Itr File

ITR filing orchestrator (India — ITR-1 & ITR-2, ITR-4 beta)

Drives the return from "reconciled" to "submitted". Claude cannot e-file — portal login, challan payment, and Aadhaar-OTP e-verification are the taxpayer's actions; this skill produces everything else and sequences the steps. Never accept portal passwords, OTPs or bank credentials — they are never needed; PDF document passwords may be used to open a file but are not stored or echoed.

0. Prerequisites — verify these exist in the tax-year folder, else run the upstream skills first

• Form fit — confirm the reconciliation's form determination: ITR-1 (Sahaj) only for a resident with TI ≤ ₹50L, income confined to salary + one house property (two from AY 2026-27) + other sources, CG at most 112A LTCG ≤ ₹1.25L with no CG loss to set off or carry (allowed from AY 2025-26), agri ≤ ₹5,000, and no unlisted shares / directorship / foreign assets / 194N TDS / ESOP deferral / brought-forward losses → follow §0A. Otherwise, with no business/professional income, ITR-2. Any business/professional income → ITR-4 if presumptive-eligible (44AD/44ADA/44AE fit per the itr-presumptive skill, beta) → follow §0B; full books, F&O/intraday, or any ITR-4 disqualifier → ITR-3 (individuals/HUF) or ITR-5 (firms) — stop and say so rather than mis-file.
• Source documents complete → run the itr-reconcile Step-0 intake checklist (Form 16, 26AS, AIS/TIS, bank certs, CAMS/KFin, broker/PMS statements, EPF passbook, PPF, NPS, Schedule FA sources, prior-year return). Anything missing → ask the filer to download it into the folder before proceeding.
• Reconciliation done → Discrepancy_Report.md + CA_Handover_FY<year>.md (itr-reconcile skill)
• Asset register done → Schedule_AL_FY<year>.md (schedule-al skill; ITR-2 only, needed above the AL threshold — ₹1 crore from AY 2025-26, ₹50 lakh earlier; check the current form)
• A filing map (ITR_Filing_Map_AY<year>.md) — every schedule with its figure + the quarter-wise CG breakup; create it on first pass
• Prior-year filed JSON (portal download) — source of field structure, Schedule FA rows to carry forward, and the loss-carry-forward (CFL) check.

0A. ITR-1 (Sahaj) path — when §0 lands on Sahaj

Same pipeline minus the ITR-2-only machinery:

• Skip the schedule-al skill (ITR-1 has no Schedule AL) and §3/itr-112a-csv — the ≤₹1.25L 112A LTCG goes in as ONE aggregate (consideration, cost, LTCG); keep a scrip-wise working CSV only as an audit record.
• §§1–2 apply unchanged (the special-rate terms mostly vanish; check 87A — it usually applies at ITR-1 income levels). §4 and §§6–8 apply unchanged (in §6, the AL/FA/112A-scrip gates drop away).
• §5 walk becomes: Personal Info (regime tick — see the 10-IEA gotcha in §5A) → Salary breakup vs Form 16 Part B → house property (one; two from AY 2026-27 — rent, municipal tax, 30% auto-deduction, 24(b) interest per the HP head in itr-reconcile) → Other Sources (interest, dividend with quarterly split for 234C, family pension) → 112A block → Deductions (old regime: 80C/80D/80TTA…; new regime: 80CCD(2) — plus 80CCH(2) if applicable) → Exempt income (PPF interest, exempt gifts, agri ≤ ₹5,000) → Tax Paid (TDS/TCS + advance/SA challans from AIS Part B3 — same prefill gaps as §5A) → computed-tax summary check vs §2 → refund bank account.
• §5A gotchas that still bite in ITR-1: every prefill-understatement bullet, 26AS ≠ AIS for challans, the regime/10-IEA trap, 234C accrual relief on the dividend quarterly split.

