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

Posted in General | 1 Comment »