as she has done all these yearswith the help of a chartered accountant who charges her rs 1000 for doing sowhy does she pay so much when she can file her tax return online at a fraction of the cost goswami is familiar with computers but is still chary of taking the online route if there is any mistake in the procedure the tax authorities will come after mei may end up paying more than that charged by the chartered accountant she says adding he is known to us and this is why i trust himgoswamis faith in her chartered accountant is understandable he gives her personalised service doing everything from calculating her tax liability depositing any additional tax filling up the form filing her return and giving her the stamped acknowledgment of her return whats more he is charging her only onethird of the minimum fee that the institute of chartered accountants of india icai has recommended for such services see tablebut if the taxmans fear is driving goswami to the ca its time to get over the dread the cbdt has announced that tax returns filed by senior citizens and small taxpayers gross total income of less than rs 10 lakh will not be picked up for scrutiny by the department cases will be scrutinised only if the tax authorities have credible information pointing to tax evasion this should bring some relief to small taxpayers especially the senior citizensgoing onlinecost nil through government website rs 1801500 through a private portalalmost 80 lakh indians filed their tax returns online last year an 80 jump over the previous year the figure might go up this year as a fresh crop of netsavvy individuals enters the tax net the obvious draw of the online channel is the ease and flexibility it offers you dont have to manually fill up the form and then stand in a serpentine queue to submit it and you can do it at any time of the day from anywhere in the world more than 30 of the returns received last year were filed after office hours i dont have to step out of my house except to post the itr v says rajendra kumar agarwal punebased agarwal who opted for voluntary retirement a few years ago and now runs a financial consultancy business is an ardent fan of the efiling channel using it to file for his senior citizen parents his huf and for himself see picturemore importantly online filing idiotproofs your returns reducing the chances of error and ensuring that the information is complete in all respects if you make a mistake you are prompted by the system to correct it you just cannot go wrong says ankur sharma cofounder and managing director of tax filing portal taxspannercomtax filing portals also spare you the trouble of choosing the correct form as you fill in the fields the system automatically chooses the relevant form depending on the type of income you have for instance if you