FinMin likely to notify FY17 ITR forms by 1st week of April

Finance Ministry is likely to notify by first week of April new income tax return forms for Assessment Year 2016-17 which will more or less be similar to the one that was filed by assessees last year. As many as 93 per cent of the individual assessees file income tax returns online and the tax department has been working on simplification of income tax return (ITR) forms. According to the sources, the tax department has been working on further simplification of ITR and current year’s form will substantially be the same as that of last year’s.

“Current year’s form is likely to be notified by first week of April. The process of simplification is ongoing and efforts will be made to further simplify it in the next year,” a source said. Sources said the tax department is likely to come out with a revised formula for computation of capital gains tax on sale of assets. The effort would be to help such assessees calculate tax liability without any outside support. The Income Tax Department had in June come out with a simplified tax return form for salaried class. Filers were asked to disclose the total number of savings and the current bank accounts held by them at any time during the previous year (excluding dormant accounts).