There’s a lot of talk about whether salaried employees will not need to file returns, because Pronob-da mentioned something in the budget speech. What he said was:
The Board shall soon notify a category of salaried taxpayers who will not be required to file a return of income as their tax liability has been discharged by their employer through deduction at source.
As far as I know, who qualifies has not been announced. But it won’t apply to you if:
a) you have a house and rent it out
b) Have capital gains tax of any sort (short-term, long term)
c) Have other income such as interest from bank fixed deposits etc.
We’ll know for sure when the final guidelines come out.
Updated: CBDT chief clarifies: (Thanks @pragmatic_d)
"Salaried people, may be up to Rs 5 lakh…they need not file the (income tax) return," CBDT chairman Sudhir Chandra told reporters at the customary post-Budget press conference.
The exemption from filing tax returns come into effect from the assessment year 2011-12.
In case such a salary earner has income from other sources like dividend, interest etc. and does not want to file returns, he will have to disclose such income to his employer for tax deduction, Chandra said.
Ok, so it’s fine if you do have other income as long as you disclose it to your employer. Let’s wait for the actual notification, too.
