Now you have download it and extracted it, dont open the file as you have to enable Macros and ActiveX components to run and validate the file.  To enable them,  Go to Microsoft Excel, open it and then go to Office button with a MS Office picture on the top left hand.  Click the Office button and you will be present with New, Open, Save and Save as Menu.  At the bottom of the Menu there is a button called Excel Options as per image below :

Click on the Excel Options button and go to the 8th button saying Trust Centre and open it.  Once you open Trust Centre, go to Trust Centre Setting at the right hand down corner.  Open the settings and go to 4th button called ActiveX settings and enable all the ActiveX controls (4th button).  Go back to Trust Centre Setting and click on Macro Settings (5th button), here too, enable all Macros (4th button). Say ok and close the Excel Window.

Now go the file which you had extracted earlier (named 2013_ITR1_PR6.xls), double click on it and the Excel Workbook will open with 4 sheets in it namely Income Details, TDS, Taxes Paid and Verification and 80G.  

Go to the Sheets one by one and fill the details.  In the Income Details sheet, enter all relevant data correctly like PAN No, your Mobile No. (do not give the STD code, the sheet then gives error),  Date of birth in DD/MM/YYYY format, Employee Category, Income Tax Ward/Circle (Mumbai is 11(1)), say no to are you governed by Portuguese Civil law (I dont know what that means),  Residential Status etc. 

Once you have filled in all the details press Validate at the top right, if you have correctly filled in correctly the file will validate.  If not it will give a error message.  Read the error message, its in some kind of foreign language but you can understand the gist of it.  Go to the column it wants correction and correct it. 

Once validated you can print the xls file to be on safer side and for help next year and press Generate Xml button.  A xml file will be saved to the same location where you had save the zip file.  

Now go back to Income Tax e-Filing website and log in. Go to upload xml button and upload the file.  You will receive a message saying that your file has been uploaded and download the ITRV file(you will receive the same in your mail also).  You have to download this file, take a printout and send it to the following address. The ITRV is password protected. 

Your ITR-V/ Acknowledgment is protected by a password for your security. Please enter your PAN (in small letters) and Date of Birth or Incorporation (in ddmmyyyy format), in combination, to view your ITR-V/Acknowledgment. If your pan is AAAPA0000A and the date of birth is 10-Jan-2008, then the password will be aaapa0000a10012008.

Remember to send it by Speed Post/Ordinary Post only Courier is not allowed.

Address :

Income Tax Department - Centralized Processing Centre,Post Bag No - 1,Electronic City Post Office,Bangalore - 560100,Karnataka - India.

If you have any problems with the above kindly comment on it and I will try to solve your problem.  If you have successfully filed your e-Return with my tutorial, kindly post in your comments also.

Update : Government has made filing returns compulsory for even those who earn less then Rs.5.00 lakhs.  I have posted a easier online tutorial for e-Filing which you can get here

Lower Division Clerks(LDC's) who have completed 20 years service to get Grade Pay of 4200.00 instead of 2800

In a landmark judgement the Principal Central Administrative Tribunal, New Delhi has ruled that the Lower Division Clerks who have completed 20 years of service will be eligible for Pay Benefits in the scale of Rs.9300.00 - 34,8000.00 with Grade Pay of Rs.4,200.00.

This move will benefit lakhs of LDCs who have joined during the period 1985 to 1996(implementation date of VIIth CPC is expected to be 1.1.2016)

The order of the Honorable CAT Bench is embeded herewith :

CAT PRINCIPLE BENCH JUDGEMENT ON ACP/MACP

Results time in India, check your results online for SSC (10th) , CBSE and HSC (12th) of various boards

The vacations are nearly drawing to close for all the students who had appeared for SSC (10th) and HSC (12th) this year.  Last year the Maharashtra board had declared SSC results in the last week of May and the results for HSC in the first week of June.  This year too, the same is expected from the MSBSHSE.  These results are put on the official websites much before they are distributed to the students, therefore all the students are curious and anxious to know their results.

