6 things we need to know about the new ITR forms:

1) Providing a big relief to assessees, the new ITR forms have been reduced to three. "The number of pages for the new ITR forms has been reduced from 14 pages to 3, making it easier for income tax assesses. The new forms, known as ITR 2 and ITR 2A, will therefore consist of only 3 pages. Any other details that must be filled will have to be included in schedules," informs Adhil Shetty, founder & CEO of BankBazaar.com. 


2) Currently individuals/HUFs with income from more than one house property and capital gains are required to file Form ITR-2. "A new ITR 2A form is proposed which can be filed by an individual/HUF that has income from more than one house property, but does not have any income from capital gains, income from business/profession, foreign assets/foreign income," says Karmakar. 

3) An individual/Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), who has exempt income without ceiling limit (other than agricultural income exceeding Rs 5,000), can now file Form ITR 1 (Sahaj). Earlier, an individual with exempt income (e.g. dividend income) of more than Rs 5,000 was required to file ITR-2. 


4) With regard to foreign travel details, it is now proposed that only the passport number, if available, will be required to be furnished in ITR-2 and ITR-2A. There would be no requirement to provide details of foreign trips/expenditure. This would bring relief to all individuals who travel extensively. 


5) The Finance Ministry has done away with the disclosure of details of dormant accounts which are not operational during the last three years. "As regards bank account details in all these forms, only the IFS code, account number of all the current/savings account which are held at any time during the previous year will be required to be filled-up. The balance in accounts will not be required to be furnished," says the Finance Ministry statement. 

6) An individual, who is not an Indian citizen and is in India for business, employment or on student visa, will not mandatorily be required to report the foreign assets acquired by him during the prior years in which he was non-resident, if no income is derived from such assets during the relevant financial year. 


According to tax experts, the above changes proposed in the ITR forms will provide respite to the taxpayers, including all expatriate employees working in India, by simplifying the process of the tax return filings. 

Sonu Iyer, Tax Partner & Human Capital Leader, EY, says, "The government has carefully considered the representations made and suitably dealt with the same by coming out with changed and different forms. Expatriates can also now breathe easy as unnecessary information will not be requested."

Source :The Economic Times