Kolkata: Usually the deadline for filing ITR (Income Tax Returns) is July 31 every year. But due to some early trouble, the deadline for filing ITR has been pushed back to September 15. Though there was clamour from bodies of income tax professionals that there should be further relaxation in the deadline due to delay in coming up with forms, there is no announcement yet on the matter. Therefore, we must assume that the deadline of September 15, 2025 to file ITR pertaining to FY25 is final.
The next obvious question: what are the documents that need to be kept handy for filing income tax returns? ITRs can be filed either by the taxpayer himself/herself, or with the help of an income tax lawyer or chartered accountant. Reports have stated that by August 26, 2025 more than 3.75 crore ITRs were filed and of these more than 2.37 crore returns have already been processed.
Documents one should keep ready
Aadhaar-linked PAN: PAN which is linked to Aadhaar is the first and obvious requirement to file Income Tax Return. Also the mobile phone of the taxpayer must be linked to his/her Aadhaar number. For verification after filing ITR, an OTP will be sent to this phone number. Unless verification is done, the ITR filing is not complete.
Form 16: If the taxpayer us a salaried individual, Form 16 is mandatory. It is a statement that is issued by an employer to an employee. It carries all the details of tax deducted at source (TDS) by the employer every month of the previous financial year.
Form 26AS: This is another important statement that carries all details of TDS and TCS (tax collected at source) apart from advance tax which has been paid by the taxpayer.
AIS: AIS stands for Annual Information Statement. This statement offers complete details about a taxpayer such as income, financial transactions and tax information. The source of AIS — the income tax e-filing account from where taxpayers can download it. Income tax professionals advise that one should tally all information in the ITR with the reported income in Form 26AS and Annual Information Statement (AIS). There should not be any discrepancy between these.
Capital gains: If you have invested in stocks and mutual funds and also sold some/whole of the investments during the financial year in question, you have to download a profit and loss from a broker’s site or direct investment platforms such as Zerodha to determine you capital gains. Similarly, if the taxpayer has invested in crypto platforms, the capital gains made thereof has to be determined too by downloading statements from that site. Interest certificate: Banks also provide interest certificate to their customers pertaining to fixed deposits, recurring deposits and savings accounts. These too must be at hand.