Core service
Income Tax
Most of a year’s tax outcome is settled long before the return is filed — by how income is characterised, whether advance tax was paid on time, and what the records will support if the return is examined. Filing reports that work; it does not do it.
Income tax compliance is a sequence that runs through the year rather than an event in one month of it. Advance tax falls due in instalments, tax deducted at source has to be reconciled against what the payer has actually reported, books have to be maintained where the law requires them, and an audit may be required before the return can be filed at all. The return itself is the last step, and by then most of what it will say has already been determined.
Planning, properly understood, is the arrangement of affairs within the framework the Act provides — the regime elected, the deductions genuinely available, the timing of a transaction, the form in which a business is carried on. It is not the arrangement of a return to say something the records do not support. The first produces a position that holds when examined; the second produces a disallowance and, increasingly, a penalty for misreporting.
The Income-tax Act, 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026 and applies from tax year 2026-27. The Income-tax Act, 1961 continues to govern earlier years and proceedings already begun under it, so both are in play — a return filed for an earlier year, or an assessment of one, is still a 1961 Act matter.
Returns, assessment and refunds
- Return of income for individuals, HUFs, firms, LLPs and companies
- Verification of the return, and who may verify it
- Self-assessment tax before filing
- Belated and revised returns, within the periods allowed
- Updated return, and the additional tax it carries
- Permanent Account Number, and the transactions requiring it
- Processing of the return, and the intimation that follows
- Claim of refund, and the period for making it
- Interest on refunds
Advance tax, TDS and interest
- Liability to pay advance tax, and the conditions for it
- Computation of advance tax, its instalments and due dates
- Tax deducted at source on payments made by you
- Tax collected at source
- Reconciliation of credits to the annual information and tax credit statements
- Interest for late filing of the return
- Interest for non-payment and deferment of advance tax
- Fee for late filing of the return
Computation, capital gains and planning
- Election between the two regimes, and the computation that follows
- Deductions available in computing total income
- Rebate for certain individuals
- Relief where salary is received in arrears or in advance
- Capital gains, and the mode of computation
- Exemption on investment in a residential house
- Exemption on investment in specified bonds
- Presumptive taxation of business and profession
- Maintenance of books of account, and tax audit
- Set off and carry forward of losses
When this applies
Situations this covers
The return is straightforward but the credits do not match
Where tax deducted does not appear in the credit statement, the return cannot simply claim it. The mismatch is traced to the deductor’s own filing, because that is where it has to be corrected.
You have sold property or shares this year
The gain, the period of holding, the cost that can be claimed and the exemptions available are all worked out before the year ends, while investing the proceeds is still an option.
Advance tax has been underpaid, or not paid at all
Interest runs from the instalment date, so the position is better addressed in the remaining instalments than left to be settled with the return.
A year was never filed, or was filed wrongly
Depending on how long ago it was, a belated, revised or updated return may still be possible. Which of the three, if any, depends entirely on the year.
Turnover has grown and audit may now apply
Tax audit applicability, and the choice between presumptive taxation and regular computation, are decided on the year’s figures — and best decided before the year closes.
You are not sure which regime you should be under
The answer depends on the deductions actually available to you rather than on the headline rates, and it is a computation rather than a preference.
Method
How the work runs
- 01
Establish the position for the year
Residential status, sources of income, whether books and audit apply, and which Act governs the year in question are settled first.
- 02
Reconcile before computing
Tax credits, the annual information statement and the books are reconciled against each other, so that differences are explained before the return relies on them.
- 03
Compute both ways where it matters
The regime election, presumptive versus regular computation, and the treatment of a capital gain are computed rather than assumed, and the working is retained.
- 04
Deal with advance tax during the year
Estimated liability is reviewed against the instalment dates as the year runs, so interest is avoided rather than absorbed.
- 05
File, and keep the basis on record
The return is filed with the computation, the schedules and the supporting workings retained, so the position can be explained years later if it is questioned.
- 06
Follow the return through
Processing, the intimation when it comes, refunds, and any adjustment proposed are tracked to conclusion rather than left at filing.
Questions
Commonly asked
General information on procedure. It is not advice on any particular matter.
Tax has already been deducted from my income. Do I still need to file?
Deduction at source and the filing obligation are separate. A return is required where total income exceeds the exemption limit, and in a number of other situations regardless of income — certain deposits, foreign travel spend, electricity consumption and holding assets outside India among them. Deduction at source is a payment on account, not a substitute for the return, and where more has been deducted than is due, the return is the only route to recovering it.
I missed the due date. What can still be done?
A belated return can be filed within the period the Act allows, with interest and a late filing fee. An error in a return already filed can be corrected by a revised return, again within a defined period. Beyond both, an updated return may be available for a limited number of years on payment of additional tax, though it cannot be used to reduce a liability or to claim a refund. Which of the three applies depends entirely on the year concerned, so that is established first.
Which regime should I be in?
It is a computation, not a preference. One regime carries lower rates and disallows most deductions; the other carries higher rates and allows them. Which produces the lower liability depends on the deductions genuinely available to you — housing loan interest, specified investments, house rent — so both are computed and compared. For a business or profession the election also carries conditions on how often it can be changed.
When does a tax audit apply to me?
Tax audit is triggered by turnover or gross receipts crossing the prescribed threshold, and separately where a person declares income below the presumptive rate having opted into it earlier. The thresholds differ for business and profession and are relaxed where receipts and payments are substantially digital. Because the report has its own due date ahead of the return, applicability is worth establishing during the year rather than after it.
I have sold a property. When should I come to you?
Before the sale, if there is still time. The exemptions available on a capital gain depend on what is done with the proceeds and when — investment in a residential house, or in specified bonds — and each carries its own period within which the investment has to be made. After the money has been spent elsewhere, the computation is the same but the options are fewer.
What does it cost?
Professional fees depend on the nature and number of income sources, whether books and audit are involved, and the state of the records. Scope and the basis of fees are agreed in writing before work begins. Fee rates are not published here.
Is a return due, or a year still open?
Filing, revision and updating a return each run to their own period, and every one that passes closes an option. It is worth establishing which are still available before deciding anything.
Related services
- Notices & RepresentationDrafting of replies to Income Tax and GST notices, and representation before the assessing and adjudicating authorities.
- Business & Tax AdvisoryAdvisory on business structure, transactions and the tax consequences of proposed decisions.
- Accounting & BookkeepingBooks of account maintained to statutory standards, with periodic financial statements.
- AuditStatutory audit, tax audit and internal audit conducted under the applicable Standards on Auditing.