New Delhi: Income-tax returns filing is going to become a lot easier for Aadhar Card holders. New ITR forms will link to Aadhar Card and physical ITR-5 will not be needed for those who are Aadhar-verified by the Electronic Verification Certification (EVC) system.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has introduced Aadhar card for electronic verification of return of income-tax filed as an option to send ITR-5 directly to the department.
Before the new norms came in, the taxpayer had to speed post signed copy of ITR-5 to the department. The department then used to send a confirmation message of filling returns to taxpayers.
CBDT has uploaded the new tax form on Thursday for the assessment year 2015-16 -- that is, I-T returns for financial year 2014-15.
The new forms seek much more details from the taxpayers than the old forms used to. It will check tax evasion to some extent.
The new ITR forms, including the ITR-1 and ITR-2, require an assessee to furnish the number of bank accounts held by the individual "at any time (including opened/closed) during the previous year" with the last balance in his or her account on March 31 of the just concluded fiscal.
The assessee will also have to furnish the name of the bank, account number/numbers, it's address, IFSC code and any possible joint account holder.
When it comes to disclosure of foreign travel, the taxman wants the assessee's passport number, the issuance place of the passport, countries visited, number of times such sojourns made and in case of a resident taxpayer, the expenses incurred from "own sources in relation to such travel.
"The I-T department, last year, had made it mandatory for taxpayers to mention details of all assets they hold in a foreign soil under a new schedule-details of foreign assets and income from any source outside India.
"The new measures are part of the government's effort to tackle black money in an non-obstrusive manner. The details will add to the taxman's knowledge about a particular assessee," a senior I-T officer said.
(With agency inputs)
