Managing tax filings across different assessment years often brings unexpected details to light. When Animesh, a Pune-based IT professional, sat down to file his tax return for FY 2024–25, he expected a routine process.
However, while calculating the tax on a residential property he had sold during the year, he arrived at an alarming figure: a Long-Term Capital Gain of Rs 9,23,907, carrying a 12.5% tax liability.
Troubled by this high liability, Animesh logged directly into the government’s income tax e-filing portal to check his overall taxpayer profile, only to discover a second complication in the form of an unresolved tax demand of Rs 70,087 dating back to AY 2012–13.
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Realizing that these twin compliance challenges required specialized guidance, Aniket turned to ClearTax for assistance. ClearTax matched him with expert professionals tailored to his exact needs: CA Shubham Jain, who specializes in complex real estate transactions and property capital gains, and CA Pawan Aggarwal, a specialist in tax notice resolution.
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By leveraging ClearTax’s assisted filing services, Aniket gained direct access to dedicated domain experts alongside intelligent portal tools designed to auto-pull historical tax data and trace discrepancies effortlessly.
Upon examining Animesh’s original purchase deed, sale agreement, and payment receipts, CA Shubham Jain identified that the high tax figure came from a simple math oversight during Animesh’s initial calculation. Property math can be tricky because you have to account for the exact original purchase price, any improvement costs over the years, and how inflation adjustments apply to the final sale.
Once these numbers were factored in correctly, the revised calculation revealed that the property sale had actually resulted in a Long-Term Capital Loss rather than a taxable gain. To protect Animesh’s regular salary deductions, the CA guided him to file Form 10IEA on the portal, ensuring he officially selected the Old Tax Regime prior to submitting his final return.
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Simultaneously, CA Pawan Aggarwal investigated the decade-old demand of Rs 70,087, which comprised a principal tax component of Rs 29,360 and accumulated interest of Rs 40,727. Animesh was certain he had cleared this tax liability back in 2012 through a bank challan, a transaction that had been reflected in his Form 26AS at the time.
However, because the tax department’s portal records had never reconciled the payment, the notice remained open in the system, creating a risk that future tax refunds would be withheld. CA Pawan Aggarwal retrieved historical Form 26AS records, extracted the original Challan Identification Number from 2012, and submitted a formal online grievance along with the payment proof to enable the department to match the records and update the notice status.
Animesh’s experience offers practical insights for taxpayers navigating complex tax scenarios. First, self-calculated capital gains figures should always be verified against physical purchase and sale deeds to avoid input errors.
Second, taxpayers seeking to claim Old Tax Regime benefits must complete Form 10IEA before finalizing their returns. Finally, maintaining physical or digital records of past tax payments and Form 26AS statements provides the necessary paper trail to clear legacy portal notices efficiently.
(The author is the founder and CEO of ClearTax)
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the official policy, editorial position or views of Financial Express. The article is intended for informational purposes only and should not be construed as tax, legal or financial advice.
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This article was first uploaded on July thirty-one, twenty twenty-six, at eleven minutes past seven in the evening.
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