How to verify your ITR filing for FY 2017-18

Filing your income tax return (ITR) is not enough, you need to verify it too. Otherwise your return will not get processed. You can do the verification either offline or online.

Offline verification

Once you file your return, you can download ITR-V (acknowledgement form). You need to sign ITR-V physically and send it to the income tax department’s Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) in Bengaluru within 120 days from the date of uploading the ITR. You can download ITR-V from your e-filing account.

Remember to send a signed copy of ITR-V either by ordinary or speed post only. Once it is received, a confirmation of receipt will be emailed to you. You can also check the status online.

Online verification

There are various options through which you can e-verify your return. If return is filed using a digital signature certificate (DSC) or e-verified through electronic verification code (EVC), then you don’t need to send a physically signed copy of ITR to CPC.

While you need to have a DSC for signing your return digitally which comes at a cost, e-verifying return through EVC options are free of cost. These options include e-verification either through net banking, bank account number, demat account number or through Aadhaar number.

For e-verifying your return through net banking, you will need to login to your net banking account and click on the option, Income Tax e-filing, to login to your e-filing account. After that, go to “My Account” menu and click on “e-verify return”. On the right hand side, click on “e-verify” to verify the return of the respective assessment year.

To e-verify return other than through net banking, you will need to generate an EVC, which you will receive on your phone number registered with your bank or demat account. However, first you will need to pre-validate your bank or demat account number. To pre-validate the accounts, go to “profile setting” and choose your bank or demat account you want to pre-validate.

You will need to provide information like bank name, bank account number, IFSC code, mobile and email ID to validate your bank account, Similarly, to pre-validate demat account, you will have to provide depositary type, depository participant ID, client ID, mobile number and email ID.

The other option is to e-verify the return by generating a one-time password through Aadhaar. In this case, an OTP will be sent on your mobile number registered with the Aadhaar database.

Ideally, you should try to e-verify the return, as it gives you an immediate confirmation of ITR verification. It also expedites the processing of return and getting a tax refund, if any.