ITR 2025: How to file income tax return (ITR) when I earn income from multiple sources?

ITR 2025

If you earn from multilple sources, understanding how to file your ITR is crucial. Here’s how your income will be taxed, the late fee rules, and how you can claim a TDS refund.

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My daughter is a dentist and earned about Rs 1.5 lakh during the last financial year from her private practice. She also received Rs 1 lakh per month for three months (i.e., January–March 2025) from a hospital as payment on which tax was deducted. She has never filed her ITR. Which ITR form should she use for filing her return? Will there be any penalty for late filing? Can she claim a refund for the TDS deducted?

Her income from private practice is taxable under the head “Profits and Gains of Business or Profession.” As far as the Rs. 1 lakh per month received from the hospital is concerned, it is unlikely to be treated as salary. If it were salary, the hospital would not have deducted any tax because the taxable salary for the year is below the basic exemption limit. Typically, employers are not required to deduct tax in such a case. It is more likely that the hospital treated your daughter as a consultant and deducted TDS at 10%. Therefore, these monthly payments would also be taxable under “Profits and Gains of Business or Profession.”

To confirm, check her appointment letter to see whether she was engaged as an employee or a consultant. Additionally, verify the details in Form 26AS or AIS (downloadable from the income tax portal) to see how the hospital has reported these payments. If the hospital treated her as an employee, the income would fall under “Salaries”, and she would be entitled to the standard deduction of Rs 50,000 under the old tax regime or Rs 75,000 under the new regime.

If a person misses the ITR filing due date, a mandatory late fee is levied by the Income Tax Department. However, no late fee is applicable if she misses the deadline of 15th September 2025 and her total income does not exceed the basic exemption limit of Rs. 2.5 lakh (or Rs. 3 lakh, depending on the regime chosen). If her income exceeds the exemption limit but is below Rs. 5 lakh, a Rs. 1,000 late fee applies. If it exceeds Rs. 5 lakh, the late fee is Rs 5,000. Please note that the final deadline to file her ITR is 31st December 2025, after which filing will not be possible.

She can claim a refund of any excess TDS deducted if the TDS exceeds her actual tax liability. If her taxable income, excluding income subject to special tax rates, does not exceed Rs. 7 lakh, opting for the new tax regime is advisable to avail the rebate under Section 87A for FY 2024–25.

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