ITR forms for AY 2016-17 to be notified in April

The finance ministry is likely to notify by the 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 the 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 the 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).

The form also had space to fill up the IFSC code of the bank and tax filers were given an option to indicate their bank accounts in which they would want their refund credited. The ITR had also sought the Aadhaar number of filers. The tax department had come out with simplified ITR after experts raised objections to the initial 14-page form.

The earlier forms sought details of bank accounts and foreign visits and following controversy, the Revenue Department announced putting the forms on hold.