ITR Form Selector

The ITR form you file is not a matter of preference — the Income Tax Department maps each form to a specific profile of taxpayer, and using the wrong one can get your return marked defective, delay your refund, or invite a notice. The form is determined by who you are (resident individual, HUF, firm, company), how you earned your income (salary, house property, capital gains, business, other sources), how much you earned, and a handful of specific flags such as holding unlisted shares or being a director in a company. For the vast majority of individual filers, the relevant choice is among four forms, and the logic that separates them is strict and rule-based rather than discretionary.

ITR-1, called Sahaj, is the simplest return and is meant for a resident individual with income up to ₹50 lakh from salary or pension, one house property, and other sources like interest — nothing more complicated. The moment your situation includes capital gains, a second house property, agricultural income above ₹5,000, foreign income or assets, directorship in a company, or holdings of unlisted equity shares, ITR-1 is no longer available and you move up to ITR-2. ITR-2 handles all of those situations for individuals and HUFs who do not have any business or professional income. Once business or professional income enters the picture, the choice shifts again — to ITR-3 for income taxed under the normal provisions, or to ITR-4 (Sugam) when you opt for the presumptive taxation schemes under Sections 44AD (small business), 44ADA (professionals), or 44AE (goods carriages).

The reason a dedicated selector helps is that these rules interact in ways that are easy to get wrong. Presumptive income usually means ITR-4 — but ITR-4 carries its own disqualifiers, so a freelancer who uses presumptive taxation yet also sold shares for a capital gain, or whose income crossed ₹50 lakh, is pushed back to ITR-3. Likewise a salaried person who assumes ITR-1 fits may be disqualified simply by holding unlisted shares in a startup or by being a company director. This tool encodes those interactions, so instead of reading the eligibility table for every form you answer plain questions about your year and get the right form with the specific reasons it applies.

Tell us your residential status. The forms in this tool apply to resident individuals and HUFs. If you are a non-resident or not-ordinarily-resident, the simplest forms (ITR-1 and ITR-4) are not available to you, and the tool will steer you toward ITR-2 or ITR-3 — but non-resident taxation has additional rules, so treat the result as a starting point and confirm with a tax professional.

Answer the income-source questions. Indicate whether you have salary or pension, how many house properties you earn from, whether you had any capital gains, and whether you earned business or professional income during the year. These are the primary drivers of the form choice — capital gains or a second house rules out ITR-1, and any business income moves you to ITR-3 or ITR-4.

Flag the special cases. A few specific situations override the simple path: income above ₹50 lakh, agricultural income above ₹5,000, being a director in a company, holding unlisted equity shares, or having foreign income or assets. Each of these disqualifies the simpler forms, so the tool asks them explicitly rather than letting you assume ITR-1 or ITR-4 still fits.

If you have business income, tell us whether it is presumptive. Presumptive taxation under Sections 44AD, 44ADA, or 44AE lets eligible small businesses and professionals declare income at a prescribed rate and file the short ITR-4 (Sugam). If you use one of these schemes and have no other disqualifier, the tool recommends ITR-4; if you also have capital gains, foreign assets, or income over ₹50 lakh, it correctly falls back to ITR-3.

Read the recommended form and its reasons, then verify. The result card names your form, explains why it fits, and lists which simpler forms were ruled out and on what grounds. Use that as your guide, then confirm on the income-tax e-filing portal — which selects the form for you during filing — and consult a chartered accountant if any part of your situation is unusual. After you know your form, the Income Tax Calculator and the 80C/80D Tax-Saver Planner below help you work out what you actually owe.