Every year right in the end week of July, there will be a lot of buzz around filing IT Returns. This is a grey area for many employees. I had started taking ITR seriously after I came to know that during Visa processing, last 3 years ITRs will be asked.
In the initial years of my career, I didn’t have to think much about it, as an agency used to have a desk at our Office and with nominal fee and submission of Form-16, they used to take care of everything. My actual trouble started when I moved to a new company where such agency desk was not set up. After enquiring with many friends and colleagues the two top most options I had were: 1) Do it online through TaxSmile.com 2) Do it yourself with Income Tax website.
Last year I had to two Form-16s so I thought it was rather complicated. Especially after visiting Income Tax website, I was completely lost as a new bie. Although the website was damn good, I felt ITR filing is complex. Lot of fields sounded familiar but I was not sure if my guesses were right. As it’s about dealing with Government and that too related toIncome Tax, I wanted to play safe. Although friends suggested other options, I wanted to try TaxSmile. Believe me, my ITR filing was seamless with TaxSmile, they really read the user’s mind. Most of the fields that they ask for, can be easily located in the Form-16, so providing that info would be very easy. When I compared the same with Income Tax website, I felt that the mapping of our Form-16 is not straight forward with their ITR forms. TaxSmile has cracked this problem and that’s where it wins !!!
This year one of my buddies, strongly suggested to file directly with Income Tax website. I did give a try, the website has been enriched and is very good now. Still as I progressed for ITR filing, I couldn’t get enough confidence. I was scared that a slightest mistake might lead to unnecessary mess. So this year too I filed my ITR through TaxSmile and as I had only one Form-16, I could finish the process in less than half an hour. The total amount charged by them was Rs 281 (inclusive of taxes). This was the same amount I paid last time, although I had two Form-16s. Not sure how good it is, if the user has refund case. But I believe it should be well handled, as I’m very much impressed with their customer experience. Never had to approach their support number or live chat. They make it so simple to use !!! Way to go TaxSmile, strongly recommend it.