And believe me, almost all the parents are more eager to know the results of their wards then the students themselves.  So to help this anxious parents and not so anxious students I am giving hyperlinks of almost all Boards who will declare the results.  

You have to keep your seat number/roll number ready to get the results online.   

1. 10th (SSC) for Maharashtra students

2. 12th (HSC) for Maharashtra students

3. 10th (CBSE) for All India students

4. Results for Goa students

5. Results for Karnataka students

6.  Results for Gujarat students 

7.  Results for Kerala students

8.  Results for Madhya Pradesh students

9.  Results for Meghalaya students

10. Results for Odisha students

11. Results for Punjab students

12. Results for Tamil Nadu students

13. Result for Rajasthan students

14. Result for Andhra Pradesh students

Please note that the sites might not work on the results day due to jamming and over load.  Further, check your local newspapers for the dates of declaration of results.

Hope you all do well and make your parents proud.  Best of luck.  And do press like on Facebook and Google + buttons1

Vijay Prabhu

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E-Filing of Income Tax for those earning over Rs.5.00 lakh per annum made compulsory by CBDT for the year 2012-13

Breaking News : The last date of filing Income Tax extended upto 5.8.2013, e-file your return now visit here

As I had already informed readers way back in March, 2013 through my article, the Central Board for Direct Taxes, today notified that those individuals earning Rs.5.00 lakh or more during the financial year 2012-13 (AY 2013-14) will have to file their eReturns with the Income Tax Department.    

Ever so slowly, the CDBT has brought perhaps all its tax payers under the e-filing net.  Because those salaried employees whose earnings for the year are less then Rs.5.00 lakhs and do not have interest income (Bank interest) of more than Rs.10,000.00 are any how exempted from filing returns.  This under Rs.5.00 lakhs employees include those whose Tax Deducted at Source(TDS) is being deducted by the Employer.  

Prior to this notification, e-filing had been mandatory for those whose income for the financial year exceed Rs.10.00 lakhs.  Now with the new notification the CBDT feels that it will have chunk of the tax paying citizens in the e-filing net giving both taxpayers and CBDT a greater transparency.  

GREATER TRANSPARENCY 

1.Individuals, including salaried taxpayers earning more than Rs.5 lakhs now have to mandatorily e-file their IT returns

2. Salaried tax payers with income less than Rs.5 lakhs and bank interest less than Rs.10000.00 are exempt for filing any IT return

3. Corporations in India can now e-file audit report, transfer pricing report, MAT certificate 

The Salaried taxpayers are however as of today exempted from obtaining digital signature for e-filing their returns.  So in essence it means that after you have filled your e-return, you have to just send a hard copy to the CPC, Bangalore.  

Those salaried tax payers who have income of less then Rs.5.00 lakhs per year but have income from house property and other sources can file their returns in Sahaj (ITR1).  You can download Sajaj by clicking this link and there are plenty of sites which offer Sahaj in excel format, if you prefer that.

If the tax payer has to report a loss under head Income from house property or winnings from a lottery then the individual has to file a e-return.  

The free online facility is available at https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/.  After the e-filing is done you have to just send the hard copy to CPC, Bangalore at following address :

Income Tax Department - Centralized Processing Centre,Post Bag No - 1,Electronic City Post Office,Bangalore - 560100,Karnataka - India.

Please bear in mind the last date of filing your return for the current financial year 2012-13 (AY 2013-14) is 31st July, 2013.  So your employer should issue you a Form 16 by 15th May, 2013.  I will post another easy way to e-file your returns soon.  Please write in your questions, queries, suggestions which I will answer with the help of a Chartered Accountant.

