ITR for salaried employees — what you need to know
Salaried employees typically file ITR-1 (if income is under Rs 50 lakh with no capital gains) using Form 16 as the primary document. Key areas to get right: reconciling salary and TDS across multiple employers if you switched jobs mid-year, correctly claiming HRA exemption, and choosing the tax regime that minimises your actual liability rather than defaulting to whichever the employer used for TDS.
Reconciling multiple Form 16s
If you changed jobs during the financial year, you'll have a Form 16 from each employer. Each employer computes TDS independently, often without full visibility into your income from the other employer — this can result in under- or over-deduction of tax that only becomes clear when you consolidate both Form 16s at filing time. Always add up total salary and total TDS across all employers before filing, rather than filing based on just the latest Form 16.
Claiming HRA exemption correctly
House Rent Allowance exemption is only available under the old tax regime, and only if you're actually paying rent — it's computed as the lowest of: actual HRA received, rent paid minus 10% of salary, or 50%/40% of salary (metro/non-metro). Landlord PAN is required if annual rent exceeds Rs 1 lakh. A common mistake is claiming full HRA received as exempt without running this calculation.
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Talk to a CA →Interest income and other sources often missed
Savings account interest, fixed deposit interest, and dividend income are frequently under-reported by salaried taxpayers who assume their Form 16 covers everything. These income sources are usually visible in the AIS and should be cross-checked and added under 'Income from Other Sources' even if TDS wasn't deducted on them.
Choosing between old and new regime as a salaried employee
Since most salaried employees have relatively predictable income and deduction profiles, it's worth running the numbers under both regimes at filing time — especially if you have significant 80C investments, a home loan, or pay substantial rent — rather than assuming the regime declared to your employer for TDS purposes is automatically the best choice at filing time.
What triggers a mismatch notice for salaried taxpayers
The most common triggers are: TDS claimed in the return not matching Form 26AS/AIS (often from an employer's delayed TDS filing), unreported interest or dividend income visible in AIS, and HRA or deduction claims that don't align with what the employer reported in Form 16 Part B.
I switched jobs this year — do I need to combine both Form 16s when filing?
Yes. Each employer only knows about the salary they paid you, so if you don't manually combine total income and TDS across both Form 16s, you risk either under-reporting income (if you only use the latest employer's Form 16) or a mismatch with Form 26AS/AIS, which aggregates TDS from both employers. Always add both Form 16s together before filing your return.
This article is for general information only. For your specific situation, consult a practicing CA.
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