E-filing of income tax return is an easy, 15-minute job. And it is definitely smoother than finding a tax consultant, haggling for the right price and then waiting endlessly for him to do the job at his whims.

So, how do you do it?

STEP 1

Go to the website of directorate of income tax, India, and register yourself, that is if you are not registered already. As you register, you need to fill in your PAN number and other details in order to set your login and password.

STEP 2

Once you are done with registration, log out and log in again with your PAN number as user ID and the new password you have set earlier. Click on e-filing A.Y. 2010-11 on the left side and download the e-filing form for INDIVIDUAL, HUF (HUF stands for Hindu undivided family)

STEP 3

The form comes in a ZIP file. Save it to your desktop and extract the Excel file from it to a new folder. Open the excel file and enable macros. Mind you, you have to enable macros in order to complete the process.

STEP 4

Fill in details like Name, Address, City, State, Pin Code in the sheet for INCOME DETAILS; fill in your PAN number wherever required and then fill in details of your income, investments and tax paid as provided to you in the Form 16 as per the instructions on the sheet. Then click on the VALIDATE button to check. If the details are correct. It will show the sheet is ok. (That is if no errors are found).

STEP 5

The next sheet of the file is TDS. Fill in the details for No 23 only if you have income only from salary. If you have income other than salary, fill in details for No 24 also. Fill in details of TAN number, name of company, address, city, state, pin code as given in form 16.

STEP 6

Fill in details of income charged under salaries, deductions from Chapter VI-A, tax payable and tax deducted. All these information is found on your Form 16. Click on VALIDATE button to check for correctness.

STEP 7

Next sheet is taxes paid and verification. Fill in details of name, father’s name, place, date and PAN number under the VERIFICATION section shown in RED. Click validate once again. If all the three sheets are shown OK on validation, you are ready to generate an XML file of the details.

STEP 8

Click on Generate XML and it will ask you to save the file. Once saved, go back to the website and log in (if you are logged out) with your user name and password. On the left side, click on submit return with 2010-11 as assessment year. Upload your generated XML to the site. Your e-filing is done.

STEP 9

It sends you a copy of acknowledgement to your email ID and also allows you to download the acknowledgement by clicking on blue link. The acknowledgement again comes in a ZIP file. Extract the file, take a printout of the PDF file and sign it manually.

STEP 10

Send a signed Acknowledgement to Income Tax Department address shown at the bottom of the PDF file by ORDINARY POST only. You will get a confirmation from IT department within one week.