When March approaches every year, we tend to focus on few compliances that we never thought of during the whole year and filing your ITR and the confusion of discussing it with professionals or not is the biggest issue we face.
Income Tax Return filing is the duty of every individual and not only it’s the duty it is the moral obligation of everyone towards the people and Govt. of this Country to disclose their earnings and pay taxes as per the applicable slabs.
But what we do is we never thought of it as a duty rather a burden that we all have to go through once in every year and for that, we have to pay certain fees to a Chartered Accountant or some other professional.
Income Tax Department in its report discloses that 5.95 Crore ITR’s were filed for F.Y. 2019-20 till January 10 this year, and we live in a country of more than 130 Crore people and still only 5 % people (Approx.) file their ITR.
All the progress India is making is because people like you and me file their ITR and pay taxes to Govt. and Tax payment govt. receives is used for creating all the Public infrastructure like Schools, Hospitals, Toilets, Community Centres, Parks, Railway Stations, Roads, Metros, etc.
We all blame Govt. how they’re not using the public money in the right way, and the same people who criticize they don’t file their ITR, so they’re not a part of Nation building instead they’ll use all the facilities for free, This is known as “Free Rider Problem” where people who don’t pay for services stills gets to enjoy the services on other’s payments.
Now the main question arises that should you go to a professional like Chartered Accountant for filing your ITR?
The answer is simple, What would you do if you have Stomach Ache? You’ll go see a doctor right? But when it comes to Taxation we become the experts and do what we don’t know, later on when we get notices from the Income Tax Department we all rush to Chartered Accountants for their help. That’s an ill mentality we treat the professionals like last resort instead we should hire them for Tax Planning and Business and Financial Planning.
Why hire professionals? You trust doctors because they got an MBBS degree from Govt. but you don’t trust a Chartered Accountant’s advice when he is one of the most knowledgeable people in Taxation and Accounting in India. They are certified by a body set up by the Act of parliament and they’re the doctors of your Finances.
Professionals are there to help you plan your financial future and create strategies as per your business needs and they’ll share their knowledge which is acceptable by law and will help you grow your business and help you invest your money in the right direction. Every professional has a different approach so you can’t judge people based on their working style rather on their performance and the results they get you.
The conclusion we reached is that Filing ITR is our ethical responsibility and consulting a professional before filing ITR is a remedy we take before any accident. It’s not a burden on people rather it’s a Nation-building process we all should take part in and Govt. won’t take your money if you disclose It to the IT Department.
There’s a saying “No matter how bad a child is, he is still good for a tax deduction”