It is necessary for every person whose annual income is more than Rs 2.5 lakh to file Income Tax Return (ITR). Form 16 is required for filing income tax returns for those who are employed. Companies issue Form 16 to their employees. In this, the employee has the details of salary income, TDS, TCS, deductions, exemptions in the last financial year.
Many companies have not yet issued Form 16 for the financial year 2022-23 to their employees. Then, if a taxpayer wants to file Income Tax Return (ITR), he can do so without Form 16. The Income Tax Department has released ITR-1 and ITR-4 forms with pre-filled data. The last date for filing income tax return for the financial year 2022-23 is July 31, 2023.
The Income Tax Department has said that the software/utilities for the rest of the ITR forms will be enabled soon. Information in this regard will be made available to taxpayers on the e-filing portal. You have the option of filing ITR online and offline. Taxpayers who wish to file returns online can do so with the help of the e-filing portal.
What is Form 16?
Companies issue Form 16 to each of their employees. It contains all kinds of information including employee’s income, TDS, TCS, deductions and exemptions in the last financial year. This information is important for the Income Tax Department. The reason for this is that on the basis of this, it is decided how much tax the taxpayer has to pay. It is mandatory for every employer to issue Form 16 to its employees before 15th June.
Which form for whom?
Taxpayers who wish to file ITR online can file the return using Form 1 or Form 4. The ITR-1 form is called SAHAJ. It can be used by such taxpayers, whose salary/pension, income from a house property, income from other sources like interest and income from agriculture is up to Rs 5,000.
ITR-4 is called Sugam. It can be used by Individuals, HUFs and Firms (except LLP). The condition for this is that the total income of the resident should be up to Rs 50 lakh and he should have income from business and profession, the computation of which should be under section 44AD, 44DA or 44EA of the Income Tax Act.
How to file ITR without Form 16?
If a taxpayer does not have Form 16, he can use his salary slip. Along with this, he will also have to apply Form 26AS. This is the Annual Tax Statement, which is issued by the Income Tax Department. It can be downloaded from the TRACES website of the Income Tax Department. It can also be accessed through the netbanking facility of the authorized bank.
