Computer Tricks and Secrets

Short answer: for a salaried person in India, filing your ITR online now takes under an hour if you have your Form 16 ready. I file mine through ClearTax because it auto-fills most of my details from my PAN and Form 16, so I only review instead of typing everything. Here is my exact process for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27), including the deductions people most often miss. Why I file early instead of waiting for the deadline Filing early is the single easiest way to reduce tax-season stress. When you file early you avoid last-minute portal slowdowns, you get time to fix errors, and refunds land in your account sooner. Every year thousands of people wait until the final days, and that rush is exactly when mistakes and missed deductions happen. Why I stopped filing manually For years I either filed manually on the Income Tax portal or paid a Chartered Accountant. Both work, but manual entry is slow, picking the correct ITR form is confusing, and you have to pull numbers from Form 16, ...