How to File Your Income Tax Return (AY 2026-27)

This filing season you are reporting FY 2025-26 income (April 2025 – March 2026), which the portal calls Assessment Year 2026-27 — the single most common dropdown mistake is picking the wrong one of these. For salaried taxpayers the due date is July 31, 2026; extensions get announced some years, but a plan built on one isn't a plan. Filing itself takes under an hour on incometax.gov.in — the real work is three decisions you should make before you log in.

Step 0 — gather these before you start

• Form 16 from every employer you had during FY 2025-26 (issued by mid-June).
• AIS/TIS and Form 26AS — download both from the portal; this is what the department already knows about you.
• Interest certificates for savings accounts and FDs (or pull the figures from AIS).
• Capital gains statements from your broker/fund house if you sold anything.
• Rent receipts and landlord PAN if you'll claim HRA under the old regime.
• A pre-validated bank account on the portal — refunds only go to validated accounts.

Decision 1 — which ITR form

The wrong form gets you a "defective return" notice and a re-file. For individuals it usually comes down to:

• ITR-1 (Sahaj): resident individual, total income up to ₹50 lakh, from salary/pension + one house property + other sources like interest. The simplest form, pre-filled almost entirely. Recent-year forms also admit small listed-equity LTCG within the exempt-ish band — check the current form's instructions if that's your only capital gain.
• ITR-2: everything ITR-1 excludes but still no business income — capital gains, more than one house property, income above ₹50 lakh, foreign assets or ESOPs/RSUs of a foreign employer (these force ITR-2 even if tiny), NRI status.
• ITR-3 / ITR-4: business or professional income — ITR-4 (Sugam) if you use presumptive taxation, ITR-3 otherwise (including F&O trading, which counts as business income).

Rule of thumb for salaried people: sold any shares or mutual funds beyond the ITR-1 allowance, or own two properties → ITR-2; otherwise ITR-1.

Decision 2 — your regime, locked at filing

The new regime is the default, but salaried taxpayers can choose the old regime fresh each year, inside the return itself — no separate form needed (business income holders face a stickier once-in-a-lifetime switch rule). Two things people miss:

• Your employer's TDS choice doesn't bind you. If payroll deducted tax under the new regime all year but the old regime (HRA + 80C + home-loan interest) computes lower, claim the old regime in the return and take the difference as a refund — and vice versa.
• File late and the choice disappears: a belated return must use the new regime. If the old regime saves you money, the July 31 deadline is worth real rupees, not just penalty avoidance.

Run both regimes on your actual FY 2025-26 numbers with the regime comparison calculator before filing — and note that for this return year, the HRA metro list is still the old four-city one (the eight-city expansion applies from FY 2026-27 income onward).

Decision 3 — trust but reconcile the pre-fill

The portal pre-fills your return from AIS. Don't accept it blindly, and don't contradict it silently — either path invites a notice. Check:

• Every employer appears. Job-switchers: two Form 16s often both apply the standard deduction and full slabs — combining them usually produces tax due, and skipping the old employer is the classic notice trigger, since their TDS filing already told the department.
• Interest income matches AIS — savings and FD interest is fully visible to the department now; "forgot the FD" is the most common mismatch.
• TDS credits in 26AS match what you're claiming — a missing credit means your deductor mis-filed; chase them, don't just claim it.
• Dividends, share sales, foreign remittances in AIS are reflected in the right schedules.

File — then e-verify within 30 days, or none of it happened

Submitting the return is not the end. An unverified return is treated as never filed. E-verify immediately — Aadhaar OTP is the fastest route; net banking and bank-EVC also work — rather than leaving it for "later." This is the highest-stakes low-effort step in the entire process: thirty seconds, or your on-time return silently becomes a non-filing.

After filing, and if you missed the deadline

• Processing and refund: most salaried returns process within days to a few weeks; the refund lands in your pre-validated account. Track it under "View Filed Returns" — see how to check your income tax refund status for what each status message means and how to fix a failed refund.
• Found a mistake? A revised return can replace the original until March 31, 2027 — Budget 2026 extended this window from the old December 31 cut-off — with no penalty for correcting honestly. See how to file a revised return.
• Missed July 31? A belated return is allowed until December 31, 2026, with a late fee (up to ₹5,000; capped at ₹1,000 for small incomes) — plus the two quieter costs: new regime becomes compulsory, and most losses can't be carried forward.

Run your numbers

Estimate your FY 2025-26 liability with the Income Tax Calculator, settle the regime question with the regime comparison, and check your HRA exemption with the HRA calculator before claiming the old regime. The regime decision framework is covered in depth in old vs new regime choice, and every filing deadline is listed on the income tax due dates page. Procedural specifics (portal flows, exact form applicability) can change within a season — when in doubt, incometax.gov.in is the authority. This is general education, not personalized tax advice.