The documents required for filing an Income-tax Return depend on your income sources, deductions, investments, residential status and financial transactions during the year. A salaried taxpayer may need only a few documents, while a taxpayer with capital gains, business income, property income or foreign assets may need additional records.

Do Documents Have to Be Uploaded with the ITR?

1. Personal, Contact and Bank Details

Keep the following basic details ready:

• PAN
• Aadhaar number, where applicable
• Date of birth
• Current residential address
• Registered mobile number and email address
• Income-tax e-Filing portal credentials, where required
• Bank account number and IFSC
• Details of applicable Indian bank accounts held during the year
• Bank account selected for receiving an income-tax refund

Check that the refund bank account is active and correctly reported. Pre-validating the selected bank account on the Income Tax e-Filing portal can help avoid refund-related issues.

2. Form 26AS, AIS and TIS

Form 26AS

Form 26AS should be checked for tax-related information such as:

• Tax deducted at source
• Tax collected at source
• Advance-tax payments
• Self-assessment-tax payments
• Refund and other available tax-credit information

Annual Information Statement and TIS

Download and review the Annual Information Statement, commonly called AIS, and the Taxpayer Information Summary, commonly called TIS. AIS may contain details of interest, dividends, securities transactions, property transactions, foreign remittances and other information reported against your PAN.

3. Documents for Salary or Pension Income

Salaried employees and pensioners may need:

• Form 16 from every employer
• Monthly salary slips
• Form 12BA for taxable perquisites, where issued
• Salary details from a previous employer
• Pension statement or pension payment order
• Details of exempt allowances
• Professional-tax payment details
• Rent receipts and rent agreement for an eligible HRA claim
• Details of deductions already considered by the employer

Where you worked for more than one employer, include the salary received from every employer. Do not file the return using only the latest Form 16.

4. Documents for Interest, Dividend and Other Income

Keep the following records, where applicable:

• Bank statements or passbooks
• Savings-account interest certificates
• Fixed-deposit and recurring-deposit interest certificates
• Form 16A issued by banks or other deductors
• Post-office interest statements
• Dividend statements
• Family-pension details
• Income statements for bonds, debentures or other investments
• Details of taxable gifts
• Lottery, gaming, prize or online-gaming income statements
• Virtual Digital Asset or cryptocurrency transaction statements

Interest income may have to be reported even where no tax was deducted by the bank or payer.

5. Documents for Income from House Property

For a self-occupied, let-out, vacant or deemed let-out property, keep:

• Property address and ownership details
• Co-owner details and ownership percentage
• Rent agreement
• Rent receipts or bank entries showing rent received
• Tenant’s name and PAN, where required
• Municipal-tax payment receipts
• Housing-loan interest certificate
• Loan sanction letter
• Details of pre-construction interest
• Details and supporting evidence of unrealised rent, where applicable

6. Documents for Capital Gains

Shares, Mutual Funds and Other Securities

• Broker capital-gains statement
• Trading profit-and-loss statement
• Contract notes
• Mutual-fund capital-gains statement
• Demat account statement
• Purchase and sale transaction details
• Details of bonuses, stock splits, mergers and other corporate actions
• Fair market value information, where required

Land, Building or Other Immovable Property

• Purchase deed
• Sale deed
• Stamp-duty valuation details
• Registration, brokerage and transfer-expense records
• Improvement-cost invoices
• Valuation report, where applicable
• Home-loan documents, where relevant
• Proof of investment made for claiming a capital-gains exemption

7. Documents for Business or Professional Income

Business owners, freelancers, consultants and professionals may require:

• Profit-and-loss account
• Balance sheet
• Cash book, ledger and other books of account
• Sales and purchase registers
• Business bank and payment-account statements
• Business expense invoices and receipts
• GST returns and reconciliation records
• TDS certificates
• Details of debtors, creditors, inventory and cash balance
• Fixed-asset and depreciation schedule
• Presumptive-income records, where applicable
• Tax-audit report, where applicable
• Details of brought-forward business or speculation losses

8. Documents for Deductions and Exemptions

The deductions available depend on the applicable tax regime and the conditions of the relevant provision. Keep the following documents where relevant:

• Life-insurance premium receipts
• Public Provident Fund and other eligible investment statements
• Employees’ Provident Fund contribution details
• National Pension System contribution receipts
• Health-insurance premium receipts
• Education-loan interest certificate
• Housing-loan principal and interest certificate
• Donation receipt and donee details
• Payment mode, transaction reference and IFSC details where requested in the applicable ITR schedule
• Tuition-fee receipts
• Rent receipts for an eligible Section 80GG claim
• Disability certificate or prescribed medical form
• Medical-treatment certificates and expenditure records

9. Foreign Income, Foreign Assets and NRI Documents

Depending on residential status and the nature of the income or asset, the following may be required:

• Passport and travel records
• Foreign bank statements
• Foreign salary or pension statements
• Foreign investment and capital-gains statements
• Foreign tax payment or withholding certificates
• Tax Residency Certificate
• Form 67 and foreign-tax-credit details
• Details of foreign assets, accounts or signing authority
• NRE, NRO and FCNR account statements
• Evidence supporting the taxpayer’s residential status

Foreign income and asset reporting varies according to residential status. A taxpayer should not assume that being an Indian citizen, NRI or OCI automatically determines tax residency for the year.

10. Tax-Payment and Previous-Return Records

Also keep:

• Advance-tax challans
• Self-assessment-tax challans
• TDS and TCS certificates
• Previous Income-tax Returns
• Previous tax-computation statements
• Details of brought-forward losses
• Notices, orders or rectification records that affect the return

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Filing solely on the basis of Form 16
• Treating AIS as a complete and error-free record of income
• Ignoring savings-account or fixed-deposit interest
• Missing salary received from a previous employer
• Not reporting capital gains because the sale proceeds were reinvested
• Claiming deductions without supporting documents
• Forgetting brought-forward losses
• Claiming TDS that is not reflected in the available tax-credit records
• Entering an incorrect refund bank account
• Selecting the wrong ITR form

Filing through myITreturn

Before starting your return on myITreturn:

1. Collect documents for every source of income.
2. Keep Form 16, AIS, TIS and Form 26AS ready.
3. Upload or enter the available information as prompted.
4. Review interest, capital gains, property and other income separately.
5. Match TDS and tax payments with the available tax-credit information.
6. Enter eligible deduction details and supporting information.
7. Confirm the bank account selected for receiving the refund.
8. Review the final tax computation before submitting the return.

Conclusion

There is no single document list that applies to every taxpayer. A salaried individual with bank interest may require Form 16, bank statements, AIS and Form 26AS, while a taxpayer with property, capital gains, business income or foreign assets will require additional records.

Although supporting documents are normally not attached to the ITR, keeping complete records is necessary for accurate reporting and for responding to any future query from the Income Tax Department.

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