Income Tax Returns: Mandatory Documents You Need To File ITR

The filing of the Income Tax Return (ITR) for the Financial Year 2024-25 (Assessment Year 2025-26) has already started. The Income Tax Department has extended the deadline to file ITR for the taxpayers who don’t need their accounts to be audited.

The ITR filing deadline has been extended till Sept. 15, from July 31 earlier. This extension for ITR filing applies to taxpayers whose accounts do not require auditing, such as salaried individuals, pensioners, and NRIs.

Although the date has been extended, it is important to collect all the required documents in advance for a hassle-free ITR filing. Organising the required documents is an important part of the process.

Here is a list of the crucial documents you should start gathering right away to file your income tax returns.

Form 16 is an important document that salaried taxpayers must submit when filing their ITR. Form 16 is issued by the employers, generally by mid-June. It’s a crucial document for all salaried taxpayers as the form contains details of tax deductions in a financial year.

Additionally, a taxpayer may be required to collect other TDS certificates depending on their sources of income. For example, Form 16A is provided by the TDS deductor when tax is deducted for incomes other than the salary. Similarly, if the value of the property purchased exceeds Rs 50 lakh, the buyer provides Form 16B to the seller.

If you sold any financial capital assets, like equity shares or mutual funds, then you must report the capital gains on your income tax return. For this, you should collect a capital gains statement from your stockbroker or mutual fund house.

You can download the Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) from the income tax e-filing website. The AIS is a detailed summary of a taxpayer's information, which includes TDS/TCS, interest, dividends, stock market transactions, mutual fund transactions, etc. The TIS is an aggregated category-wise summary for a taxpayer.

If you have invested in shares of overseas companies, you must also mention them in your return. Aside from this, the ITR-2 form must be used to invest in unlisted equity shares.

Taxpayers should obtain interest certificates from banks, post offices and other entities where they have made deposits. In addition, they should also download bank statements for the financial year 2024-25 for filing the ITR.

PAN, Aadhaar and bank account details are necessary for e-filing of ITR. Taxpayers must ensure to keep these documents handy.