How should you deposit your income tax?

Most of us face this position at least once in a year. The position when our CA or lawyer or tax return preparer calls us up and asks us to deposit our tax.

And possibly everyone of us, most unwillingly either ask him to deposit tax or spill our user id and passwords to him.

Internet is full of steps to follow to deposit taxes. Income tax department and banks have simplified deposit procedure like counting numbers. But a slight fear of doing mistake always stops us from depositing on our own.

This year I deposited my tax myself. And noted down these 5 steps. Step # 2 may look a little long but it is very simple to follow.

I wish they help you too.

Step # 1 - Go to the government website and select Challan 280.

Step # 2 - After you see Challan 280 start filling it like below:

1 - Select (0021) Income Tax (Other than Companies) in tax applicable.

2 - Enter your PAN details. It is of ten digits.

3 - Select relevant Assessment Year (AY). For the period 1st April 2017 – 31st March 2018 the relevant AY is 2018-19.

4 - Enter your address.

5 - Select Type of Payment.

i) If you are paying before March 31 of year - then select (100) Advance Tax.

ii) If you are paying after March 31 of year - then select (300) Self Assessment Tax.

6 - Select the mode of payment. Both of them work good. You can select any – Net banking or Debit Card.

7 - Enter Captcha correctly in the space.

8 - Click on ‘Proceed’ button. You may have to scroll down a little. You may find proceed button tucked at left hand bottom of the screen.

Step # 3 - Clicking on proceed in challan 280 will bring you to confirm your details page.

You would see your name here. The name will have many XXX. It is just to hide your name from cheaters.

If you find everything OK, then click on "submit to the bank" button. Otherwise you may click on "edit" button and amend the details.

Clicking on "submit to bank" button would take you to your bank's website.

Step # 4 - You are at bank or debit card payment page.

You are out of government website now. You are at your bank's web page to make the tax payment.

After filling your bank log in details, you would reach to the challan page. The heading of this page will be CHALLAN No/ITNS 280.

You should fill in only amount section here. There are 6 boxes to fill. I filled only one. That is the "Tax" box. I know that it is sufficient to fill only box. If you have details for other boxes then you can fill in those too.

You don't have to write the amount of tax paid in words. It populates automatically.

Then you can click on make payment button.

Step # 5 - Check Receipt (Challan 280)

You have made the payment in step # 4.

In this step, you would see the tax receipt. This confirms the that you have paid the taxes. You should save a copy of it. You should also note down the BSR code, date of payment and challan serial number at a safe place. You can find these details on the right side of the challan.

Some bonus points:

1. You don't have to fill complete address in challan 280. You can escape by just filling city, state and pincode.
2. Unless you are paying for a demand notice received from the tax department, you don't have to select '(400) Tax on Regular Assessment.'
3. There is no box to write down tax amount in the challan 280.
4. You can't write down your name on challan. Challan populates it from your PAN. And the name is cryptic.