My employer deducted no TDS. Do I still need to file a return?

Quite possibly, yes. The obligation depends on your total income crossing the basic exemption limit as notified, and on certain other conditions — not on whether tax was deducted. Even when not strictly required, filing is often worth it: a return is your claim to any refund, and doubles as income proof for visas and loans.

What happens if I miss the 31 July deadline?

You can generally file a belated return until the notified cut-off, typically 31 December of the assessment year, with a fee under Section 234F (income-dependent, as notified), interest on unpaid tax, and the loss of some carry-forward benefits. File as soon as you can.

Form 16 and my AIS show different numbers. Which one do I follow?

Neither, blindly — reconcile them. If the AIS shows genuine income missing from Form 16, such as bank interest, include it. If an AIS entry is wrong or duplicated, submit feedback inside the AIS and ask the reporting entity to correct its filing. Unexplained gaps tend to surface as notices.

Can I switch between the old and new regime every year?

Salaried taxpayers without business income have generally been allowed to choose afresh each year when filing an on-time return. The rules on defaults and switching have been revised more than once — confirm the current position on incometax.gov.in and run the portal's calculator before choosing.

Tax · 8 min read · 29 July 2026

ITR Filing for Salaried People: A Plain Walkthrough

Every July the same ritual plays out in Indian offices and family WhatsApp groups: someone asks whether the ITR deadline is really the 31st, someone forwards a screenshot about an extension that may or may not be real, and everyone opens incometax.gov.in for the first time in a year. Take heart: for most salaried people, filing is far more manageable than its reputation. Much of the form arrives pre-filled, and the exercise usually fits in an evening once your papers are in order.

This guide walks the process in plain language: which form applies, what to gather, how to reconcile the department's records with your own, the old-versus-new regime choice, and what to do after you press submit. One caveat: tax rules shift with every Finance Act, sometimes mid-year through notifications. Treat specifics as pointers and confirm the current position on the portal before you act.

Start with the form: for most salaried people, it is ITR-1

The department publishes several return forms, but the one built for straightforward salaried lives is ITR-1, also called Sahaj — Hindi for simple, a fair description. Broadly, it is meant for a resident individual whose total income sits within the notified cap (fifty lakh rupees at the time of writing), earned from a short list of sources.

You generally fall outside ITR-1 if you are a company director, hold unlisted shares or foreign assets, own more than one house property, or earn business income — those point to ITR-2 or ITR-3. Larger capital gains also disqualify you, though recent form updates allow small amounts of certain long-term gains within notified limits — read the current instructions rather than assuming. Helpfully, the portal suggests a form based on the data it holds and double-checks eligibility inside the filing flow.

Income from salary or pension
Income from one house property
Income from other sources, such as savings and deposit interest
Agricultural income only up to a small notified limit
Total income within the notified cap — check the current figure on incometax.gov.in

Gather your documents before you open the portal

The single biggest upgrade to your filing experience is collecting everything first. Filing with your papers in one folder takes an evening; filing while hunting a missing interest certificate takes a weekend. The standard kit:

None are uploaded with an ITR-1 return — India follows annexure-less filing — but you need them to fill the form accurately and to answer any later questions.

Form 16 from your employer — Part A shows tax deducted against your PAN; Part B breaks down salary and deductions
Form 26AS — the department's consolidated record of tax deducted and collected against your PAN
The Annual Information Statement (AIS) and its summary, the TIS (Taxpayer Information Summary) — what the department believes you earned: salary, interest, dividends and more
Interest certificates from banks, fixed deposits and post office schemes
Home loan interest certificate, if you have one
Proofs for deductions — 80C investments, 80D health insurance premiums and similar, within limits as notified
Rent receipts, if you claim house rent allowance under the old regime
A pre-validated bank account, which is where any refund lands

Reconcile AIS with Form 16 — before you file, not after

This is the step most people skip, and the one that prevents most notices. Form 16 tells you what your employer reported. The AIS tells you what everyone reported — employers, banks, mutual funds, depositories. The two do not always agree, and the department works from what it can see.

Common mismatches are mundane: you changed jobs mid-year, a bank reported deposit interest you had forgotten, a closed account earned a few hundred rupees. Occasionally the AIS itself is wrong — a duplicate entry, or someone else's transaction tagged to your PAN.

If the AIS shows genuine income you missed, include it — savings and deposit interest are taxable even when no tax was deducted on them. If the AIS is wrong, use its feedback option to dispute the entry and ask the reporting entity to correct its filing. Do not simply file what Form 16 shows and hope the difference goes unnoticed; automated matching is good at noticing.

