Income Tax Filing in Chennai

What is income tax return filing?

Filing a return means reporting a full year of income to the Income Tax Department in the prescribed form, computing the tax on it, and reconciling that figure against tax already paid through TDS, TCS, advance tax, and self-assessment tax. If more was collected than was due, the return is what triggers the refund. If less was collected, the balance plus interest is paid before the return is submitted.

A return is not simply a payment. It is a legal declaration on which the Department can act — process it summarily, seek clarification, select it for scrutiny, or later reopen it. That is why the quality of the disclosure matters more than the size of the tax. A return that matches your reported financial footprint rarely attracts attention; one that does not usually does.

Businesses have a parallel set of obligations. If you run a firm, LLP, or company, the entity files its own return — see business ITR filing — and your personal return only carries what the entity pays out to you.

Which Act governs the return you are filing now?

The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the 1961 Act with effect from 1 April 2026 and introduced the concept of a "tax year" in place of the previous-year and assessment-year pairing. It applies prospectively — to income of the tax year 2026-27 and later.

Income of the financial year 2025-26 continues to be governed by the 1961 Act, because the savings provision in the new Act preserves the old framework for years beginning before 1 April 2026. So that return is filed for assessment year 2026-27 on the ITR forms substituted under the Income-tax Rules, 1962, even though you are filing it after the new Act came into force. Certain procedural changes made by the Finance Act, 2026 — the extended due date for non-audit business cases and the longer revision window — do apply to that year.

Practically, this means two returns are in play in the same period: one for the older year under the old Act, and one for the tax year 2026-27 that falls due later under the new Act and the Income-tax Rules, 2026. They are independent, and skipping either has its own consequences.

Who has to file an income tax return in India?

Filing is compulsory if gross total income before specified exemptions and deductions exceeds the basic exemption limit applicable to you. It is also compulsory in a set of situations where income alone may be below the limit but the transaction footprint is large.

• Total income before specified deductions exceeds the basic exemption limit
• Every company and every firm or LLP, regardless of income, profit, or loss
• Aggregate deposits into current accounts above the prescribed threshold
• Business turnover or professional gross receipts above the prescribed reporting thresholds
• Aggregate TDS and TCS in the year above the prescribed amount
• Savings-account deposits above the prescribed aggregate
• Expenditure on foreign travel above the prescribed amount
• Electricity consumption billed above the prescribed amount
• Ownership of, beneficial interest in, or signing authority over any foreign asset or overseas bank account
• Anyone claiming a refund of excess TDS, or wanting to carry a loss forward

Filing voluntarily is worth doing even below the threshold. A three-year return history is what banks, visa desks, and lenders actually ask for, and it is the cheapest financial record you can build.

Which ITR form applies to you?

Choosing the wrong form is the single most common avoidable error. A return filed in the wrong form can be treated as defective, and an unrectified defect means the return is treated as never filed.

A partner in a firm files ITR-3 personally, not ITR-5 — the firm files ITR-5 in its own name. Form numbering for the tax year 2026-27 onwards is prescribed afresh under the Income-tax Rules, 2026, so confirm the current form before you start rather than reusing last year's.

What are the income tax return due dates?

These dates are indicative of the current framework and are the ones most often extended by the Board late in the season. We confirm the operative date for your category and year before committing to a filing plan.

Should you file under the default regime or the optional one?

For individuals, HUFs, AOPs, BOIs, and artificial juridical persons the concessional-slab regime is the default. The older regime with its full deduction set is now the option you have to elect. Companies, firms, and LLPs are outside this choice entirely — they are taxed at their own entity rates.

Two rules trip people up. A taxpayer with business or professional income must file the prescribed opt-out form on or before the due date to use the older regime, and re-entry after opting out is available only once. And a return filed after the due date is generally taxed under the default regime, so a late filer with heavy deductions can lose more to the regime than to the late fee.

What documents do you need to file an income tax return?

• PAN and Aadhaar, linked to each other and to the e-filing account
• Form 16 from every employer for the year, including a mid-year change
• Form 16A, 16B, or 16C for non-salary, property, and rent deductions
• Annual Information Statement and Form 26AS downloaded from the portal
• Bank interest certificates and full-year statements for every account
• Capital-gains statements from brokers, mutual funds, and registrars
• Sale and purchase deeds for any property transaction in the year
• Rent receipts, home-loan interest certificate, and municipal tax proof
• Deduction proofs — insurance, provident fund, tuition, donations, medical premium
• Audited financials and the audit report where an audit applies
• Details of foreign assets, income, and any signing authority abroad
• A pre-validated bank account for the refund

How do you file an income tax return online?

1. 1.Log in to the e-filing portal with PAN and confirm your contact and bank details
2. 2.Download the Annual Information Statement, the Taxpayer Information Summary, and Form 26AS
3. 3.Reconcile every reported transaction against your own records and raise feedback on anything wrong
4. 4.Select the correct year and the correct ITR form for your income profile
5. 5.Choose the regime, filing the prescribed opt-out form first if business income is involved
6. 6.Review the pre-filled data and correct it — pre-fill is a convenience, not an authority
7. 7.Enter income the portal cannot know about: cash receipts, exempt income, foreign income, gifts
8. 8.Claim deductions only where you hold the underlying proof
9. 9.Let the utility compute tax, interest, and any late fee, then pay the balance and enter the challan
10. 10.Validate the return, submit it, and e-verify within the prescribed window
11. 11.Save the acknowledgement and track the processing status until the intimation arrives

Why does the Annual Information Statement matter before you file?