Vijay Prabhu 

Welcome to the Republic of Scamia, not long ago called the Republic of India

My fellow citizens, it is time for us to change the name of our country to Republic of Scamia (or Scamistan in Hindustani).   We have been no good as Republic of India (Hindustan or Bharatvarsh which ever you prefer) for we have failed as a state to live on the principles of honesty, truth, equality and justice.  However over the years, we are developing very fast as a nation of scheming, money laundering, unscrupulous and corrupt citizens of the world with the political leaders falling over each other to reach the goal of most corrupt.   We are soon going to overtake Somalia, North Korea and Afghanistan as the worlds most corrupt country.  This is a time to rejoice and actually is a matter of joy and celebration.  So to celebrate this occasion of becoming the most corrupt country in the world, I place before you Citizens of India, a new name for our country :

REPUBLIC OF SCAMIA

With the new name we will have a new constitution which will make all scams, cheatings, money laundering and illegal hoardings of goods and food grains legal.  In fact the rich and super rich now won't have to go to the snobby bankers of Switzerland, Lichenstein, Cayman Islands, St.Kitts and Nevis, Grand Turk and Caicos Islands etc. to launder their money, for money laundering will be made legal in Scamia.   Not only money laundering will be made legal, it will form a part of our constitution and we shall strive to take over the No.1 place to launder money from these Tax havens by 2020.  

With a new name, we should also have a new currency.  Over the years we have found out that Havala transactions are more accountable than our accounts.  In fact the name Havala grants a degree of respectability to the currency, that is why I propose the new currency of Scamia shall be named as Havala. The symbol of Havala will H.  Havala(H) will overtake US Dollar as the worlds preferred currency by the year 2020, by virtue of being the money of choice for smuggling, money laundering and price manipulating of the shares in the share markets.    Leaders of other corrupt countries will invest in Havala(H) to gain maximum benefits from the fact that it will be No.1 currency in 2020.  This in turn will be win win situation for us as we will hoard and launder money at our will and fancy.  1 Havala(H) shall be equal to 100 Hafta.  Hafta as we know is legal tender in many cities today.  It is a gratification given to the Police and other authorities to turn a blind eye to the illegal business being carried out.  Therefore it is most natural that our sub currency should be named Hafta.

Next on the agenda is the leaders and the public servants.  Only those who prove to be corrupt and have a brain for devising the best methods to take bribe money will be eligible for high posts.  The ones who are most corrupt will be the cabinet ministers.  The less corrupt ones will be named Secretaries etc.  Those less corrupt then them, will be the normal workers for the Government of Scamia   Corruption will be the only criteria for selection of candidates for working in the Government of Scamia    And the Prime Minister will be the one who can tells us convincingly that there are  diamonds in the coal mines in Niyamgiri in Odisha and  oil from the vast Rann of Kutch and sell these to our country men at the highest rate in Havala

With the constitution comes reservations.  I propose that the jobs and seats in colleges be reserved as follows :

Those taking bribes from odinary people like the Traffic police, municipalty, police etc. : 10 %

Those taking bribes from business men : 30 %

Those dealing in coal, 2G, 3G and other G's to follow : 50 %

Rest of reservation will be only for those who take kickbacks in dollars. 

Keeping the constitution in mind, the police and the lower rung bureaucrats, technocrats will be appointed on basis of auctions.  Right from constables to the highest post will be put to auctions.  Those bidding in offshore dollars will be given the highest preference over local Havala(H) bidders.  This will ensure that Havala(H) gains preference over dollar in the international market.

Banking is the mainstay of any nation.  Over the years our banks have failed to launder money on the scale of the masterful Swiss banks.  We will therefore invite the choicest Swiss bankers to Scamia to run our banks for a period of 5 years.  After that, we will learn to launder money ourselves.

We will procure our defence requirements from the likes of Adnan Khashoggi, Dale Stoffel, Dr.Moosa Bin Samsher, Samuel Cummings, Fares Mana'a, Sarkhis Soghanailan(I believe some of their ilk are still free and running the business even more profitably), the Uzbek, Siberian or the Russian Mafia.  Our nuclear requirements can be met by North Korea, Ukrainian Mafia and Iran.  We will enter into Free Trade Pact with Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Ethiopia, Columbia(provided FARC gets into power), Spain (provided ETA gets into power) and Cuba.