0B. ITR-4 (Sugam) path — when §0 lands on presumptive (BETA — see itr-presumptive)

Run the itr-presumptive skill for eligibility, receipts reconciliation, the deemed-profit computation, and the ITR-4 entry walk (Schedule BP, business codes, financial particulars E11–E25). Differences from the ITR-1 path that bite here:

• Regime election is INVERTED (individuals/HUF): a business filer wanting the old regime MUST file Form 10-IEA before the due date (single-use withdrawal; see itr-presumptive §5) — the §5A "never file 10-IEA" bullet applies to ITR-1/2 filers only. A partnership FIRM has no 115BAC election at all — flat 30%, no 10-IEA, skip the regime comparison.
• Advance tax is one 15-Mar instalment for 44AD/44ADA (§211(1)(b)); 234C = 1% × 1 month on that single date, not the quarterly ladder. 44AE filers stay on the normal quarterly instalments.
• Everything else follows §§1–2 and §§4–8 with the ITR-1-style gates (no AL, no FA, 112A ≤ ₹1.25L as one aggregate).

1. Close open income items — ask the user, do not assume

• Taxable EPF interest (Rule 9D): taxable when own contributions exceed ₹2.5L/yr (₹5L where the employer makes no contribution to the fund); usually zero EPFO TDS and AIS-blind, so self-compute. Maintain a rolling ledger doc: opening taxable-account balance + this-year excess-over-₹2.5L + interest at the declared rate; interest model that ties EPFO passbooks to the rupee = rate on opening + monthly contributions earning (12−k) months each. The split can be pinned WITHOUT prior-year passbooks: an EPFO SMS balance (April = pre-interest year-end), salary slips (monthly EPF+VPF → which years exceeded ₹2.5L), and any contribution-ramp date are enough. If the credited rate is provisional and later changes, revise u/s 139(5). Never file knowingly omitting income.
• Probe for FOREIGN crypto-exchange accounts and any foreign broker/wallet — AIS-blind, easily forgotten, and non-disclosure is a Black Money Act exposure (→ Schedule FA).
• Confirm Form 16 Part B: 80CCD(2) employer NPS (with 80CCH(2), the only deductions surviving the new regime), regime flag (115BAC opt-out), perquisites, s.10 exemptions.
• Confirm no new bank/broker/income source vs the reconciliation.

2. Final tax computation

Recompute in python with current-AY slab rates, under BOTH regimes unless the filer is already locked (check the 10-IEA election history — a past old-regime 10-IEA still leaves the one-time withdrawal back to the new regime, see itr-presumptive §5): slabs on normal income → 111A @20% → 112A @12.5% above the ₹1.25L exemption → 112 @12.5% → VDA @30% (no losses) → less 87A rebate if total income qualifies (new regime: only against slab-rate tax — never special-rate CG, VDA or lottery; marginal relief near the cutoff) → surcharge (15% cap on 111A/112/112A gains and dividends; check marginal relief) → 4% cess → 234B/234C, plus 234A at 1%/mo if filing past the due date (reproduction formulas in the itr-reconcile skill, Step 3). New regime uses the ₹75k standard deduction and drops Chapter VI-A (except 80CCD(2) and 80CCH(2)); old regime uses ₹50k + the VI-A menu (checklist in itr-reconcile — common items listed there, not exhaustive). Regime-sensitive HP-loss rules (itr-reconcile HP head) go into both computations. Print both totals side by side, recommend the lower, and record the choice + margin in the filing map.

3. Generate Schedule 112A CSV (ITR-2 path)

Invoke the itr-112a-csv skill. Its scrip-wise total must reconcile to the 112A bucket before proceeding.

4. Self-assessment tax — pay before submission, but let the UTILITY fix the amount

Every month of delay costs 1% u/s 234B, so pay within the current month — but don't pre-pay on a hand interest estimate: the utility's 234C is lower when gains accrue late (quarterly accrual relief). Cleanest flow: fill the whole return → read Part B-TTI "Amount Payable" → e-Pay Tax (minor head 300, correct AY) for exactly that figure → add the challan (BSR/date/serial/amount) to Schedule IT → balance 0 → submit. The hand computation is the sanity check; the utility figure governs the payment ONLY once the two agree within rounding (§6) — investigate any material gap before paying, don't paper over it.

