ITR Updates- Big news for taxpayers. The Income Tax Department has activated the ITR-2 and ITR-3 forms for the financial year 2024-25. This time many major changes have been made in them. Along with this, Excel facility has also been released for these forms. This will make it easier for taxpayers with capital gains, crypto income, foreign assets and business income to file their income tax returns.

According to the Central Board of Direct Taxes, this year taxpayers will have to take care of changes in all the forms they have to fill. In all the new ITR forms issued, taxpayers will have to give more information about tax-saving investments, house rent allowance (HRA) and tax deduction (TDS) on income other than salary. For example, more detailed information of capital gains, assets and liabilities will have to be given in ITR-2 and 3. Special relief has been given to those taxpayers whose long-term capital gains from equity and equity mutual funds are up to Rs 1.25 lakh. Now they can fill ITR-1 or 4. Earlier they had to fill ITR-2 or 3 forms.

What is Excel feature?

This is an offline software tool, which is based on Microsoft Excel. Using this, taxpayers can easily file ITR form themselves. Its specialty is that this tool allows taxpayers to fill and submit ITR form offline.

The advantage of this is that if the taxpayer is not comfortable filling the form online, then he can easily prepare the return offline first and then upload it. In this tool, the taxpayer fills the information and it creates a JSON file, which is later uploaded on the portal. The tool also provides the facility to provide pre-filled data which can be downloaded from the e-filing portal. This saves time and almost eliminates the chances of errors while filling the information. Apart from this, taxpayers can easily verify the form.

These are the important changes

1. Information about property will have to be given only if the income is more than one crore, earlier this limit was Rs 50 lakh

2. Now not only the information of the person deducting TDS will have to be given, but also the information under which section TDS has been deducted will have to be given. This will make it easier to match the income and deduction correctly.

3. There have been two major changes in the section providing information on capital gains. Now the taxpayer will have to tell whether the sale of property or investment took place before or after 23 July 2024. The tax rate will be decided according to the date of sale.

4. If a share is repurchased after October 1, 2024 and the taxpayer shows dividend income on it, then now he can also show the capital loss incurred from it. Earlier this option was not available.

5. Information about foreign assets and income from foreign sources will have to be given in detail. Apart from this, every transaction of crypto currency will have to be recorded in Schedule VDF. 30% tax will be levied on these.

It is necessary for them

ITR-2

Having income from sources like salary, pension, capital gains

On receiving rental income from more than one property

Short or long term capital gain or loss on sale of an investment or property

A taxpayer has income from winning a lottery or a horse racing race

Those who are earning income from abroad or have assets abroad

ITR-3

If you are doing business or have income from any profession, then you have to fill this form

If a person is a partner in a firm, he also has to fill this form

Those whose income comes from a business or profession, including freelancers, consultants, and sole proprietors

Know the process

Visit the e-filing portal (www.incometax.gov.in) and download the required Excel Utilities tool for ITR-2 or 3 from the ‘Downloads’ section.

Now open the Excel file downloaded on the computer. If it is already installed, its new version will be updated as soon as you connect to the internet.

After opening it, the taxpayer has to select his PAN and assessment year (2025-26). Then, the pre-filled data has to be downloaded or exported in JSON format.

This data will have the taxpayer’s income, TDS and other information pre-filled, which the taxpayer can verify and correct.

After filling the data, the tool will allow you to fill all the important parts of the form and validate them. After filling the information, taxpayers can create a JSON file.

This file has to be uploaded on the e-filing portal to complete the return filing process.