[xcentrk]

Originally Posted by mtripathi13

....

You have mentioned that you do freelance work, which falls under business/profession. So, you are not eligible for filing ITR-1.

Accordingly, you need to file ITR-3 or ITR-4 (SUGAM). Kindly note that ITR-4 is not mandatory. It is a simplified form for taxpayers who offer income under presumptive taxation scheme. The presumptive income can also be offered in ITR-3, which is a more detailed form.

I hope I have been able to clarify your doubts.

Regards
Manish

Thanks for the clarification Manish. It helped a lot.

[rishab.k]

Originally Posted by blorebuddy

You need to file a rectification request.....
.
.

Download offline utility for the respective AY
...

I need to file a data rectification request for my Mother’s AY 2021-22 ITR. Tax was paid but the challan number was missed in the ITR hence got a demand notice.

But I don’t see the common utility for AY 2021-22 on the Income Tax website download page anymore. Is there anywhere else that I need to look for on the Income tax site.

[TheRandomGuy]

So I just checked my ITR and the Joining bonus of 1L for last year is not added in form 16 or 26AS.. So its not reflecting in ITR..

It was not given as part of salary, so there was no TDS on it from the company.

Should I add and lose 30k or skip it?

PS : I know the absolute legal approach is to declare and pay tax on it. Just asking for some solace that its okay to skip. 30k is a big amount to lose.

[ToThePoint]

Originally Posted by TheRandomGuy

So I just checked my ITR and the Joining bonus of 1L for last year is not added in form 16 or 26AS.. So its not reflecting in ITR..

It was not given as part of salary, so there was no TDS on it from the company.

Should I add and lose 30k or skip it?

PS : I know the absolute legal approach is to declare and pay tax on it. Just asking for some solace that its okay to skip. 30k is a big amount to lose.

Thank your stars and move on, no need to be a saint!

[kushagra452]

I have filed my IT return for FY2022-23 today. I used the services of Cleartax for completing the filing process (ITR 3).

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by TheRandomGuy

So I just checked my ITR and the Joining bonus of 1L for last year is not added in form 16 or 26AS.. So its not reflecting in ITR..

It was not given as part of salary, so there was no TDS on it from the company.

Should I add and lose 30k or skip it?

PS : I know the absolute legal approach is to declare and pay tax on it. Just asking for some solace that its okay to skip. 30k is a big amount to lose.

Generally companies have auditing department and this may get flagged because failure to do TDS correctly will attract penal actions on the company.

Suggest to take it up with the company as if you add it now, you may have to pay self assessment tax and interest portion till now since the time bonus was paid. I don't know whether they can pay now but they can revise the form 16. They may have to reimburse the interest portion to you as it is not your fault.

This is far better than having issues like concealment of income as the bonus would have been paid to the bank account from the company.

[rx100]

Originally Posted by TheRandomGuy

So I just checked my ITR and the Joining bonus of 1L for last year is not added in form 16 or 26AS.. So its not reflecting in ITR..

It was not given as part of salary, so there was no TDS on it from the company.

When did the payment happen, was it after April 1st? If it really not accounted in FORM 16, it is a clear mistake from your employer. They bound to report all payments in FORM 16, and they could be in real soup if unearthed later.

Originally Posted by kushagra452

I have filed my IT return for FY2022-23 today. I used the services of Cleartax for completing the filing process (ITR 3).

Would you mind sharing the fees for the same.

[kushagra452]

Originally Posted by rx100

Would you mind sharing the fees for the same.

Rs.3000 inclusive of GST.

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by TheRandomGuy

So I just checked my ITR and the Joining bonus of 1L for last year is not added in form 16 or 26AS.. So its not reflecting in ITR..

It was not given as part of salary, so there was no TDS on it from the company.

Should I add and lose 30k or skip it?

PS : I know the absolute legal approach is to declare and pay tax on it. Just asking for some solace that its okay to skip. 30k is a big amount to lose.

Did you get it as a cheque which you had to encash or was it deposited into your account?

If the former, then the onus is on you to pay the self assessment tax. It will clearly get flagged and 30k is too small an amount to be involved in tax evasion.

If the latter then a huge miss on your companies' finance department. Do raise it with them.

The only way you can afford to skip paying the tax is if the money was paid in cash, which comes with its own challenges.

[binand]

Originally Posted by TheRandomGuy

PS : I know the absolute legal approach is to declare and pay tax on it. Just asking for some solace that its okay to skip.

Sooner or later the company's auditor is going to identify the miss. At that time they will have no option but to recover the TDS from you (by deducting from a future month's salary, perhaps). You might end up having to pay the tax and accrued interest and penalty on top of it. Best to correct it right away.

Originally Posted by anandhsub

Did you get it as a cheque which you had to encash or was it deposited into your account?

I don't think the mode of payment matters at all. If it looks like "income under the head of salary" it will be classified as such and taxation/TDS rules for such income prevail.

[mtripathi13]

Originally Posted by binand

Sooner or later the company's auditor is going to identify the miss. At that time they will have no option but to recover the TDS from you (by deducting from a future month's salary, perhaps). You might end up having to pay the tax and accrued interest and penalty on top of it. Best to correct it right away.

