Bengaluru, Jan 13: Filing income tax returns is often a taxing, cumbersome process for both the salaried classes and businessmen unless a chartered accountant does the job for a price.
Doing exactly this is a Bengaluru-based startup, ClearTax that has simplified the entire process through automation. Users just need to log into the platform's website or mobile app, upload the scanned forms, complete a few simple steps and await confirmation. A process that otherwise takes hours or even a day to complete, can be accomplished in seven to eight minutes, as ClearTax founder and CEO, Archit Gupta put it.
For a majority of users, the basic filing of I-T returns remains free although products linked to tax-saving investments are charged. “Over 10 lakh out of the country's 43 million tax filers have started using this platform. Our data shows 22% of these tax returns are filed from Bengaluru,” informs Gupta. Forty different tax documents including ITR1, ITR2, ITR3 and ITR4 could be filled.
Based on the inputs provided by the user, the ClearTax software walks the user through a series of simple steps with visual cues. The I-T document is condensed into an interactive format. As and when the user answers the questions, the document is automatically filled. The questions the user has to answer relate to the nature of his/her business, the revenue and income opportunities from different sources, and expenses under various heads such as salaries, rents, insurance, and more.
Documents for salaried classes such as Form-16 could also be uploaded through ClearTax's mobile App. About 50,000 users file I-T returns on this platform. Gupta says the startup has also partnered with the Karnataka government to offer its service under the MobileOne platform. MobileOne, which brings together services of multiple state and central government departments and private service providers, has already recorded over one lakh downloads.
Being the largest emerging player in this space, ClearTax has raised over $15 million in funding over the last 12 months, Gupta informs.
ClearTax has also started work on creating a platform for Goods and Services Tax (GST), as part of a backbone system, now being readied nationwide. For businesses, this would mean simplifying the process of uploading invoices, reconciling purchases and paying all the taxes. The data will be uploaded onto the GST network system.
Comments
Add new comment