Old regime or new: how to decide without memorising slabs

India currently runs two personal tax regimes side by side, and the filing flow asks you to pick one. The new regime — the default in recent years — trades away most exemptions and deductions for lower rates. The old regime keeps the familiar toolkit — 80C, 80D, house rent allowance, home loan interest, each within limits as notified — at the older rate structure. A standard deduction on salary applies; the amount depends on regime and year.

We are deliberately not printing slab tables — slab numbers are exactly the detail that changes with a Finance Act and makes an article quietly wrong a year later. Check the current slabs on incometax.gov.in; the portal's calculator compares both regimes with your actual numbers, which is the most reliable way to decide.

The concept, though, is stable: the more you genuinely use deductions and exemptions, the more likely the old regime works in your favour; the fewer, the more likely the new regime wins. Salaried taxpayers without business income can generally choose afresh each year when filing on time — confirm the current switching rules on the portal.

Filing on the portal, step by step

With documents gathered and reconciled, filing is the easy part. The portal at incometax.gov.in pre-fills most of your return from data reported against your PAN — your job is verification, not data entry.

The pre-fill is a convenience, not a certificate: legal responsibility for accuracy stays with you, which is why the reconciliation step matters.

Log in at incometax.gov.in with your PAN as the user ID
Go to e-File, then Income Tax Returns, then File Income Tax Return
Select the assessment year, choose online mode, and pick ITR-1 or the form the portal recommends
Check every pre-filled field against your documents — salary, TDS, interest, bank accounts
Add anything missed: savings interest, exempt income, deductions you can claim
Confirm your regime choice, let the portal compute the tax, and pay any balance as self-assessment tax
Submit — and then e-verify, which is the next section and not optional

E-verify: the step that quietly undoes everything if skipped

Submitting is not the end: an unverified return is treated as not filed at all, and every year a surprising number of returns die at this final step.

Verification must happen within the notified window — thirty days from submission at the time of writing; check the current figure on the portal. The easiest route is an OTP on your Aadhaar-linked mobile. Alternatives include net banking, a pre-validated bank account or a demat account; failing those, post a signed ITR-V to the CPC in Bengaluru, though electronic verification is faster.

Once verified, the return moves to processing; refunds, when due, land in your pre-validated bank account.

Deadlines, late fees and keeping records

For salaried taxpayers whose accounts do not need an audit, the due date is typically 31 July of the assessment year, unless extended. Extensions happen, but treating one as a given is how people end up filing at 11.55 pm on deadline day, when the portal is slowest. File early; refunds tend to arrive faster too.

Miss the date and the return does not vanish — a belated return is usually possible until a notified cut-off, typically 31 December of the assessment year. But lateness has a price: a fee under Section 234F (the amount depends on income level, as notified), interest on unpaid tax, and the loss of certain carry-forward benefits.

Finally, keep your records — Form 16, interest certificates, deduction proofs, the filed return and the acknowledgement — for several years. Assessments can be reopened in defined circumstances long after filing, and the person with a tidy folder answers a notice in an afternoon.

Questions people ask

My employer deducted no TDS. Do I still need to file a return?: Quite possibly, yes. The obligation depends on your total income crossing the basic exemption limit as notified, and on certain other conditions — not on whether tax was deducted. Even when not strictly required, filing is often worth it: a return is your claim to any refund, and doubles as income proof for visas and loans.
What happens if I miss the 31 July deadline?: You can generally file a belated return until the notified cut-off, typically 31 December of the assessment year, with a fee under Section 234F (income-dependent, as notified), interest on unpaid tax, and the loss of some carry-forward benefits. File as soon as you can.
Form 16 and my AIS show different numbers. Which one do I follow?: Neither, blindly — reconcile them. If the AIS shows genuine income missing from Form 16, such as bank interest, include it. If an AIS entry is wrong or duplicated, submit feedback inside the AIS and ask the reporting entity to correct its filing. Unexplained gaps tend to surface as notices.
Can I switch between the old and new regime every year?: Salaried taxpayers without business income have generally been allowed to choose afresh each year when filing an on-time return. The rules on defaults and switching have been revised more than once — confirm the current position on incometax.gov.in and run the portal's calculator before choosing.

This article is educational content only, not tax, legal or investment advice. Income tax rules — forms, eligibility, deduction limits, slab rates, due dates and fees — change with every Finance Act and can change mid-year through notifications. Figures here reflect the position at the time of writing. Always verify the current position on incometax.gov.in or consult a qualified chartered accountant before acting.