Originally Posted by TheRandomGuy

Should I add and lose 30k or skip it?

Originally Posted by ToThePoint

Thank your stars and move on, no need to be a saint!

Dear Sirs,

Let me share a true incident from my practice on exactly similar lines. My Father-in-Law was working in a Maharatna company. During one particular financial year, he along with other employees of similar grade, received certain perquisite from the employer. However, due to error or oversight, the value of the perk was missed in the form 12BA, which forms part of form 16. Accordingly, the total value of salary received was understated in the Form 16 and consequently lesser tax was deducted. In such large companies, there are consultants who file these salary returns for small fee, as the number of returns is high. So, this person filed the return based on the Form 16 issued and did not cross check.

Imagine our horror when in a couple of years’ time, we received a notice saying income has escaped assessment and the assessment was reopened. This was the only instance in his entire career when he received any contravention notice from the income tax authorities.

I promptly attended the hearing and found out that the assertion of department was correct. Naturally, we paid the entire tax due along with interest. We found out later that all employees whose income were declared short, received these notices and had to comply.

Post this the assessing officer proceeded to issue notice u/s 271(1)(c) for concealment of income and after giving us an opportunity of being heard, imposed a penalty of 100 percent of the tax sought to be evaded.

We had to file an appeal with the Commissioner Appeals, to get the penalty dropped. The entire matter took two and half years to be sorted out. It involved visiting officers for hearing and appeal multiple times.

Also note that the department separately proceeded against the employer and the officer in default for failing to comply with tds provisions. We did not bother to check the fate of that case.

So, if you are lucky, you may escape the cycle. But, as I am a regular visitor to department as A/R in numerous cases involving notice on information flagged by the department, it is highly unlikely that it will be missed if the number of cases/ tax implication in high.

Please choose you course wisely.

Warm Regards
Manish

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by binand

I don't think the mode of payment matters at all. If it looks like "income under the head of salary" it will be classified as such and taxation/TDS rules for such income prevail.

I once got a reward at work in form of a cheque and I had to pay tax on that separately. They usually don't deduct tds if they pay by cheque.

They changed the rewards to Amazon vouchers a few years back due to these tax issues. Although I am not certain whether those are taxable too.

[TheRandomGuy]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

Did you get it as a cheque which you had to encash or was it deposited into your account?

If the latter then a huge miss on your companies' finance department. Do raise it with them.

It was a bank transfer, they didnt provide a salary slip too for this. It just came to my account in the middle of the month like a friend transferred some amount to me.

There was even a retention bonus at the end of May 2023 and the same case for that too.

Originally Posted by mtripathi13

So, if you are lucky, you may escape the cycle. But, as I am a regular visitor to department as A/R in numerous cases involving notice on information flagged by the department, it is highly unlikely that it will be missed if the number of cases/ tax implication in high.

Manish

These stories are the ones which scare me the most.

Originally Posted by rx100

When did the payment happen, was it after April 1st? If it really not accounted in FORM 16, it is a clear mistake from your employer. They bound to report all payments in FORM 16, and they could be in real soup if unearthed later.

It was sometime in June of 2022, a month after joining this company.
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I am so confused what to do, its like a 50-50 split with people I ask on what I should do.

[binand]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

They usually don't deduct tds if they pay by cheque.

This is not correct, and if they are routinely not deducting TDS for cheque payments of amounts that are to be accounted in "income under the head of salaries", they are playing with fire.

As yourself, if this were true why aren't they (and every other employer in the country) paying every employee's salary by cheque and saving the cost of running their TDS operations?

Originally Posted by anandhsub

They changed the rewards to Amazon vouchers a few years back due to these tax issues. Although I am not certain whether those are taxable too.

I think there is a minimum threshold of 20K here. You are talking of rewards like those given out for in-office competitions etc., right?

Originally Posted by TheRandomGuy

I am so confused what to do, its like a 50-50 split with people I ask on what I should do.

You need to do the risk-reward analysis yourself. The risks have been outlined here (qualitatively) by many people. The reward is Rs. 30000. Ask yourself if it is worthwhile, after assigning a loss expectancy and a rupee amount to the risk. Both those inputs need to come from you and you alone.

[thanixravindran]

Originally Posted by anandhsub

I once got a reward at work in form of a cheque and I had to pay tax on that separately. They usually don't deduct tds if they pay by cheque.

They changed the rewards to Amazon vouchers a few years back due to these tax issues. Although I am not certain whether those are taxable too.

Payroll system of companies I worked for have two methods -

1. Irregular income - All cash based bonus, awards for projects, individual awards, employee anniversary awards processed in payroll or any mode is treated under irregular income sub head. They are just added to the the overall income under this sub head and available in Form 16 directly.

2. Gift Vouchers or Physical Gifts given specific to employee in non payroll form (not general gifts like Diwali or new year gifts or sweet box) is added under perquisites. If those perks are taxable as per IT law, it is just added under the head perquisites and TDS done accordingly. Form 16 will have a entry to show value of perks too.

Refer IT website for perquisite tax. In the past there was FBT (Fringe Benefit Tax) but that is no longer there, I guess. Only qualified CA like Manish can tell the details.