ABCs of Filing E-returns of Income Tax

I guess I am one among very few people who have successfully filed E-returns this year. So what all do you need to do the same. Here is the complete procedure:

1. Register yourself with your PAN No. at http://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/index.jsp .
2. After logging in to the Portal download the appropriate IT Return Form (a PDF form filling application) based on the category you belong to (mentioned in the Portal). For Salaried people with no Capital Gains it is ITR-1 & for Salaried people with Capital Gains, Income/Loss (Home Loan) from House Property it is ITR-2.
3. Complete the form after thoroughly going through the instruction sheet given at the last. Form filling is quite simple provide you know to interpret the different categories of the Form 16 provided by your company.
4. After completing your form, cilck on the "Check Form" button given in the last page. This verifies whether you have completed the form with the basic data.
5. Now click on "Generate Bar Code" to have the Bar Code electronically inserted into your form.
6. For uploading the form you need to generate its XML file by clicking on "Export To XML" button. There is a small clarification which is not provided by the Income Tax Portal. The Portal does not upload XML files where addresses contain special characters. After lot of R&D I found out that only Hyphen (-) was accepted. So remove all Commas (,), Slashes (/), Full Stops (.) & Quotation Marks (' ") from the address field.
7. Now you are all set to filing E-returns. Just upload the XML file generated through the link https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/portal/uploadXML.jsp .
8. If you have a Digital Signature issued by any Certifying Authority then there is no other physical form submission required. In India MTNL Trustline is one of the certifying authorities. But I guess getting a Digital Signature is quite expensive. Its somethign between Rs.900 - Rs.2000 for a period of 2 years.
9. If you don't have a Digital Signature, don't worry. After successful uploading of the XML file, an ITR-V file is generated. Take 2 printouts of this form, sign on them, submit 1 copy at the nearest IT office & get acknowledgement on the other. You might be thinking then what is the difference between physical hard-copy returning filing & this procedure, the main advantage with E-returns is that you have an E-filing Acknoledgement Number with which you can track your process in case of any queries.

Isn't it simple. Believe me its really very simple, provided you take little bit of interest in your financial side & also believe in using the latest technology offerings.