This year with the new forms, taxpayers have to furnish additional details including residency days in India, unlisted share details and information related to the property buyer(s) in case of capital gains earned by a seller

Filing ITR is itself a daunting task and many a time sends chills to our spine. And the recent amendments in the ITR forms by the Income Tax Department of India are making us jitterier!

The IT department has notified new ITR forms recently. The changes have been made keeping it in sync with the announcements made in the budget 2018, for the FY 2018-19. This year with the new forms, taxpayers have to furnish additional details including residency days in India, unlisted share details and information related to the property buyer(s) in case of capital gains earned by a seller on the sale of permanent property.

In a nutshell, one should be aware of the following changes while filing the Income Tax Return (ITR) this year:

Sharing salary details is easier now in ITR-1

Abiding by the new tax policy, this year, a taxpayer needs to share required details of the salary income as per the information available in the Form-16. Unlike last year, the information required was not in accordance with the Form-16 and hence this change has been brought to make the filing of the ITR hassle-free.

E-filing of ITR is compulsory

Except for super senior citizens, all individuals need to file their ITR online. One can’t file the ITR-1 for FY 2018-19 in paper format with income below Rs 5 lakh with no refund.

Residential status

As per the changes, in the ITR-2 form, you will need to share the number of stay-days in India along with jurisdiction of your residence and tax identification number in case you are a non-resident. These details are to examine if an individual has correctly determined his residential status in the country from the number of days of stay in India. Likewise, the tax identification number is to confirm if a non-resident taxpayer is rightly claiming the DTAA (Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement) benefit. Earlier, only residential status i.e resident or non-resident or not ordinarily resident was to be provided. However, from now onwards, the taxpayers need to specify whether they have been living in India for 182 days or more or they were in India for 60 days or more in the past year or they have been in India for 365 days or more within the four preceding years.

Inclusive buyer details

Under this regulation, if a taxpayer has sold the property during FY 2018-19, the person needs to share complete details of the buyer who has bought the property. Irrespective of whether it’s a short-term capital gain that one has received or long-term, the taxpayer should include all the buyer details. The buyer should share details if TDS is deducted while making payment. It is mandatory to deduct TDS when the sale value exceeds Rs 50 lakh.

Rent arrears details

Another change in the form says, if you have any rent arrears in FY 2018-19, you will need to share these details property wise, as received while filing ITR-1 or ITR-2 as applicable. For people with one house property on rent, the rent amount needs to be mentioned in the ITR-1. Likewise, for individuals with two house properties on rent need to report the same amount in the ITR-2.

Type of house property

While sharing property details in the ITR-1, you need to specify whether the property is - 'Self Occupied', 'Let-out' or 'Deemed Let-out.' Last year’s ITR-1 did not have 'Deemed Let-out' specification.

Investment details in unlisted companies

Likewise, a taxpayer needs to furnish details of shares in an unlisted company in the ITR-2. You will need to provide complete details including the name of the company, PAN of the company, number and cost of purchase at the start of the year, number of shares, face value, issue price among others. Besides, as per the latest forms, if any individuals are holding directorships in unlisted companies shall not be eligible to file the Sahaj ITR-1. Therefore, you are required to disclose all the details of your investments in form ITR-2 for the assessment year 2019-20. This covers those who have received employee stock options (ESOPs) in unlisted companies, even includes those listed outside India.

Complete details of interest income

The complete break-up of the interest income along with any other income gained by an individual has to be shared. For a clear understanding, in the ITR-1 form, “income from other sources head” has added “source” from where the taxpayer has received the interest income or any other income during that period of time.

Who can file a tax return using ITR Form-2?

If a taxpayer does not make any income under the head “profits and gains” from business and profession, then it’s compulsory for him to file ITR Form-2. Thus, an individual with income from any of the following sources during the assessment year 2019-20, is eligible to file ITR Form-2:

• You are a salaried individual or a pensioner.
• Income from foreign assets.
• Income from capital gains. 
• Agricultural income exceeding Rs 5 lakh is now to be reported distinctly along with extra details such as the name of the district with pin code, measurement of land &, etc.
• Income from other sources such as winnings from lottery or other legal gambling, etc.
• If the residential status of the individual/HUF is either Resident Non-Ordinarily Resident (RNOR) or Non-Resident.

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