Most of the delay in filing a return is not the filing. It is the fortnight spent finding documents. This checklist covers what is needed for financial year 2025-26, corresponding to assessment year 2026-27.
Collect these before you start and the return itself is short work.
Everyone needs these
- PAN and Aadhaar, and confirmation that the two are linked
- Bank account details for every account held during the year, including any closed mid-year
- Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Form 26AS, downloaded and read, not just downloaded
- Interest certificates from every bank, including savings interest
If you are salaried
- Form 16 from each employer you worked for during the year
- Rent receipts and the landlord PAN if you claimed house rent allowance
- Proof of deductions claimed under Chapter VI-A, including insurance premiums, provident fund and tuition fees
- Home loan interest and principal certificate from your lender
If you run a business or profession
- Books of account for the full year, closed and reconciled
- Bank statements for every business account
- GST returns filed during the year, for turnover reconciliation
- TDS certificates in Form 16A from clients who deducted tax
- Fixed asset additions and disposals, with invoices
- Details of advance tax already paid, with challan numbers
If you sold anything during the year
- Capital gains statements from your broker or mutual fund registrar
- Sale and purchase deeds for property, plus stamp duty and improvement costs
- Details of any reinvestment made to claim exemption
Two things worth checking early
First, read the AIS properly. It now captures far more than it used to, including dividends, interest, securities transactions and large cash deposits. If something in it is wrong, the correction takes time and is much easier to handle before the deadline than after a mismatch notice.
Second, decide between the old and new tax regime before you compute, not after. For salaried taxpayers the choice can be made each year, but for business income the switch is restricted. Running both computations takes ten minutes and occasionally changes the answer by a meaningful amount.
One habit that helps
Keep a single folder for the financial year and drop documents into it as they arrive rather than gathering them in July. Clients who do this file early, and filing early leaves room to fix anything that turns out to be missing.
If you would like the checklist tailored to your own situation, send us a note and we will send back the short version that applies to you.