ITR preparation utility requires MS Excel versions 2010 / later-else use Java based software utility

Income Tax return preparation utility requires MS Excel versions 2010 / later, else use Java based software utility – Income Tax Department

How to use Java based software utility available for download, where taxpayer does not have MS Excel versions 2010 or later

Income Tax department has provided both Online and Offline utilities (Java and Excel Utilities) for filing income tax returns.

These both Online and Offline utilities are based on specific Technologies, functioning of the same are depended on the enhancements and deprecations made to them from time to time. Java (Supported by Oracle) and MS-Office provided by Microsoft get frequently updated and new version emerge over time.

Number of validation rules have been incorporated in the said utilities in order to receive clean XMLs with accurate Tax calculation based on the income details filled in the ITR by the Tax payers.

In Excel utility the Macros which do the validations are no longer supported in Microsoft Excel 2007 and below versions.

The Income Tax Department has listed the following accessibility issues in MS Office version lower than 2010:

1. Adding rows functionality is limited
2. Macro Compatibility issue
3. Security reasons
4. Failure of validation rules

Minimum requirement to use the Utilities is published by the Department on e-Filing portal (https://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in).

Microsoft has confirmed that Office 2007 reached end of support on October 10, 2017, which means Microsoft no longer provides technical support and security updates for it.

The Income Tax Department has advised that taxpayers who are using Microsoft excel 2007 and below version are facing difficulties for preparing the Income Tax Return using Department’s ITR Excel utility, should use Java utilities published in the e-filing portal to generate of XMLs.

How to use ITR Preparation Java Utility:

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