Income-tax Returns
Even as I punched out the title of this post, I realised that it sounds very much like a sequel of a horror movie. Indeed, it is. Except it’s not a movie. It’s real life. Everybody who’s filled his own IT Return knows it can be a nightmare. Thankfully, it has a reasonably happy ending as I realised today.
I had some tax due which I had to pay before I could file my return. I used the online tax payment system to pay it and immediately received a receipt. I quoted the receipt number in an online form for filing my return. The return itself was converted into an XML document which could be uploaded to the Income-tax department website signed using a digital signature. Immediately on upload, I got an acknowledgement email and pdf for my records. And that was it. Done! It took me a flat 30 minutes to pay my tax and file my return. (the preparation of the return itself took much longer of course). Contrast this to a few years earlier when you’d have to visit a bank or the IT department to pay your tax. To do that, you’d fill a long form, in triplicate. Having done that, you’d then have to visit the department again to file your return. Hours and hours of wasted time. It’s all gone now. Beautiful!
If this sounded like an advertisement for the Income-tax department, I don’t care. I’m just happy I could do this sitting at home!