Budget 2020: Proposed pre-filled ITR forms with donation details; Reduces taxpayers' pain

Do income Tax Return (ITR) filing gives you tension? If yes, then there is an opportunity for you to be happy as the government has tried to simplify the process of return filing for the taxpayers as pre-filled ITR forms which were earlier available will now include your donation details also.

This year during presentation of the Budget the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed that pre-filled ITR forms will come with details of donations made by the taxpayer in a financial year.

In her budget speech, the FM Sitharaman said: "To ease the process of claiming a deduction for the donation, it is proposed to pre-fill the donee's information in taxpayer's return based on information of donations furnished by the donee. This would result in a hassle-free claim of deduction for the donation made by the taxpayer."

The proposal stated that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) will get the required information on donations from charitable institutions, which will then get automatically pre-filled in the ITR forms.

This announcement was an addition to the last year's budget proposal in which the process of ITR filing was tried to make easy when the government proposed to provide pre-filled ITR forms. These forms contained details like bank account number, salary income, bank interests, capital gains from securities, and dividends & tax deductions mentioned in Form 16. Further, if TDS had been deducted by the bank then such information from Form 16A was also pre-filled.

The taxpayer was just supposed to approve and submit the same on the portal of the Income Tax Department.

She said the information will be collected from concerned sources such as banks, mutual funds, stock exchanges, state registration departments and Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) among others. This will not only significantly reduce the time taken to file a tax return but will also ensure the accuracy of reporting of income and taxes.

Pre-filled XML file

The Income Tax department had also provided pre-filled XML file which can be downloaded by the taxpayers from the e-filing website and imported into the Excel utility of the relevant ITR form. The XML file contains details like details of the employer, allowances, deductions, dividend, and interest income and so on. The XML file can be downloaded by the individuals from the e-filing website and imported into the Excel utility of the relevant ITR form.

Individuals can file their income tax return either on the e-filing website,www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in or by filling the details in the excel utility downloaded from the e-filing website and uploading the same on the e-filing website.