Income Tax Return: Do you have to disclose assets in your ITR?

To whom does this requirement apply?

Provision for disclosure of assets is applicable to taxpayers whose taxable income exceeds ₹50 lakh in a year. So small taxpayers are spared with such a high threshold limit. Since then ITR 1 And ITR 4 cannot be used by a taxpayer whose total income exceeds ₹50 lakhs, this does not apply to those submitting ITR 1 or ITR 4.

Nature of assets you need to submit in ITR:

The format of Schedule AL (Statement of Your Assets and Liabilities) for both ITR Form 2 and 3 is the same, except that ITR 3 requires you to furnish details of your interest in partnership firms, etc., where you hold any shares . property of the firm. Since the property details to be reported are to be mentioned on 31st March 2021, you are not required to furnish the details of any assets which have been disposed of during the year.

Reporting of fixed assets:

For immovable properties i.e. land and building owned by you as on March 31, 2021, you will have to provide the details of the property, its address and the cost of such property. All assets owned by you must be disclosed whether you have purchased or acquired through gift or inheritance. In case of jointly owned property, you need to furnish details regarding your share in the property. While furnishing the cost figure for a property not purchased by you and if you do not know the cost incurred by the previous owner, and to play safe, in my opinion, you shall disclose the fair market value of the property as on 1st April can do. 2001, which is accepted by the Income Tax Department for capital gains calculation in cases of assets acquired before 1st April 2001. If the property was acquired later, you can obtain a valuation report and state that value. Alternatively, you can state the stamp duty value on the date of acquisition or stamp duty assessment of the property as on 1st April 2001 in which it came into your ownership.

If you have not got possession of the under-construction property, you need not furnish the details of such property as an under-construction property is not a building. However, to be safe, the total amount paid to the builder can be included under loans and advances.

Movable Property Details:

Items to be disclosed under movable assets include various financial assets such as cash in hand, balances with banks, investments in shares and securities, insurance policies, loans and advances, and other movable assets such as jewellery, bullion, vehicles, yachts. , boats and planes, works of art etc by 31 March 2021.

Taxpayers who are engaged in any business or profession and maintain books of accounts are required to submit the balance sheet of their business in ITR 3. Such taxpayers have to furnish the details of properties which are not already involved in their business. Balance sheet being submitted in ITR.

As discussed in the context of immovable properties above, for properties not paid by you, the same principle can be followed for all movable properties. You are required to disclose details of bullion as well as jewelery held in the form of bars and coins. For bank balance, you have to give details of not only the savings account but also the balance in any type of bank account. So make sure to include balance in Recurring Deposit, Fixed Deposit, PPF Account, Senior Citizen Savings Account. Disclose the balance for home loan overdraft or any overdraft account if it has a positive balance as on March 31, 2021.

As far as the value to be disclosed for insurance policies is concerned for traditional life insurance policies, you can consider them as investments, but pure term insurance plans cannot be treated as insurance in my opinion Because in term plan there is no survival benefit and if you survive till the term nothing of the insurance is paid. But as discrimination has been done for different insurance policies and to be on the safe side, I would urge you to furnish for disclosure purposes the total premiums paid till 31st March 2021 for all life insurance policies. For disclosure of vehicles, this would include not only motor cars but also two wheelers, boats, boats, aircraft etc. For the vehicle not in use and either discarded or maintained as antiques, you must include them here for disclosure purpose. Please note that you must also disclose the cost for any antiques.

The list of immovable properties is not exhaustive and certain properties like balance in provident fund account, NPS, retirement account etc., balance with post offices, cooperative societies etc. are not required to be disclosed in ITR.

If there is any liability in respect of any of the assets included above the value of the liability, the same also needs to be disclosed under the head Liabilities. So if you have taken a home loan, you need to add the value of the loan outstanding as on 31st March 2021 in the liabilities.

Balwant Jain is a Tax and Investment Specialist and can be contacted here jainbalwant@gmail.com and @jainbalwant on Twitter.