Income Tax filing: Relief for joint property owners; Tax Dept allows use of simple forms to file returns

Rolling back its week-old order, the Income Tax Department on January 9 allowed joint owners of single house property to file the income tax return using simple Form-1 (Sahaj) or Form-4 (Sugam). On January 3, it had debarred individual taxpayers owning house property in joint ownership and those who paid Rs 1 lakh in electricity bills in a year or incurred Rs 2 lakh expense on foreign travel from filing their annual income return using the simple return forms.

"After the notification, concerns have been raised that the changes are likely to cause hardship in the case of individual taxpayers," the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) said in a statement.

The department said the issue was examined and "it has been decided to allow a person, who jointly owns a single house property, to file his/her return of income in ITR-1 or ITR-4 Form, as may be applicable, if he/she meets the other conditions".

"It has also been decided to allow a person, who is required to file return due to fulfilment of one or more conditions specified in the seventh proviso to section 139 (1) of the Act, to file his/her return in ITR-1 Form," it added.