Common questions about filing your ITR

It depends on how your freelance income is taxed. If you report it under the presumptive scheme (a flat percentage of your receipts counted as profit), it usually sits on ITR-4 alongside your salary; a more involved case with regular books moves to ITR-3. You don't pick the form yourself — KarSuvidha works out the right one from the income you enter, and tells you if your case needs a chartered accountant.

It depends on the gain. A small long-term gain on listed shares or equity mutual funds — up to ₹1.25 lakh in the year, under section 112A — can sit on ITR-1. Anything beyond that (a larger long-term gain, any short-term gain, or selling property, gold, or other assets) needs ITR-2. You don't have to judge this yourself — KarSuvidha reads your sale details and picks the right form.

→ Try the Capital Gains Calculator

No — choosing the wrong form is one of the most common filing mistakes, so we removed the choice. KarSuvidha reads your income sources and selects the correct form for you. If your situation needs a form we don't support yet, we say so up front and point you to a CA.

Two Form 16s just means two employers in the same year — you're still a salaried filer, so the simplest form usually still applies (unless something else, like capital gains, pushes you up). KarSuvidha combines the salary and tax-deducted figures from both for you.

No. The simplest form allows only one house property, so owning a second moves you to ITR-2 — whether the second home is rented out or lying vacant. We pick the right form once you tell us about your properties.

It depends on the type of fund and how long you held it. Equity funds held over a year are long-term, taxed at a lower rate with the first ₹1.25 lakh of gains exempt; held under a year they're short-term and taxed higher. Debt funds follow different rules.

→ Try the Capital Gains Calculator — free, no login

It comes down to how long you held the asset before selling. Hold listed shares or equity funds for more than a year and the gain is long-term; sell sooner and it's short-term. The holding-period cut-off and the tax rate differ by asset type, and long-term gains are usually taxed more gently.

Yes, and it's worth doing. Reporting a capital loss lets you set it off against other gains and carry the unused part forward for up to eight years to reduce future tax. You can only carry a loss forward if you file your return on time.

Yes. Every SIP instalment buys units on a different date, so each lot has its own purchase date and cost. When you redeem, gains are worked out lot by lot on a first-in-first-out basis, which decides what's short-term versus long-term.

→ The Capital Gains Calculator handles this split for you

For long-term gains on listed shares and equity mutual funds, the first ₹1.25 lakh in a year is exempt — you pay tax only on the amount above that. The exemption is for long-term gains only; short-term gains don't get it. It's a yearly limit, not per transaction.

Section 194J is the TDS a client withholds when paying for professional or technical services. It's tax already paid on your behalf, so you claim credit for it and pay only the balance (if any) when you file. The income itself is professional/business income, not salary — which can affect which form you file.

Small mismatches are common and usually down to timing — one statement updates before the other as deductors file their returns. The AIS is broader (it shows income too), while 26AS focuses on tax credits. Confirm against your own records, use the more recent figure, and if a credit is genuinely missing, ask the deductor to correct their TDS return.

This almost always means your employer hasn't filed (or has wrongly filed) their TDS return yet, so the credit hasn't reached your statement. Check again after a few weeks and ask your employer's payroll team to file or correct it. You can only claim credit for TDS that appears against your PAN.

Not necessarily. TDS is tax collected in advance — your actual tax is worked out on your total income when you file, and TDS is then credited against it. If too much was deducted you get a refund; if too little, you pay the difference.

Yes. Your tax is based on total income for the year, so both salaries count and you'll usually have two Form 16s. People who don't combine them often underpay, because each employer applied the basic exemption separately. KarSuvidha adds them up correctly for you.

No. The new regime offers lower slab rates but drops most deductions, including 80C. If your 80C, home-loan interest, and HRA add up to a lot, the old regime may work out cheaper — so we compute your tax both ways and default to whichever costs you less.

The old regime. It keeps deductions like 80C, 80D health insurance, HRA, and home-loan interest; the new regime trades most of these for lower rates. KarSuvidha compares both, picks the cheaper one, and lets you override the pick and watch the tax change.

Yes. What you declared to your employer only affected how much TDS they deducted, not what you're finally entitled to. Claim the deduction when you file and any extra tax deducted comes back as a refund. Keep the investment proofs in case the department asks.

No — you don't attach proofs to your return. But keep them (insurance premium receipts, 80C statements, rent receipts) in case the tax department asks later. Claim only what you can back up.

The standard deduction is a flat amount automatically subtracted from salary income — you don't invest in anything or claim it manually, and it applies under both the old and new regimes. KarSuvidha applies it for you when it computes your tax.

We hand you a ready return draft. You open it in the government's free Common Offline Utility, which validates and signs it, then upload it on the income-tax portal and e-verify. Our step-by-step self-file guide walks you through each part after you generate.

→ See how filing works

No — and that's deliberate. We produce a draft for you to file yourself, so the final submission is always in your hands. If you'd rather hand it off, you can request CA-assisted filing instead.

The Annual Information Statement is the government's summary of income reported against your PAN — salary, interest, dividends, tax paid, and more. You download it from the income-tax compliance portal as a password-protected file.

→ What is AIS? (password + download)

For most non-audit individual returns, the due date is usually 31 July of the assessment year — though the CBDT sometimes extends it, and audit or business cases can have different dates. Filing late can mean a penalty and the loss of some carry-forward benefits, so don't leave it to the last day; check the income-tax portal for the current year's date.

Yes. If your case is complex or you'd simply rather not deal with it, request CA-assisted filing and a chartered accountant reviews and files on your behalf. You can also self-file for free and bring in a CA only if you need one.