How to File Your ITR on Quicko: A Step-by-Step Walkthrough

What actually happens when you file your ITR on Quicko

Filing on Quicko means connecting your income sources first, reviewing a fully computed tax summary, and only then submitting your return to the Income Tax Department, e-verifying it in the same session. It isn't a black box: every number Quicko shows you traces back to a specific screen and a specific piece of data you gave it or that it pulled from a government source. Here's what that process actually looks like, step by step.

Step 1: Sign up and connect your data sources

Quicko asks you to sign up and, if you're a trader or investor, prompts you to connect a broker account for automatic profit-and-loss import. If your broker isn't on the supported list, you can instead upload the same tax P&L statement your broker already generates for you (most Indian brokers provide this as a downloadable report).

You don't need to pay anything at this stage. You can fill in your entire return and see the computed numbers, then decide about payment once you're ready to actually submit. There's no reason to commit money before you've seen what you owe.

Step 2: Salary details get pre-fetched

If your employer has filed the relevant TDS returns, Quicko pulls in your salary details automatically rather than asking you to type in every figure from your Form 16. Worth checking anyway: compare the pre-fetched gross salary, TDS, and exemptions against your actual Form 16 before moving on, since prefilled data can occasionally lag if your employer's TDS filing was delayed.

Step 3: Capital gains import from your broker

This is where Quicko's automation is most useful. Instead of manually entering every stock or mutual fund sale, it reads your broker's tax P&L report and classifies each transaction into short-term or long-term capital gains automatically, applying the correct holding-period rules.

For equity and equity mutual funds, gains held 12 months or less are taxed at 20% under Section 111A, and gains held longer are taxed at 12.5% under Section 112A, with the first ₹1.25 lakh of long-term gains exempt each financial year (ClearTax, Long-Term Capital Gains Tax). Quicko applies this exemption automatically in its computation. See how mutual fund capital gains are actually taxed for a full breakdown with a worked example.

Step 4: Interest and other income

Under an "Other Incomes" section, Quicko shows categories like savings account interest, fixed deposit interest, and dividend income. Some of it is pre-filled from the government's Annual Information Statement (AIS), and some requires manual entry. Before trusting any of it blindly, it's worth understanding what AIS actually contains and where it can lag.

A genuinely useful habit here: don't just accept whatever figure is pre-filled. It's common for a small, easy-to-forget fixed deposit with a non-bank finance company to show up automatically that you'd genuinely forgotten about. That's a good reminder that AIS-linked prefill can catch things your own memory won't, but it should still be cross-checked against your actual bank/AMC statements rather than trusted blindly.

Step 5: Reviewing Tax Credits and TDS

Once your income is entered, Quicko shows a summary: total tax liability, tax already credited (via TDS), and the net amount due or refundable. Any tax deducted at source by a bank or employer shows up here automatically, sourced from your Form 26AS, so you don't need to hunt down and manually enter every TDS certificate.

Step 6: Loss adjustment and carry-forward

If you have brought-forward losses from previous years, Quicko has a dedicated section showing how much gets set off against this year's income, and how much continues to carry forward. This part is genuinely worth reading carefully rather than skimming. Loss carry-forward rules have specific time limits (for example, non-speculative business losses can be carried forward for 8 assessment years, while speculative business losses are limited to 4), and getting the classification wrong can mean losing the ability to use a loss you're entitled to.

Step 7: Paying any tax due

If the summary shows tax due (rather than a refund), Quicko gives you the option to pay directly through its own interface or via the government's e-Pay Tax service. Both ultimately route to the same government payment system, so it's a matter of convenience, not a functional difference. Either way, you'll get a payment receipt with a BSR code, challan serial number, and date, which becomes part of your return.

Step 8: Final review and submission

Before submitting, Quicko shows a full computation summary: gross total income, deductions, tax at slab rates versus special rates (like capital gains), rebates, surcharge, cess, and the final amount payable or refundable. This is worth reading in full rather than clicking through, since it's your last chance to catch a mismatched number before it becomes part of an official filing.

Step 9: Submit and e-verify

Submitting sends your return to the Income Tax Department and generates an acknowledgement number immediately. But submission alone isn't the finish line. You still need to e-verify, typically through Aadhaar OTP, net banking, or an Electronic Verification Code. If you don't verify within the required window (30 days from submission), your return is treated as not filed at all, regardless of whether you clicked submit.

Is it worth using a platform like Quicko instead of typing everything into the government portal yourself?

It depends on how much your return involves data that a platform can automate for you. If most of your income is a straightforward salary with a couple of interest entries, the difference is small. If you have multiple capital gains transactions across mutual funds or stocks, automatic import genuinely saves meaningful manual data entry compared with typing each transaction into the government's own forms by hand. For the general, platform-independent version of the filing process, see how to file your income tax return step by step.