We can import oil from Venezuela and Iran, in return we can hurl abuses at USA whenever they want and impose trade and economic sanctions against USA if they so desire(remember Havala(H) will be number one currency).

This is the gist of the new Republic.  If you have any more suggestions, kindly post in your recommendations.  But be sure that they deal with corruptions, scams, money laundering etc.  Honest and truthful views are not allowed and will be view seriously by the Republic of Scamia.

Vijay Prabhu

(This is my take on the current events taking place in India, my country).  If you like my views click on the link to know more!

Supreme Court of India doing things that should have been done by the Executive

First of all I salute the Supreme Court of India and its Judges, they are really doing what the Executives of the India ought to do.  The constitution of India divides the Indian authority into three parts.  The Legislative - to lay down or enact the statutes of law, the Executive - to implement the statutes of the Law and the Judiciary - To oversee whether the implementation is done within the rules laid down in the statutes and constitution of India.  In another instance of Judicial activism, the Supreme Court of India to pulled the government for usage of red beacon and siren by all and sundry and the impact of it on general public.

Right from the time of Independence of India and formation of the Republic in 1957, the Executive, which includes the Ministries, the Bureaucrats, the Technocrats and the officers of the services like IPS, IFS, IES have failed to deliver the goods as written in the Constitution of India.  

The failures listed may be a high profile execution of building dams, laying rail network or four laning of the National highways to a simple protection of the females, the backward community of India or plain vanilla giving a good governance to the citizens of the country.  Every single time it has failed, the reasons for which are many like corruption, neopotism, favourism and general lack of interest in the well being of the country.

It is indeed a very angry site when you have to go somewhere and are blocked in the road for half an hour because some idiot minister or a VIP is passing the same road.  This happens rarely in Mumbai but it happens daily in Delhi.  The entire road is blocked to make the road free for the VIP who passes in some kind of a parade with the red beacon flashing and a wailing siren.  It really makes fools out of us every time we see such a site because he is what we made him.  Had we not elected the man he wouldn't have been an VIP.  But sadly time and again we have to wait in the hot dry roads for him to pass so we can go about our way.  The legislative is fully for this because a flashing red beacon and sire gives them a perverse sadistic kind of notion of power and makes them feel like the kings of yore.  Watch this video to get a feel about what I am talking about.

Now thankfully the Supreme Court of India has taken the matters into it hands and thankfully will get rid of this menace once and for all.  A bench of Justices G.S.Singhvi and Kurian Joseph came down heavily on the Government and its executives saying that, "there is no need for others to use the siren.  Ambulances, Fire brigades and the Army using the beacons is understandable. We think you should ask the others to remove it immediately," it told the Additional Solicitor General.  It further added that, "The general public hates the vehicles with red beacon and siren mainly because of the brazen manner in which the police stops them to allow the VIP car to have a smooth passage"

The words of the Bench are not just heart warming to ordinary citizens of India but a severe warning to the executives of the country.  They are only adding to the class divide that exists in the country.  Out of the population of 125 billion or so 40 % of people of India still live in abject poverty and it does the VIPs no good to act like they are the self styled rulers of this country or to think India is a banana republic.    

Another point which is to be noted that due to the frequent run in with general public the Authority loses respect from them which in turn can harm the law and order situation of the country.  A layman has to have some fear of the law for the country to run smoothly.  If this fear goes away then anarchy will reign the country.  It is already showing its fangs in form of the naxal moment in the eastern jungles of India.  

So, better late then never, let us hope that our friendly neighbourhood minister removes his red beacon and siren, and for once walks among us like a ordinary Indian.

