Filing-ready means your return matches reality: employer numbers, bank and broker data, and TDS credits you can defend. This playbook is the same sequence many CAs walk through with salaried clients, simplified so you can do the first pass yourself and export gaps for professional review.
- Build one master workbook: salary, house property, capital gains, other income, deductions, prepaid taxes.
- Lock salary to Form 16 Part B before chasing exotic optimisations.
- Sweep AIS for missing interest, dividends, and securities; add schedules with evidence.
- Match every major TDS line to Form 26AS before submitting the ITR.
Start with annual salary from payslips or last year’s Form 16 as a template. Add expected bonus, perquisites from Form 12BA hints, one house property block, and rough other income.
Choose old or new regime provisionally and apply standard deduction and Chapter VI-A only where allowed. You want a stable baseline total tax before you refine.
When Form 16 arrives, overwrite estimates with Part B figures: gross salary, exemptions allowed, deductions processed, taxable income, and tax. Investigate every difference, usually declarations, proofs, regime, or perquisites.
Do not proceed to file if your mental model still says ₹3 lakh less taxable income than Part B without a line-by-line explanation.
Download AIS and Form 26AS. For each material AIS line, either reflect it in your return (with correct head) or file feedback if wrong, documenting your basis.
Confirm salary TDS, bank TDS, and broker TDS appear in 26AS with correct deductor and amount. Missing credits need deductor follow-up, not silent filing.
Package a PDF summary: salary reconciliation, capital gains schedule with contract notes index, house property worksheet, donation certificates list, and a mismatch table (your number vs Form 16 vs AIS).
Trustworthy filing is auditable filing. Even if a CA redoes computations, your organised inputs save time, money, and errors.
SalTax writes for salaried taxpayers and professionals in India who want clear explanations, not jargon. Our guides reflect how tax compliance works in practice, including payroll, Form 16, AIS, and filing, but they are educational only. They are not tax, legal, or investment advice. Rules, limits, and forms change with each Finance Act and assessment year. Always confirm the current year on the official Income Tax Department website (incometax.gov.in) and use a Chartered Accountant or qualified tax adviser for your own return, notices, or planning.