How to File ITR Online: Portal Steps, E-Verify, and Refund

You file your Income Tax Return online at the Income Tax Department’s e-filing portal, incometax.gov.in, by logging in with your PAN, selecting the ITR form that matches your income, entering your income and deductions, paying any tax due, submitting the return, and completing e-verification within 30 days. For most individual taxpayers, returns for Assessment Year 2026-27 (income earned during Financial Year 2025-26) are due by July 31, 2026.

What to Gather Before You Log In

Trying to file while hunting for documents is how errors slip in, and errors invite notices later. Pull everything together first.

  • PAN and Aadhaar. Your PAN is your tax identity, and it must be linked to your Aadhaar. An unlinked PAN becomes inoperative and blocks filing entirely.1Income Tax Department. Link Aadhaar FAQ
  • Form 16. Issued by your employer, this summarizes salary, allowances, and TDS for the year. It’s the anchor document for salaried filers.
  • Form 26AS. A tax credit statement showing every payment made against your PAN, including TDS by employers, banks, and other deductors. Download it from the portal and check that all your credits appear.2Income Tax Department. Manage Tax Credit Mismatch FAQ
  • Annual Information Statement (AIS). A full record of financial transactions reported against your PAN, including interest, dividends, stock trades, and large purchases. It often surfaces income people forget.3Income Tax Department. FAQs on AIS (Annual Information Statement)
  • Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS). A category-wise aggregation of the AIS showing both system-processed values and any values you’ve confirmed or disputed.3Income Tax Department. FAQs on AIS (Annual Information Statement)
  • Bank account details. Account number, IFSC code, and pre-validation on the portal. Refunds land here, and wrong details delay them by weeks.
  • Investment proofs. Receipts for life insurance premiums, PPF, ELSS, health insurance, home loan interest certificates, and anything else you plan to claim as a deduction.

Take a few minutes to compare Form 26AS and AIS against your own records. If a bank has reported interest income that doesn’t appear in your Form 16 or your notes, you still need to report it. The department already has that data, and mismatches between what you declare and what they see are the most common trigger for scrutiny notices.

Choosing the Right ITR Form

Picking the wrong form gets your return treated as defective, so match the form to your income sources carefully.

  • ITR-1 (Sahaj). Resident individuals with total income up to ₹50 lakh from salary or pension, one house property, other sources such as interest and dividends, and agricultural income up to ₹5,000. This covers most salaried filers.4Income Tax Department. Salaried Individuals for AY 2025-26
  • ITR-2. Individuals and HUFs not eligible for ITR-1 and without business or profession income. Use this if you have capital gains from stocks or property, more than one house property, foreign income, or total income above ₹50 lakh.5Income Tax Department. ITR-2 FAQ
  • ITR-3. Individuals and HUFs with business or profession income not computed under the presumptive scheme. This is the form for regular books of account.
  • ITR-4 (Sugam). Resident individuals, HUFs, and firms other than LLPs with total income up to ₹50 lakh including presumptive business income under Sections 44AD, 44ADA, or 44AE.6Income Tax Department. File ITR-4 (Sugam) Online FAQs

File with the wrong form and the department issues a defective return notice under Section 139(9). You get 15 days from the notice date to correct it, with the option to request an extension. Ignore it and the return is treated as never filed, which means penalties, interest, and the loss of any carried-forward losses.7Income Tax Department. Response to Defective Notice 139(9) FAQs

Choose Your Tax Regime First

Since FY 2023-24, the new tax regime is the default. Do nothing and your return processes under the new regime’s lower slabs with almost no deductions. The choice is made inside the ITR form, so decide before you start filling in numbers.

Under the new regime for FY 2025-26, the basic exemption is ₹4 lakh, and salaried filers get a standard deduction of ₹75,000, but most Chapter VI-A deductions (80C, 80D, HRA) are unavailable. The old regime has a lower basic exemption (₹2.5 lakh, ₹3 lakh for senior citizens) and higher slab rates, but preserves the full deduction set.

If you have no business income, switch between regimes each year through the form itself before the deadline. With business income, opting out of the new regime requires Form 10-IEA before the due date. Run the numbers both ways: taxpayers with heavy 80C investments, home loan interest, or health insurance premiums often come out ahead under the old regime; those with fewer deductions usually don’t. One catch worth knowing: a belated return filed after July 31 can only go in under the new regime.