I intend to write about the other actions which have been taken by Supreme Court, which ideally should have long ago been taken up by the ruling class of India.  Please write in your comments regarding the same, it encourages me.

Vijay Prabhu

How to search check your PAN number online at any time 24X7

If you are a Indian citizen then you perhaps know the importance of PAN card.  The PAN (Permanent Account Number) is a must for applying in any Government department.  Whether for bank account, driving licence or for Aadhaar Card.  Now if you want the PAN card number in a hurry what do you do?  Easy, go to this site fill in your details and you will get your PAN Card number online.  Older PAN cards issued by Income Tax department (the white coloured ones) are not available at the site but the new card issued by the UTISSL are available.  

The site also offers a Tax calculator for your income tax calculation.  You can apply for PAN/TAN Card here. 


You may also be interested in the tutorials for downloading Aadhaar Card and acquiring Indian National Passport.

Make use of the facilities being given by the Government of India.  Please post your comments on the post/send me any requests that you have.

Vijay Prabhu

When will the General Elections happen in India, will the UPA last the full term?

UPA is in a peculiar situation.  Every other day some body from its grand alliance makes a pitch for quitting it and then the very next day the same person says that his party is not leaving the UPA Government.  The latest in the fray to do this kind of stunt was Mulayam Singh. 

Not only did he back away from Samajwadi Party pulling the plug on UPA, he asserted that he will support the full term of UPA.  Mulayam who is now the hot favourite of the Congress bashing committee today said that the UPA will last its full term while latching on to the now famous(or infamous) quote of keeping communal forces at bay.   But do remember this what TMC supremo Mamata to had done a similar thing as did the DMK supremo Karunanidhi.  But when the time was ripe for them they pulled the carpet from under the UPA or should I say when the tide went against them they pulled the plug on UPA.

So do the top brass of UPA including Sonia trust the so called alliance partners?  The question was answered by the PM Dr.Manmohan Singh while on a flight to South Africa, that they were ready to fight a election and he may be dark horse for the third term.  

So this statement makes one thing certain, the Congress part of UPA are not going to take to the whims and fancies of the alliance partners and are silently working in a poll mode. 

After the DMK pullout from the UPA Government alongwith its 18 MPs,  the Congress and allies are left with only 225 MPs.  The halfway mark for Lok Sabha is 271 MPs, so the UPA needs 47 MPs to continue with the Government.  Right now the two outside supporters are the most unpredictable ones in the Indian politics.  SP & BSP are the last of the Aaya Ram Gaya Ram clan that is still left in India.  So can Congress trust these two?  No it doesn't, that is why Mr.P.Chidambaram on Friday was touring UP to make peace with SP and give some dole outs to UP to keep quiet for time being.  

Both the parties from the UP are going all out to get their pound of flesh from the last remnants of UPA.  But even with SP & BSP support the UPA can't cross the half way mark!

This is a right time for elections but is the opposition party the BJP ready for elections.  Right now with the elections due in Karnataka, where BJP's good governance image took a good knock, BJP is still leaving its options open.  As of today it does not favour elections because it does not know the ground support it has or against it.  It should to the party a lot of good if it goes on and announces Mr.Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.  This is sure to turn the winds in its favour as it can be seen from various fora that the youth of the country are keen on a good Government which provides scam free, corruption free, development focused Government and have put their faith in NaMo.

In the most likely scenario this UPA Government will continue till some kind of explosive bill like the Women's Reservation, the Lok Pal etc. is introduced in the Parliament.  The day such a kind of bill is introduced will be the last day for the UPA.  So tighten your seat belts and start preparing for the Elections which as per simple arithmetic should be announced in November 2013.

My only hope is that whomsoever is elected is given a simple majority by the citizens of India.  My ardent belief is that a person like Narendra Modi should be given a chance to run the Government so he can come true with his words in providing a good Government to us.

Please write in your comments on the political situation in India!

Vijay Prabhu