Paying Self-Assessment Tax and the Payment Process

The Necessity to Pay Self-Assessment Tax

Individuals with undeclared income from any sources must declare the extra income and pay the self-assessment tax due on their part. Even without the intention of doing so, some taxpayers miss out on mentioning extra earnings during the final installment of paying advance tax, which is why it is very crucial to reconsider the overall income before making the final settlement. Self-assessment tax also is applicable if TDS wasn’t made on the income or it was done on a rate lower than the rate applicable to your income.

For instance, if you are a salaried individual and you have a fixed deposit out of which the interest earned was Rupees 14,000. Apart from the fixed deposit interest you also gained Rupees 23,000 from bonds on short-term capital. However, these earnings were not disclosed to your employer and they were not considered under your taxable income. Considering that you fall under the 20% tax bracket, your actual tax liability on the two incomes will be Rupees 7,400. The reason why it is important to pay the taxes as sooner as possible is that there will be an accumulation of interest on unpaid tax.

The Ideal Time to Pay Self-Assessment Tax

SAT is usually paid at the end of a financial year once it is over, however, there is no due date or a specific date for paying SAT. In order to avoid the interest payment on the tax amount, it is ideally advisable to pay the due tax at the earliest, instead of waiting until the time of filing for returns.

The Procedure to Pay Self-Assessment Tax

There are two ways to pay self-assessment tax; offline and online.

Offline Procedure

• Payment must be made at one’s designated branches of banks which are affiliated with the income tax department.
• Fill challan 280 as mandated.
• Collect the challan receipts and check to make sure that the acknowledgment contains your Challan Information Number (CIN).

Online Procedure

• To pay the SAT online go to the official website of the Income Tax Department.
• Login with your credentials and select the ‘e-Pay taxes’ option.
• You will be directed to the website of National Securities Depository Ltd.
• Select ‘challan no. ITNS 280’.
• Then choose ‘(0021) Income tax (other than companies)’.
• Fill in details like Permanent Account Number, address, name, and contact details.
• Select the preferred assessment year for which the payment will be made.
• In the option ‘type of payment’, select ‘(300) Self-Assessment Tax’.
• Choose your bank from the drop down.
• Enter the figures for the payable tax and pay.
• Online payment for SAT is allowed only through Net banking (debit card payment is only applicable for Indian Bank and SBI account holders)
• On successful payment of the tax, a challan counterfoil will be displayed.
• The counterfoil will have the CIN, payment details and the name of the bank through which you paid.
• Take a print-out of the acknowledgment for future verifications.

The payment made on SAT is usually reflected in your Form 26AS within 2-3 days of the payment. In case the payment is not reflected then produce the details of the challan while filing Income tax return.

Determining the Tax Payable for Self-Assessment

For individuals who have paid the taxes before the assessment date, to calculate the interest amount, the following two processes will be considered

• The due amount of advance tax will be considered for computing the interest to be paid upon self-assessment tax.
• After self-assessment tax amount is deducted from the advance tax amount, the resultant will be considered for calculating the taxes, from the date the payment for self-assessment tax has been made.

Follow the given procedure to calculate self-assessment tax

• Calculate the taxable amount which is payable on your total income with the help of the income tax slabs which you can access online.
• Add the interest which is payable under Section 234A/234B/234C.
• After the amount is added, deduct the relief amount from the total (as per Section 90/90A/90).
• Under Section, 115JAA subtract the MAT Credit amount.
• Then deduct the advance tax amount.

This process will determine the taxable amount of the self-assessment tax payable on your income tax.