Income Tax - Major push towards new tax regime

I'm in the process of completing my tax filing. I believe most of the other people would have also done it or have plans to do it. We still have one more month to complete the tax filing. Due to the advantages I have, I have opted for the old tax regime. I have several benefits in my office, and in addition to that, I have other exemptions that I can claim. Ever since the new tax regime was introduced, I have had some confusion on whether to pick the new one or stick to the old tax regime.

I have remained with the old tax regime due to these benefits. Till last year, everything was smooth, and I was able to file my income tax returns easily and all by myself. But this year, when I sat down to complete this, I noticed that the website has changed a lot, and the tax department is asking a lot of questions if we are opting for the old tax regime. I spent about 2 hours understanding what I should be doing. But overall, I understood that there is a major push happening towards a new tax regime.

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I appreciate the government initiative on this because having a standard tax regime is very good because it is easy for the government to maintain. I agree that the old tax regime has a lot of benefits, and that, too, sometimes it can get confusing. People who don't have experience might find it hard to file income tax returns all by themselves. About 13 years back the website was even very bad, and it was missing a lot of features. We had to file returns only through an experienced individual or a tax filing firm. The website has improved a lot now.

In the old tax regime, for every benefit that we choose, the government is asking a lot of questions just to filter out people who can easily cheat by providing false information. They have linked with many third party services, and based on the information we provide they can now validate the information and reject it. This is a good thing, but a little annoying for the people who are genuine and would like to continue using the old tax regime. Some of my friends have already picked a new tax regime and moved there. The extra amount that we might have to pay in the new tax regime is okay for them because it avoids proof submission and lots of hassle.

I realized that I have to submit proofs both in my office to get the benefits and also to the tax department when I file income tax returns. After spending a few hours, I found out what I have to do to complete filing returns but it may not be easy for everyone and my wild guess is that everyone would start thinking about switching to the new tax regime, and that's what the government is also expecting to do. This year mostly I will manage to use the old tax regime, and from next year onwards, I might switch to the new tax regime as it can save a lot of time for me.

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