“No honest taxpayer should be harassed.” Start with the ITR forms

"No honest #taxpayer should be harassed."
Sounds great. Can we start by simplifying #ITR forms!

I spent a good part of my Sunday filing ITRs for myself and my wife.

Could I have outsourced it? Yes!
Did I do it myself? Also Yes!

Every year I convince myself that this year will be smoother.
Every year the #IncomeTax Department proves me wrong.

Completing the Indian capital gains was relatively simpler; blame it on the muscle memory or fewer transactions this year.

It was the #ForeignAsset schedules that really frustrated me!

At times, it genuinely feels like the system assumes you've committed a crime because you received some #RSUs or invested outside India.

The same information gets asked multiple times across different schedules.

Why? I have no idea!

The Bulk upload utility frustrated me the most!
The date format shown in the UI is:
DD-MMM-YYYY
The date format expected in the upload sheet is:
YYYY-MM-DD

In India, neither of the two formats is commonly used; Why this #Kolavari?
But #WhoCares!

The irony is that the government already knows a large part of our financial life.
#AIS keeps expanding every year.
Yet taxpayers are still expected to manually reconcile, cross-check, verify, re-verify, and pray that they haven't missed something buried in a schedule.
And if something goes wrong?
The responsibility remains entirely yours.

By the end of the exercise, you're not left feeling like a taxpayer.
You're left feeling like an auditor investigating yourself.

Next year, I might just outsource the entire thing to a professional or an AI bot.

Not because I can't do it.
Because my Sunday is worth more than this.

The #FinanceMinister can promise a taxpayer-friendly regime.
But the real test is simple:
Can a reasonably educated taxpayer file a correct return without frustration?

Based on my experience this year...
We still have a long way to go.

#MoneyMinusNoise: The hardest part about paying taxes in India isn't paying them. It's proving, repeatedly, that you've paid them correctly.

Have you filed your ITR? Have you outsourced it or filed on your own? What has been your experience?