Archive for July 2007

Online Tax Filing in India

July 27, 2007 by Manav | मानव.

Last night I finished filing my taxes online using Indian Income Tax department website https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/index.jsp . The process is fairly straightforward and frustrating at the same time. I used the following approach:

  • Download the appropriate tax form in PDF format from the website. It’s ITR-I for salaried employees.
  • Fill the PDF form using your Form-16. I had to do the computations myself. The form does not do much for you except letting you fill-in the details.
  • Now as soon I save the form, the date field is gone. I tried several times and I could not save the date field.
  • I verified the form for correctness using “Check Form” feature.
  • Than I saved the form data as XML file using “Export to XML” feature.
  • I registered to the website using my PAN number.
  • Now as soon as I tried uploading I started receiving all kinds of validation errors.
    • My e-mail id of form xxx_yyy@yahoo.com was rejected. Apparently I can not have “_” in my e-mail L
    • The XML file would not have my DOB entries. Apparently, I need to save the form before I can export to XML and upon save, my DOB was getting lost. A weird position to be in L
    • My geeky mind made me open the XML file in notepad and edit the XML tags directly J
    • Boom – the website won’t accept my DOB in DD/MM/YYYY format.
    • My geeky mind came to my rescue! I downloaded their XSD schema file and found out the date validation routine. The routine was accepting the dates in YYYY-MM-DD format.
    • I edited the XML file, changed the date per format and the website was very happy accepting my return J
  • Website also generated ITR-V acknowledgement forms which I printed out and deposited to my local IT office.

Phew! It department has long way to go and my best wishes are with them.

Happy Tax Filing J

Manav | मानव गौड़

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Pray for Mandira

July 8, 2007 by Manav | मानव.

Mandira is 1 ½ year old daughter of a very good friend of mine Diganta Bhattacharya. She is suffering from Neuroblastoma (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroblastoma) – a kind of cancer that affects children up to age 2. Please pray God for her speedy recovery and try to help the family in distress in whatever way you can. Please visit http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mandira to read about the progress she’s making.

Thanks for reading
Manav | मानव गौड़

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