Include interest from FDs and savings accounts in your tax returns, no matter how less they are, when filing for income tax returns. 

Edited transcripts

Udayan Ray Welcome to FundooMoney web series on tax filing. We are discussing in various segments the various things that you need to know and do while for your income tax.

Now, during the course of the year, you are investing fixed deposits and (there are) savings accounts, and you earn interest income. How does that get treated in a tax return? Most of the time, there are people like me and many others, who end up forgetting some of the earnings they make from banks and other places, especially interest.

To help us appreciate some of the aspects that one needs to keep in mind while filing for taxes, we have with us eminent financial expert Swami Saran Sharma. Welcome Swami!

When you are filing for taxes, the day of reckoning comes, doesn’t it? You have to account for everything, whatever little you have earned. Is that a common oversight that people slip? One small account lying somewhere and you have made some money in terms of interest. How does one go about it and what is the (tax) treatment?

Swami Saran Sharma Udayan, certainly it happens, especially in the case of savings bank account. As far as fixed deposits (FDs) are concerned, taxes are invariably deducted by the banks. So, you can’t miss it. So, when you account for your income, normally you will have download your Form 26AS, which accounts for the tax deduction at source (TDS), from wherever it is.

But in the savings bank accounts and some of the lesser used accounts one tends to forget to include the interest earned in those accounts. But ideally, one should get statements of every account one holds before filing the income tax return and account for every paisa earned in the form of interest.

Although in the savings bank account, whatever you earn, you get a special deduction of Rs 10,000, rest of the thing (income) are taxable and has to be included in “other incomes” in your tax return.

Udayan Ray Sounds good! That’s a lot of useful information. People will do well to keep this in mind. Anything that you earn has to be accounted for. It has to get reported in your income tax return.

There is a lots and lots of useful information as part of this web series which is available on leading social media platforms for us and of course, you can come and visit our website .