ITR Or Income Tax Return
Let us begin with the basics, ITR filing is the process to submit the form to the Income Tax Department. ITR form consists of all the essential information regarding a person’s income and taxes which he needs to pay for the current year. Information recorded in Income Tax Return form contains the data for a financial year starting from April 1st to March 31st.
What is Verification of ITR?
Verifying ITR is a simple concept, introduced by the government for an Income Tax Return preparer to verify that all the information is correct on his filed ITR form. This is a mandatory process, and if not verified in stipulated time the filed ITR becomes invalid. An individual can e-verify his ITR within 120 days of filing it.
As per Abhishek Soni, CEO of a tax filing company ‘Tax2win’, “Once you have uploaded your ITR on the e-filing website, you get 120 days to verify your return. There are 6 ways to verify your income tax return. Out of these, five are electronic methods and one is a physical method. These methods can be used only if you are filing tax returns which are not required to be audited, i.e., usually ITR-1, ITR-2 and ITR-4 for FY 2020-21. However, if you are filing your tax returns which are required to be audited, then you have to verify it using the ‘Digital Signature Certificate.”
6 Different Ways To Verify Your Filed ITR
With Aadhaar
You can verify your ITR online by using your Aadhaar. But for this there are some conditions:
- Your mobile number should be linked to your Aadhaar.
- Your Aadhaar and PAN must be registered in the UIDAI database.
On the E-Verify page you can select the option “I would like to verify using OTP on mobile number registered with Aadhaar.” After that, select continue and the rest process is very simple, just follow the instructions and verify with Aadhaar OTP.
Net Banking
As an alternative for the Aadhaar method you can use ‘Net Banking’ to verify your ITR. You will just have to select the ‘Through Net Banking’ option on the ‘E-Verify’ page.
There are two conditions to verify your ITR through net banking:
- Your PAN must be linked to your bank account.
- And Net Banking must be enabled by you or the bank for the particular account.
Use EVC Code Via Bank Account
E-verify your ITR with ‘Electronic Verification Code’ (EVC) via Bank Account. Pre-validated bank account is necessary to generate EVC. But note that Pre-Validation of a bank account is essential to receive the income tax refund. To use this verification method you will have to select ‘Through Bank Account’ on the e-verify page.
Demat Account
You can verify your filed income tax return online through a demat account. The process to do so is very similar to the process of verifying through a bank account. Just select ‘Through Demat Account‘ on the e-verify page.
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ATM
Just as the bank account method, you can generate the EVC with your ATM card but PAN must be linked to your bank account.
“Axis Bank, Canara Bank, Central Bank of India, ICICI Bank, IDBI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and State Bank of India” only these banks support this process.
To complete the process, go to your Bank’s ATM machine. Swipe the card, enter the PIN and select generate EVC. Then the EVC code will be sent to your registered mobile number and E-Mail ID. Now select the “I already have an Electronic Verification Code (EVC)” option on the E-verify page and enter the code.
Send Signed Income Tax Return
Just try to send the ‘Signed Copy’ of your ITR-V if you can’t use one of the above online methods to verify your Income Tax Return.
