New Forms - ITR 1 and ITR 4, points to be taken care off!!

1) Filing of ITR required only PAN and Aadhaar numbers, which are interlinked, so far. But now onwards, both ITR-1 and ITR-4 forms require you to also declare your passport number, in case you own one.

2) The new rules do not allow filing in ITR-1 when return is filed in response to notice u/s. 153A or 153C (i.e. search related assessment).

3) The new forms seeks comprehensive details of employer i.e. TAN, nature of employer, address.

4) In case of more than one employer during the financial year, you now have an option of adding multiple rows for gross salary. Also, ITR-1 form requires that any allowances exempt u/s. 10 are included in the total gross salary.

5) You will now have to give address of any house property you own in ITR forms. In case of let out property, the new form seeks tenant details i.e. name, PAN or Aadhaar number. You will also have to disclose the amount of rent which cannot be realized.

6) The new ITR-1 form requires to give separate disclosure of deductions under Sections 80CCC, 80CCD(1), 80CCD(1B), 80CCD(2), 80DD, 80DDB, 80E, 80EE, 80EEA, 80EEB, 80GG, 80GGC and 80U.

7) ITR-4 form also wants to know whether the taxpayer spent more than ₹2 lakh in foreign travels. Therefore new disclosures will make it easier for the authorities to track whether their expenses are proportionate with disclosed income. "The new ITR forms seek additional details and disclosures from the taxpayers in a bid to plug the tax leakages. These alterations may even be because the government is slowly moving towards e-assessments and is thus seeking a greater clarification from the taxpayers in the return itself so as to save time and costs".

8) Those filling ITR-4 forms will need to specify whether they deposited more than ₹1 crore in their current account during the financial year.

9) In ITR-4 form you will also need to declare details of your electric bill if you paid more than ₹1 lakh as electricity consumption charges during the year. "With use of artificial intelligence the tax department will be able to map the income declared by the taxpayer with lavish spending on foreign travel or electricity and on mismatch of profile will automatically select the cases for assessment".