5 Things to Do Before March End

Its just 3 weeks before the financial year 2018-19 ends and so we present you with 5 things you should do before this FY ends.

1. File Pending Income Tax Return:

Ideally you should have filed your income tax return for FY 2017-18(AY 2018-19) till now. But in case you have not filed it by now, do it before March 31, 2019 as with new rules you cannot file your returns after this date. If there is tax due, you will need to pay penalty of 1% per month from April 2018 till date.

Budget 2017 had proposed additional penalty for not following ITR timelines. If the income tax return is filed after the due date but on or before the December 31 of the assessment year, there will be a fine of Rs 5,000. In all other cases, there would be fine of Rs 10,000. However, in case the total income is less than Rs 5 lakh, the penalty should not exceed Rs 1,000.

Also Read: How to File Income Tax Return?

2. Pay Advance Tax:

In case you are salaried and have no other income, in all cases you might not worry about advance taxes. But if you do have other income like interest on fixed deposits, unpaid taxes (after TDS) on which exceed Rs 10,000 you should pay your advance taxes.

In case you do not do so you would need to pay penalty of 1% on outstanding advance taxes. This is also true in case you have taxable capital gains from sale of house/ mutual funds/ bonds etc.

You need not pay advance tax in case you are senior citizen (>= 60 years of age) and not engaged in any business or professional activity.

Also Read: How to Calculate and Pay Advance Tax

3. Make your minimum contribution to PPF/NPS/SSA accounts:

If you have PPF/ Sukanya Samriddhi Account account you need to contribute at least Rs 500/1,000 per financial year to avoid account being classified as dormant. You can make the account active you would need to pay a penalty of Rs 100 and contribution of Rs 500 for each year of missed payments.

Also Read: PPF – A Must have Investment

In case of NPS accounts too, you need to deposit at least Rs 1,000 every financial year. In case you have not done it till now go ahead and do it as non-payment leads to account being classified as “frozen”. You can make the account active by paying a penalty of Rs 100 and depositing Rs 500 as one installment.

Though the penalty is not high in both the cases but it would lead to inconvenience and might require some documentation and visit to respective institutions. So make sure you have paid the minimum amount in NPS, PPF and SSA.

4. Verify all your tax saving options are Exhausted

Check and recheck you have maxed your limit for tax saving investments. You can download this simple tax calculator and Income tax planning slideshow to check if you have used all the tax saving options available. There are still two weeks to go and you would not be able to claim tax benefit on investments made after March for this financial year.

Also Read: Best Tax Saving Investments u/s 80C

5. Submit your LTA Reimbursement Bills

In case you are salaried you should have submitted your bills to claim LTA reimbursement and Car maintenance expenses to your employer. It’s not possible to claim these exemptions while filing Tax returns.

Also Read: Submit Income Tax Proof to Employer – How, When and Why?