5. Utility entry — walk the filing map schedule-by-schedule

Order: prefill download → Part A flags (regime, return section, unlisted-shares flag + table) → Schedule S → HP (per-property: let-out rent, municipal taxes, 30% auto-deduction, 24(b) interest; tenant 194-IB TDS claimed in TDS-2) → CG (buckets + quarter-wise F-table + 112A) → VDA (trade-wise, if any) → OS (with dividend quarterly split if claiming 234C relief on dividends) → CYLA/BFLA/CFL (loss set-off + carry-forward — mostly auto-computed, but confirm against the prior return's CFL and this year's losses) → VIA → SI → EI → FA (carry forward prior-year rows; calendar-year basis; update peak/closing) → AL → TDS → TCS → IT (advance + SA challans) → Part B-TI/TTI sanity check vs §2 → refund bank account.

5A. Utility-entry gotchas (each one cost real time or money)

• PREFILL UNDERSTATES — never trust it. Override to documented figures:
  • Schedule IT: advance-tax challans routinely FAIL to prefill. Pull the challan list from the AIS "Payment of taxes" section (Part B3 of the AIS PDF), cross-checked with the e-Pay Tax history and 26AS's tax-paid entries (26AS does carry advance/SA challans, but the utility's Schedule-IT prefill routinely omits them). Extract every challan (BSR/date/serial/amount), reconcile against whatever DID prefill, then add the missing rows manually — never re-add a prefilled challan (double-claimed credit) and never assume the prefill got them all (the balance then overstates by the whole advance-tax amount).
  • Schedule TDS-2 prefill is PARTIAL (can load only half the non-salary deductors). Verify the TDS total against the 26AS deductor list and add the missing rows.
  • Schedule OS prefill misses no-TDS bond coupons, SGB coupon interest (AIS-blind), gold-lease income, PMS interest, and taxable EPF. Override to the documented totals.
• TDS-2 column trap: each row is the taxpayer's own TDS → fill "Deducted in own hands" + "Claimed in own hands" + Gross Amount + Head of Income. Do NOT touch the spouse/other-person columns. Set Fin. Year = current FY.
• CG: enter GROSS consideration + cost, not net gains. AIS SFT reports sale consideration; net-with-zero-cost entries mismatch AIS and draw CPC notices. Sec-50AA/debt-MF STCG goes under "assets other than unquoted shares", NOT the unquoted-shares/50CA box.
• CG F-table (accrual/receipt) rejects negatives — roll a negative quarter into the next positive one so each cell ≥ 0 and the row still sums to the bucket (the cumulative cells drive 234C — after rolling, confirm the utility's 234C still matches the §2 reproduction).
• 234C accrual relief is real and material — the utility computes it on the quarter-wise accrual, well below a straight 15/45/75/100 estimate when gains land late. Fill first, then pay what Part B-TTI shows.
• Unlisted shares (Part A): company PAN and face value are mandatory even without an asterisk. PAN from the company's GSTIN (characters 3–12); cost = actual incl. premium, not face value. Only issued equity shares belong here — options/CCPS/convertibles do not. Verify prefilled prior-year rows still apply.
• Schedule FA (calendar-year basis): foreign-broker listed stock → A3; crowdfunding/unlisted foreign shares → A3 as well (equity interest in any entity; Table D "other capital asset" only for non-equity instruments like SAFEs/notes); crypto on a foreign exchange → A2 (custodial account); and review whether the foreign brokerage/stock-plan account itself also needs an A2 custodial row (cash balances, peak/closing) alongside the A3 security rows — conservative practice reports both; decide explicitly rather than skipping by default. Broker CY reports (peak/closing per lot) are the source. Convert each figure at the SBI TT-buying rate on its relevant date — peak-balance date / 31-Dec closing / acquisition date (per the ITR FA/FSI instructions), not a flat assumed rate. No-income rows: nature "NA", amount 0.
• Schedule FSI + Form 67 + Schedule TR (only if there is foreign INCOME): foreign dividend/interest/CG → Schedule FSI country-wise; foreign tax withheld → FTC via Form 67 (a separate portal form — file by the end of the AY, 31-Mar-2027 for AY 2026-27; it may follow the return within that window, Rule 128(9)); relief → Schedule TR, tie to FSI + Form 67. US dividends = 25% DTAA WHT; credit = lower of foreign/Indian tax (no refund of excess). Skip entirely if there is no foreign income.
• Part B-TTI foreign-asset question → Yes whenever Schedule FA is filled.
• Regime election: ITR-1/2 (no-business) filers choose the regime inside the return each year (115BAC) — never file Form 10-IEA; an erroneous 10-IEA can lock the portal into the old regime. Business-income individuals/HUF (ITR-4) are the opposite case: old regime REQUIRES a timely 10-IEA — see itr-presumptive §5 (firms have no regime election at all).
• Prefill ≠ reliable for challans: the Schedule-IT prefill misses advance/SA challans — pull them from AIS Part B3 or the e-Pay Tax history (they appear in 26AS too, but the prefill is what fails).
• 112A portal upload: post-2018 (AE) holdings need ONE CONSOLIDATED row, not scrip-wise — see the itr-112a-csv skill.
• Schedule FA rows can be CSV-imported too (the portal offers A2/A3 templates like 112A's): with many broker lots, generate the CSV from the broker CY report, import a one-row test file first, clear it, then import the full file — a formatting fault then costs one row, not a re-key of everything.
• Three FX conversion rules coexist — never one flat rate: Rule 115 for income (TT-buying rate, last day of the month BEFORE accrual/receipt) → salary/CG/dividend legs; Rule 128(5) for FTC (TT-buying, last day of the month before the foreign tax was paid/deducted) → Form 67; the FA instructions for Schedule FA (TT-buying on the exact relevant date — acquisition / peak / 31-Dec). Record rate, date and source next to every converted figure.
• Portal UI quirks (SPA bugs, all observed in real filings): spurious logout pop-ups on navigation → answer "No"/use the breadcrumb, and after a real session expiry log back in and hit "Resume Filing" (drafts persist); dropdowns that swallow clicks → focus the field and use arrow keys + Enter; number inputs that mangle trailing zeros → clear the field completely before typing; editing one schedule can silently UN-CONFIRM downstream schedules — after any late edit, reopen the schedule list and re-confirm everything below it before validating; the utility may auto-add schedules you don't need (e.g. ESOP) → remove via "Select Schedules" or validation fails on their empty mandatory fields; delete zero-amount rows with blank dropdowns — they block validation.

