A lot of people are confused about this simple question of when to file your tax return , In this short article lets see what are the conditions under which you need to file your tax return . People say that if you don’t have to pay tax , you don’t have to file returns which is not true totally . Lets see the simple rules .
Rule : You have to file your tax returns if your Total Income for the year exceeds the exemptions limit . That’s it !! , This is the only rule which applies .
Exemption limit can be different for male (1.5 lacs) , female (1.8 lacs) or senior citizen (2.25 lacs) . So if your Total income for the year exceeds your exemption limit, you have to file tax . Do you know how to calculate your tax ?
Should I file tax return even if I don’t have to pay any tax ?
Dint you read what is said above 
. The only rule is already mentioned above . You don’t have to pay tax . this can happen in two cases .
Case 1 : Income itself is below exemption limitIn this case you don’t pay tax and don’t file your Returns .
Case 2 : Your Income exceeds your Income , but not taxable income
Though your Income exceeds your Income , but After all the exemptions and deductions like 80C investments , HRA , Home loan interest exemption etc etc , your taxable income is below your exemption limit . In this case you dont have to pay tax , BUT !! , you have to file tax returns because your income (not taxable income) was above the exemption limit .
What are the other cases when I have to file the returns ?
There are other cases also when its more than paying tax . lets see those cases
- If you have some form of losses carried forward in subsequent years to write off against profits in future , in that case its obvious , that you will have to file a return so that you can give this information .
- If Govt itself gives you notice to file tax return , it may happen that you are cheating this nation and making black money , then tax department can ask you for details and you will have to file tax return .
- If you want a Tax refund because of TDS (Tax deducted at Source by your company) . This happens with people who do part time jobs for some months or with Interns in the company who are there for 3 months or 6 months and TDS is cut . So in order to get back the amount you have to file a tax return .
See some videos on Mumbai Terror Attack , they are awesome .
Read more article related to Tax here
Liked the post , Subscribe here to get posts in email
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Can you tell me what form I need to use to file returns for refund of TDS deducted during my internship. My internship was from July-Dec 2006 and I found out that the tax deducted from the stipend then can be refunded, only recently. Is is too late to claim a refund now ?
@Ninja
oops .. i dont know that . You need to find out that from some other source .
Also , share it with us
. One thing i suspect is that its too late to claim 
Manish
yeah you dont need to file your returns if your Taxable Income is less than the limits which attracts tax..
But it is always good to file … Advantages being that Loans can easily be procured as the return acts as a solid proof of Income
@Karan
Yes .. you have a good reason for filing the return .. nice
Manish
I am a senior citizen. I own a self occupied house. My income is only from fixed deposit interest,equity dividends and total under the exemption limit. If I do not submit return now but some time later earn interest that takes me past the exemption limit can I resume tax return?
I realise I may have to pay C.G tax if I sell some share under the DTcode; when is it getting activated? what will be the first year of assessment under this Direct Tax code?
This is not clear to me if you need other detail. I understand DTC is coming into effect from April 2011. If I earn capital gain from selling more than 1-year old share during year April 2010-March 2011 do I have to pay CG tax under DTC?
Kalyan
Only if your taxable income before the exemptions is above the limit , then you file the tax.
DTC is not yet sure to come , if its passed by parliament only then it will come into effect and it looks not that easy to me , the first assessment year would be 2012 , means it will be applied on mar 2011- mar 2012 income .
manish
No further comment.
What is so awesome about terror attacks? You should remove that message and the link – its in bad taste.
Sripad
By “Awesome” I mean the way they have shown what all happened so beautifully . You dont come to know about things in so detail , so it was an appreciation for people who created it . It was not about the event and what happened , It was unfortunate !
Manish