File a tax return now if you have exchanged more than Rs 2 lakh old notes after demonetization

If you have deposited Rs 2 lakh and more after demonetization and got your old notes exchanged, get ready to make a declaration in income tax returns for the last fiscal year.

The tax return form notified by the income tax department -- now simplified to one page for most payers-includes a provision for such a declaration.

In part E of the form that seeks other information from the assessee including bank details, another column has been added seeking details of cash deposited between November 9 and December 30 last year if the aggregate amount over this period was Rs 2 lakh or exceeded that, according news report by The Economic Times. The last date for filing declarations under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana ended on March 31.

The tax department said parts relating to tax computation and deductions have been rationalised and simplified for easy compliance. The one-page ITR Form-1(Sahaj) is for individuals with an income up to Rs 50 lakh, one residential property and other income such as interest. This will cover most taxpayers.

"This will reduce the compliance burden to a significant extent on the individual taxpayer," the department said in a statement. "This initiative will benefit more than two crore taxpayers who will be eligible to file return of income in this simplified form."

Number of tax forms have been reduced from nine to seven by unifying ITR-2, ITR-2A and ITR-3 into one ITR-2 form. ITR-4 and ITR-4S (Sugam) have been renumbered as ITR-3 and ITR-4 (Sugam), respectively, it said.

All returns have to be filed electronically except for ITR-1 (Sahaj) or ITR-4 (Sugam) by those who are 80 years or more as well as individuals or Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) with an income of up to '5 lakh and no refund claims. In such cases a paper form can be filed.