Tax planning

ITR filing checklist for AY 2026-27: PAN, Aadhaar, Form 16, 26AS, AIS, bank and investment proofs — plus current deadlines (belated till Dec 31).

You just downloaded your ITR acknowledgement. Double click. And boom — password protected. You try your date of birth. Nothing. Your PAN. Still nothing.

You head to the Income Tax portal, download your AIS PDF, and bam — it asks for a password. Your first reaction? "What password? I didn't set any password." I have been there. It is frustrating....

ITR season is here. And if you're a salaried employee, there's one question that's probably bothering you: old regime ya new regime?

The ITR filing window for AY 2026-27 has closed. Salaried filers had July 31, 2026 (CBDT-extended to September 15, 2026). Belated returns are open until December 31, 2026.

ITR filing season is here. If you're a salaried employee, you know the drill - Form 16, Form 26AS, AIS, reconcile, file, and hope you don't get a notice. But here's what most people get wrong....

You're staring at the spinning wheel on incometax.gov.in. The belated-return window is open till December 31, 2026, but the portal won't budge. Login fails, OTP never arrives, or you're staring at a 503 error.

Old vs new tax regime for FY 2026-27 with worked examples at Rs 8L, Rs 15L and Rs 25L salaries — and the deduction threshold where old wins.

Priya earns 15 lakh a year in Hyderabad. Her colleague Arjun earns the same. Same company, same city, same age. But Arjun pays almost 1.75 lakh less in tax than Priya this year.

Section 80C in FY 2026-27: the Rs 1.5 lakh shield of EPF, PPF, ELSS, NSC and insurance — old-regime only, with a pre-March action plan.

Picture two people. Same office, same team, same ₹25 lakh CTC printed on the offer letter. One of them hands over ₹3.6 lakh to the taxman every year. The other pays ₹2.1 lakh.

Your SCSS account is joint. You are the first holder. Your wife is 62. And you are wondering whether she can claim 80TTB on her share of the interest.

ITR filing ka season aaya aur ek sawaal har baar aata hai — “Form 26AS download kiya, PDF open karne baitha, password maang raha hai. Bhai, yeh password kya hai?”

NSC VIII Issue at 7.7%: the 5-year term, why Rs 10,000 becomes Rs 14,490 (not a double), the doubling maths, and why the interest is taxable every year.

NSC is a 5-year deposit; KVP doubles in 115 months. Identical on pledging and transfer, very different on what your heirs inherit. Gazette-cited comparison.

TDS on post office interest is ₹50,000 a year, or ₹1,00,000 if you are 60+. PPF, SSY and NSC interest is exempt — no TDS, no form. Form 121 replaces 15G/15H.

Which small savings schemes you can pledge, what banks lend against them, and why a 6.8% NSC earns you only Rs 85 a year at SBI.

If you have a Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme account, someone will eventually tell you the government now takes 10% of your interest as TDS once it crosses ₹1 lakh. That number is real. It is...

Section 139AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 makes PAN-Aadhaar linking mandatory for most taxpayers. The deadline has passed, and a ₹1,000 late fee under Section 234H now applies. If your PAN remains...

So you just filed your income tax return online. The Income Tax Department sends you an email with a PDF attached — your ITR acknowledgement. You click to open it, and suddenly it asks for a...

You download Form 26AS from the Income Tax portal. Double click the PDF. And it asks for a password. You sit there wondering — what password? I did not set any password.

You just filed your GSTR-1 or GSTR-3B on the GST portal. You clicked download, the file landed on your computer, and then — bam. It asks for a password. And you're sitting there thinking, "What...