The Central Board of Direct Taxes on Friday notified new Income Tax Return forms for the assessment year 2018-’19. The tax department said it had rationalised a few fields in the latest forms, and that the process of filing the income tax returns had not been changed.

The agency said that all the forms have to be filed electronically. However, people over the age of 80 and individuals with an income less than Rs 5 lakh per year who have not claimed any returns can send in hard copies of their tax returns, provided they are filed using the ITR Form-1 (Sahaj) or ITR-4 (Sugam) form.

The new forms seek more details from taxpayers about their salary structure and income from property. Non-resident Indians, who could earlier provide details of only bank accounts held in India, are now allowed to provide details of their foreign bank accounts and claim credit or refunds. However, non-resident Indians can no longer file returns using the simple income tax return form – ITR-1 – which can now only be used by Indian residents.

Businesses that have a turnover of less than Rs 2 crore no longer need to maintain books of accounts, the tax department said. Instead, they can pay a tax on the basis of a certain percentage of their turnover. However, they have to report their goods and services tax identification number and turnover reported under goods and services tax.

“GSTIN number now has to be mentioned in ITR-4 filled by businesses and professionals claiming presumptive income,” Archit Gupta, the Chief Executive Officer of ClearTax, told the Hindustan Times. “They also have to quote gross receipts as per GST returns. It appears that the department intends to use this information to link the direct and indirect taxes paid by these businesses.” Partners in firms are now required to file returns using ITR-3 form instead of ITR-2.