How to Pay Income Tax Online In India?

Income Tax Authorities in India permit individuals to self-assess their income and they can pay the taxes accordingly. However, many individuals believe that his/her income tax return is just a drop in the ocean for the authorities and so they do not file their return.
The important thing to remember here is that deliberately hiding the income from the authorities to save money will be considered as tax evasion.
Some of the instances of tax evasions include not declaring the interest earned on fixed deposits in banks and getting income in cash and not routing it through the official system.
There are chances that people, who do not file their return, will get payment notice from Income Tax Department for the same.
In addition, many people believe that they have paid taxes through TDS and so filing the return is not important as the main objective of the government is to get money from the public in the form of tax.

But, the thing to remember here is that it is the constitutional obligation of every Indian citizen to file tax returns. So, people’s job does not stop at remitting taxes, it is highly important to file returns

When it becomes important to file income tax returns?
There are certain rules that make it compulsory for people to file tax returns and these rules will differ from one year to another. For the current financial year 2014-15, for which assessment will be done in 2015-16, people falling under the following categories, will have to file their returns:

• Individuals have taxable income of more than Rs.2,50,000 p.a.
• Senior Citizens (60-80 years) have taxable income more than Rs.3,00,000 p.a.
• Senior Citizens (80 years and above) have taxable income more than Rs.5,00,000 p.a.

How to pay tax?

Earlier, filing return and paying tax was a tedious process and the long process itself prevented many people from completing their duty. But, now, the process has become easier as everything can be done online these days.

Benefits of paying tax online:

• The tax payers, can now remit their taxes and can file their return from any location at any time through their net-banking account
• Instant transfer of money from the bank account will happen
• The details written by the e-Challan will directly reach the Income Tax Department and the banks will not engage in any data entry
• The payer can save/print the Challan copy and also the copy of the receipt
• As soon as the bank authorizes the payment, the individual will receive a tangible and clear counterfoil/receipt from the bank.
• Transaction ID will be readily available to the individual through his bank statement, which will help for future reference.
• In addition, as against conventional method of tax payment, the payer can check online, whether the money has reached the IT department.

Banks offering e-payment facility:

People holding account with about 26 banks in India can make online payment of tax easily. Some of the popular banks include ICICI, SBI, Indian Bank, IOB, HDFC Bank, IDBI, etc.…..

How to pay income tax online?

Here is the step-by-step procedure:

1. The first thing the individual will have to do is to open a net-banking account with any 26 authorized banks in India.
2. Then, he will have to visit www.incometaxindia.gov.in and should click on the option called ‘pay taxes online’, which can be found on the left side of the website as one among the many links available.
3. Then, the online Challan is to be filled out and appropriate help for entering details in this Challan can be found in the FAQ section of the website.
4. Then, the tax payment should be made through net-banking account online.
5. Once the payment is done, he will see a Challan counterfoil instantly on the screen and it will have a number called Challan Identification Number or CIN Number. This number should be quoted when filing online return. So, the individual can either print the counterfoil or he can also save a copy of the same on his computer.
6. It will be possible to check, whether the payment he made has reached the income tax department at https://tin.tin.nsdl.com/oltas/servlet/QueryTaxpayer under CIN based view option.

Like ‘pay taxes online’, there will be an option called ‘file returns online’, wherein people can complete their income tax file return responsibilities easily.