The Annual Information Statement is the Department's own picture of your year, built from bank reports, registrar filings, broker statements, mutual-fund registrars, and TDS returns filed by everyone who paid you. Most notices are simply the gap between that picture and your return.

Read it before filing, not after. If an entry is wrong — a transaction attributed to the wrong PAN, a joint holding shown fully in your name, a sale reported at stamp-duty value — submit feedback on the portal so your explanation is on record from the start. If an entry is right and you had forgotten it, include it. Interest income and small capital gains are the two items taxpayers most often leave out and most often get questioned on.

How is an income tax return verified?

A submitted return is not a filed return until it is verified. Verification is done electronically through Aadhaar OTP, a net-banking or bank-account electronic verification code, a demat-based code, or a digital signature. The physical alternative is to post the signed ITR-V acknowledgement to the Central Processing Centre in Bengaluru.

Verification must be completed within the prescribed window after uploading, generally 30 days. Miss it and the return is treated as never furnished, which pushes you into belated territory with all its consequences — including a request for condonation of the delay in verification. A digital signature is compulsory for companies and for most non-individual taxpayers subject to audit, so keep the digital signature certificate current before the season starts.

What happens if you miss the income tax return due date?

1. 1.A late-filing fee applies, at a reduced amount where total income is within the prescribed small-income limit
2. 2.Simple interest runs on unpaid tax from the due date until you actually file
3. 3.Interest for shortfall and deferment of advance tax continues to accrue separately
4. 4.Business and capital losses generally cannot be carried forward, though house-property loss and unabsorbed depreciation survive
5. 5.The older regime is generally unavailable, so deduction-heavy taxpayers pay more
6. 6.Refunds arrive later, and interest on the refund runs from a later date
7. 7.Persistent non-filing above the prescribed tax thresholds carries prosecution exposure

A belated return is still far better than none. It stops the interest clock, preserves the ability to revise, and closes the file before the Department opens it for you.

Can a filed income tax return be corrected?

Yes, and there are three distinct instruments for three distinct problems. A revised return corrects an error or omission in a return you filed within the window — see revised return filing. A rectification application fixes an arithmetic or apparent error in the Department's processing, not in your return. An updated return is the voluntary-disclosure route for income you left out, available for several years after the event but only on payment of additional tax and never to increase a refund or a loss.

Picking the wrong instrument wastes the window. A mismatch created by the Department needs rectification; a mistake you made needs revision; a disclosure after the revision window has closed needs an updated return.

When does an income tax refund arrive, and why does it stall?

Refunds are released after the return is processed and the intimation is generated. Straightforward returns with clean TDS credits are often processed within weeks of verification; anything with a mismatch waits.

The usual causes of a stalled refund are a bank account that was never pre-validated or whose name does not match PAN, a TDS credit claimed before the deductor filed the quarterly statement, an unlinked PAN and Aadhaar, or an old demand being set off against the current refund. That last one comes with its own intimation and a short window to respond — see income tax notice handling.

What is the checklist before you file your return?

1. 1.Confirm PAN–Aadhaar linkage and that the portal has a current mobile number and email
2. 2.Download and reconcile the Annual Information Statement, Taxpayer Information Summary, and Form 26AS
3. 3.Collect Form 16 from every employer, not just the current one
4. 4.List every bank, deposit, and demat account and pull full-year interest and gain statements
5. 5.Run the tax under both regimes before choosing, and file the opt-out form first if required
6. 6.Check whether an audit applies to your turnover or receipts before assuming it does not
7. 7.Pay any self-assessment tax and enter the challan details in the return
8. 8.Pre-validate the refund bank account and enable it for refunds
9. 9.File the correct ITR form and e-verify the same day
10. 10.Diarise the intimation and check the portal for a defect notice or demand

Why do returns become defective or attract a notice?

A return is defective when it is incomplete in a way the statute specifies — the wrong form for the income declared, books and audit particulars missing where an audit applies, tax not paid where the return shows it payable, or an updated return without proof of payment. The intimation gives a short window, generally 15 days, to rectify, and an unrectified defect makes the return invalid.

Beyond defects, the recurring triggers are a TDS credit that does not match the deductor's statement, high-value transactions in the Annual Information Statement that the return does not explain, a deduction claimed without a corresponding declaration to the employer, foreign assets not disclosed, and a large refund claim built on questionable deductions. None of these is fatal if answered promptly with documents.

Why choose Arjun Filings for income tax filing?

Arjun Filings runs income tax filing as a checklist-first engagement: a qualified CA or CS scopes the work, tells you exactly which documents are needed, and reviews every form before it is signed and submitted. You get a named specialist, a status update at each stage, and a compliance calendar for whatever comes next.

• CA-reviewed income tax filing
• Checklist before computation
• E-verification guidance
• Notice awareness when relevant