Filing on the E-Filing Portal

Register or Log In

First-time users go to incometax.gov.in and click Register. You’ll need a valid PAN, a working mobile number, and an email address, because the portal sends separate OTPs to each during registration.8Income Tax Department. Register for e-Filing (Taxpayer) User Manual Set a password of 8 to 14 characters that includes uppercase, lowercase, a number, and a special character.

Already registered? Log in with your PAN as user ID, then go to e-File > Income Tax Returns > File Income Tax Return. Select Assessment Year 2026-27 for FY 2025-26 income, and pick “Online” as the filing mode.

Enter Your Income Details

The portal offers a pre-filled return that pulls data from Form 26AS, AIS, and employer filings straight into the form. It saves real time. But don’t accept the pre-filled numbers blindly. Compare every figure against your Form 16, bank statements, and investment records. A wrong pre-filled number you accepted without checking is still your mistake.

Start with personal information: name, address, residency status, and bank account details. Move to the income sections. Salaried filers enter gross salary, allowances, and the standard deduction. House property income comes next if applicable, then other sources such as savings interest, fixed deposit interest, and dividends. ITR-2 adds capital gains sections for profits or losses from stocks, mutual funds, or property.

Once all income is in, the form calculates gross total income. Now enter deductions to reduce the taxable amount. Under the old regime, Chapter VI-A includes Section 80C (up to ₹1.5 lakh for PPF, ELSS, life insurance), Section 80D (up to ₹25,000 for health insurance, ₹50,000 for senior citizens), and Section 80CCD(1B) (an additional ₹50,000 for NPS). Under the new regime, most of these are off the table, so this section stays short.

The portal then computes total tax liability, sets it against TDS and advance tax already paid, and shows whether you owe more or are due a refund.

Pay Any Tax Due and Submit

If a balance is owed, pay it before submitting. The portal routes you to a payment gateway that accepts net banking, debit card, UPI, or the NSDL/Protean system. Keep the challan receipt: you’ll enter the BSR code, challan serial number, and payment date into your return.

With all fields complete and any tax paid, preview the return. The preview shows every figure alongside the computed tax, and it’s the last chance to catch errors before submission. Click Submit and the portal generates an acknowledgment number. The return isn’t valid yet.

E-Verify Within 30 Days

A submitted return without verification is treated as if it was never filed. You have 30 days from the filing date to e-verify, and missing that window invalidates the return.9Income Tax Department. ITR-V FAQs Several methods work:

  • Aadhaar OTP. A one-time password sent to the mobile number registered with your Aadhaar. Fastest option, works instantly.10Income Tax Department. How to e-Verify
  • EVC through a pre-validated bank or demat account. Code sent to the mobile and email linked to that account.
  • Net banking. Log into your bank’s net banking portal, follow the e-filing link, and verification runs automatically.
  • EVC through ATM. Generate the code at your bank’s ATM and enter it on the portal.
  • Digital Signature Certificate. Upload a registered DSC for verification.

If no electronic method works, sign a physical copy of the ITR-V acknowledgment and send it by speed post to the Centralized Processing Centre in Bengaluru within 30 days. Electronic verification is immediate and skips postal delays, so use it whenever possible.10Income Tax Department. How to e-Verify

After You File

Tracking Your Refund

If your return shows a refund, the department typically processes it within four to five weeks of successful e-verification. It goes to the pre-validated bank account in your return. Track status under e-File > Income Tax Returns > View Filed Returns. If it stalls beyond a few weeks, check the portal for any communication asking for clarification.

If You Get a Defective Return Notice

A Section 139(9) notice means the department found something wrong: a mismatched form, income that doesn’t line up with TDS records, or a missing schedule. You have 15 days from the notice date to fix it, with extensions available on request. Ignoring the notice makes the return invalid for that assessment year, with all the consequences of not filing at all.7Income Tax Department. Response to Defective Notice 139(9) FAQs

Fixing Mistakes with a Revised Return

Spot an error after filing? File a revised return under Section 139(5) before December 31, 2026 for AY 2026-27. The revised return replaces the original entirely. Common reasons include forgotten savings account interest, wrong bank details for the refund, or a regime choice you’d change on reflection. There’s no penalty for revising within the deadline, so fix mistakes as soon as you find them.