Income tax filing is not just about entering your salary and clicking Submit.
A missed income source, an incorrect tax regime or one unfinished verification step could result in a lower refund, additional tax, delayed processing or questions from the Income Tax Department.
For Assessment Year 2026–27, different filing deadlines may apply depending on the taxpayer category and ITR form. Many individual taxpayers should therefore confirm their applicable due date instead of assuming that everyone has the same deadline. A belated return can attract a fee of ₹1,000 when total income does not exceed ₹5 lakh and ₹5,000 in other cases.
Here are seven common ITR filing mistakes you should avoid before time runs out.
1. Waiting Until the Last Day to File Your ITR
The most expensive tax mistake often begins with one thought:
“I still have time.”
Waiting until the final day gives you almost no time to deal with missing documents, incorrect bank details, failed OTPs, tax-payment issues or discrepancies in your income records.
Even when the return itself appears simple, correcting a mismatch may take longer than expected.
What should you do?
Start your ITR filing process at least a week before your applicable deadline. Download your statements, reconcile your income and calculate your tax liability before opening the final return.
Filing early does not just reduce stress. It gives you time to identify and correct mistakes before they become deadline-day emergencies.
FOMO check: Thousands of taxpayers may be preparing to file at the same time. The earlier you finish, the less likely you are to be stuck fixing a problem with hours left.
2. Filing the Return but Forgetting to Verify It
Submitting your ITR is not necessarily the final step.
Your return must also be verified. The current time limit for e-verification or submission of a signed ITR-V is 30 days from the date of filing. If the return is not verified, it may be treated as invalid.
How can you verify an ITR?
Common verification methods include:
- Aadhaar OTP
- Net banking
- Electronic Verification Code
- Digital signature, where applicable
- Sending a signed physical ITR-V to the Centralised Processing Centre
Why does this matter?
An uploaded but unverified return may not be considered validly filed. That can affect its filing date and lead to consequences associated with late filing.
File it. Verify it. Finish it.
3. Ignoring Form 26AS and AIS Before Filing
Your salary slip or Form 16 may not show your complete financial picture.
Before filing, compare your records with:
Form 26AS
Form 26AS primarily displays tax deducted or collected at source, including TDS reported against your PAN.
Annual Information Statement
AIS contains broader financial information. Depending on the transactions reported, it may include TDS or TCS, specified financial transactions, tax payments, demands, refunds and other information available to the department.
What should you check?
Compare the statements with your:
- Form 16 and Form 16A
- Bank interest certificates
- Dividend statements
- Capital-gains reports
- Property transactions
- Tax challans
- Freelance or professional receipts
A difference does not automatically mean that your return is wrong. However, unexplained mismatches can delay processing or result in follow-up communication.
Check what the department sees before declaring what you earned.
4. Forgetting Income That Is Not Part of Your Salary
One of the most common income tax return filing mistakes is reporting salary while overlooking other taxable income.
Your ITR may also need to include:
Bank and deposit interest
Interest earned from savings accounts, fixed deposits and recurring deposits may need to be reported, even where no TDS was deducted.
Capital gains
Selling shares, mutual funds, property or other capital assets can create taxable capital gains. Capital-gains income may also affect which ITR form you are eligible to use.
For AY 2026–27, ITR-1 is available only to eligible resident individuals with income within the specified limits and conditions. Taxpayers with short-term capital gains or other excluded income may need to use another form.
Freelance and professional income
Consulting fees, side-hustle income and payments received through UPI or bank transfers do not become tax-free simply because they were earned outside a full-time job.
Rental income
Rent received from a property must be considered under the applicable house-property provisions.
Dividend income
Dividend income appearing in your AIS should be reconciled with your broker, demat and bank records.
Leaving out an income source does not make it disappear. It only creates a gap between your return and your financial records.
5. Assuming TDS Means You Do Not Need to File
“My employer already deducted tax” is not the same as “my tax filing is complete.”
TDS is tax deducted at source. An ITR is your complete declaration of income, deductions, taxes paid and final tax liability for the year.
Your employer may have calculated TDS using only the salary and investment information available to them. That calculation may not include:
- Income from another employer
- Bank or deposit interest
- Capital gains
- Rental income
- Freelance earnings
- Dividends
- Deductions not submitted to the employer
You may also need to file a return to report additional income, pay outstanding tax, claim an eligible refund or fulfil another applicable filing condition.
Do not rely only on the amount deducted from your salary. Review your complete financial position.
TDS is one part of your tax record. It is not automatically the final answer.
6. Choosing the Old or New Tax Regime Without Calculating Both
The regime with the lower-looking tax rate is not always the regime with the lowest final tax bill.
The better choice depends on factors such as:
- Salary structure
- Eligible exemptions
- Home-loan interest
- Health-insurance premiums
- NPS contributions
- Education-loan interest
- Other eligible deductions
- Income level and sources
Many popular Chapter VI-A deductions are restricted under the new tax regime. The official deductions guidance lists only specified deductions as available under Section 115BAC, including eligible employer NPS contributions under Section 80CCD(2).
What should you do?
Calculate your tax under both regimes using the same complete income data. Then compare the final liability—not just the slab rates.
Avoid relying on generic rules such as “the old regime is always better when you invest” or “the new regime is always cheaper.” Your result depends on your numbers.
A ten-minute comparison could prevent you from paying more tax than necessary.
7. Missing Deductions You Are Eligible to Claim
Taxpayers often focus so much on reporting income that they forget to review eligible deductions.
Depending on your chosen tax regime and eligibility, commonly missed deductions can include:
Section 80D: Health insurance
Eligible taxpayers under the old regime may claim deductions for qualifying health-insurance premiums and certain medical expenses.
The limit is generally ₹25,000 for self, spouse and dependent children, with a higher ₹50,000 limit where the relevant insured person is a senior citizen. A separate deduction may apply for parents, subject to the applicable conditions.
Section 80E: Education-loan interest
Interest paid on a qualifying education loan may be deductible for up to eight assessment years, beginning with the year in which repayment of interest starts. The deduction relates to interest, not repayment of the loan principal.
Section 80CCD(1B): Additional NPS contribution
An additional deduction of up to ₹50,000 may be available for eligible personal contributions to NPS, subject to the applicable tax-regime rules.
Section 80TTA: Savings-account interest
Eligible non-senior individuals and HUFs may claim a deduction of up to ₹10,000 on qualifying savings-account interest. Senior citizens may instead be eligible under Section 80TTB, subject to its conditions.
Important tax-regime warning
Deductions such as Sections 80D, 80E, 80TTA and 80CCD(1B) are generally relevant to taxpayers opting for the old tax regime. Do not claim a deduction without confirming that it is permitted under your selected regime.
The deduction you forget to claim could be money unnecessarily left on the table.
Your ITR Filing Checklist
Before submitting your income tax return, confirm that you have:
- Selected the correct assessment year and ITR form
- Reconciled Form 16, Form 26AS and AIS
- Reported salary and all non-salary income
- Included applicable capital gains and property income
- Compared the old and new tax regimes
- Claimed only eligible deductions
- Added and validated the correct bank account
- Paid any remaining self-assessment tax
- Reviewed every schedule before submission
- E-verified the return within 30 days
A 15-minute review today could save you from penalties, missed tax benefits and weeks of follow-up later.
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