6. Validation gates before submit

• Utility validation errors = zero.
• Part B-TTI matches the §2 computation (tax, surcharge, cess, 234B/C, balance ≈ 0 after the SA challan).
• TDS claimed = 26AS per-deductor-rounded total (where all the underlying income is the filer's own for this year — Rule 37BA allocation applies to joint/other-person or spread income); challan count = advance instalments + SA challans, no duplicates vs prefill.
• 112A schedule total = bucket; the CG quarterly table sums to bucket totals AND reproduces from per-source statement quarterlies.
• Schedule AL = register; AL Part C carries only asset-linked liabilities (two-prong test in the schedule-al skill — e.g. jewellery-on-card dues yes; tax/consumption card dues no); EI = documented list; FA row count vs prior year explained.

7. Submit (ITR-1/2 non-audit due date 31-Jul; ITR-3/4 non-audit = 31-Aug-2026 from AY 2026-27 per FA-2026 §139(1); audit cases 31-Oct; belated until 31-Dec u/s 139(4); revised u/s 139(5) for AY 2026-27 until 31-Mar-2027 per FA 2026 — but FREE only to 31-Dec-2026: a revision filed 1-Jan→31-Mar-2027 carries the new §234-I fee (₹1,000 if TI ≤ ₹5L, else ₹5,000; FA 2026 Clause 12, deemed w.e.f. 1-Mar-2026 — verified against the Bill text + portal help, Jul-2026). ITA-2025 carries the same 9-months-free-then-fee design into FY 2026-27+ (s.263(5)).) → e-verify (Aadhaar OTP, within 30 days) → download ITR-V/ack JSON into the tax folder.

8. Post-filing

• Save ack number + final figures into the register docs.
• Diary: AIS/26AS refresh after processing; 143(1) intimation review; if any figure was estimated → calendar the revised-return check (139(5) for AY 2026-27 = 31-Mar-2027 per FA 2026, but revise by 31-Dec-2026 to stay fee-free — the Jan–Mar-2027 window costs the §234-I fee, ₹1k/₹5k).
• Next-FY hygiene: advance-tax instalment reminders (15 Jun/Sep/Dec/Mar) against the full liability incl. surcharge + cess; roll the EPF ledger and AL register forward.