All You Need To Know About Key Changes In ITR Forms For FY 20-21

Income tax return (ITR) forms for the assessment year 2021-22 (financial year 2020-21) were recently declared by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). The CBDT reported that, in view of the COVID pandemic, it has made no major improvements to the ITR forms. In the case of ESOP tax deferment, the ITR-1 form or Sahaj cannot be filed. Individuals with deferred income tax on ESOPs are not eligible to use this form. Deferring the payment or deduction of tax on ESOPs allotted by an eligible start-up resorted under Section 80-IAC is now possible under the Finance Bill 2020. If tax has been deducted under Section 194N, the Sahaj form cannot be filed. For the uninitiated, Section 194N mandates the deduction of tax by any financial firm (including any bank or banking institution), co-operative bank, or post-office that is responsible for paying cash to an individual from one or more accounts maintained by him/her. If the amount withdrawn during the year crosses Rs 20 lakh in the case of certain non-filers of return, and Rs 1 crore in the case of others, tax should be deducted under this clause. Rule 12 of the income tax rules have since been modified to prevent an assessee from filing an ITR-1 return of income if tax has been exempted under this clause.

List of ITR Forms For The AY 2021-22

ITR 1 (Sahaj): It is applicable to residents with a total income of up to Rs 50 lakh, including income, one-house property, other sources (interest, etc.) and agricultural income of up to Rs 5,000.

ITR-2: It is for individuals and HUFs (Hindu Undivided Families) who are not involved in any business or profession. Thus, this form is applicable to the individuals receiving income other than income from "Profits and Gains from Business or Profession".

ITR 3: Individuals and HUFs having profits and gains from a business or profession are required to file the ITR 3.

ITR 4 (Sugam): Individuals, HUFs, and firms (other than LLP) who are Indian residents and have a total income of up to Rs 50 lakh and income from business and profession determined under sections 44AD, 44ADA, or 44AE of the Income Tax Act are liable.

ITR 5: Firms, LLPs, AOPs (Association of Persons) and BOIs (Body of Individuals), Artificial Juridical Person (AJP), Estate of Deceased, Estate of Insolvent, Business Trust, and Investment Fund are all mandated to use this form. It is available to anyone who's not an individual, a HUF, a company, or someone who is filing Form ITR-7.

ITR 6: Companies other than companies claiming exemption under section 11 must file an ITR-6 form. Companies who receive income from property held for charitable or religious purposes are the companies claiming exemption under section 11.

ITR 7: When an individual, including a company, falls under section 139(4A), section 139 (4B), section 139 (4C), or section 139 4(D) of the Income Tax Act, an ITR-7 is applicable.

Note

Additionally, the tax department has closed the Excel and Java versions of ITR utilities as of AY 2021-22. CBDT has implemented JSON as an alternative to the Excel and Java versions of ITR utilities. As of now only ITR-1 and ITR-4 have this Offline Utility available and in subsequent updates other ITRs will be included as well. The utility is built on the latest JSON technology and can import and pre-fill data from the e-filing portal.