Your CA sees your Form 26AS and your documents — not your life. The expensive filing mistakes are rarely computational; they are omissions of things only you know: the FD you broke mid-year, the property you sold in another city, the crypto experiment, the second bank account that never made it to the folder. This page is the five-item checklist to hand over before filing — for salaried filers and freelancers alike.
The handover checklist
Five items, each with what to bring and the notice it prevents. Every item is information only you hold — the CA's tools start from your documents.
View the numbers as a table
| Item | What to hand over | The notice it prevents |
|---|---|---|
| All accounts | Every bank/demat/wallet, incl. closed + broken FDs | Unreported interest flagged by AIS |
| All asset moves | Property, gold, shares, MFs, crypto, ESOPs, unlisted | High-value mismatches |
| Regime math | Actual rent, interest, insurance numbers | Wrong-regime TDS and a filing-year surprise |
| Loss inventory | Statements with holding-period breakdown | Vanished carry-forward; wrong set-off |
| Non-income inflows | Gifts, inheritances, loans, transfers | Automated large-transaction questions |
Current-law mechanics referenced as of 29 October 2026; situation-specific advice belongs with your CA.
1. Every account that moved money this year
List all bank accounts, demat accounts, and wallets — including the one you opened for a referral and closed, and the savings account that pays ₹4,000 of interest you never noticed. Savings-bank interest is taxable (the ₹10,000 exemption under Section 80TTA/80TTB belongs to the old regime), and the AIS now tells the department about interest the bank reported even if you didn't. The same list applies to FDs broken mid-year — premature withdrawal changes the interest computation and the TDS. The fix is thirty seconds of honesty: hand over the list, let the CA reconcile it against the Annual Information Statement.
2. Every asset you bought or sold
Property, gold jewellery, equity shares, mutual funds, crypto/VDA transactions, ESOPs vested or sold, unlisted shares. Each has its own holding-period and rate mechanics (our tax hub keeps the current table), and each appears in the AIS through its own reporting channel. ESOPs deserve special mention: the perquisite shows in Form 16 only if the employer processed it — if you got ESOPs from a startup that hasn't, the tax still exists and the deferral rules apply only where they apply. Crypto gains are taxed at their own flat rate with no set-off of losses — telling the CA about the loss you "harvested" in VDAs prevents a filing that creates a notice instead.
3. Your regime decision — computed, not assumed
The new-vs-old regime choice is annual, and the right answer changes with rent, home-loan interest, and family deductions (the mechanics are on our FY27 page). The salaried filer's deadline is structural: the regime must be intimated to the employer for TDS, but the final choice at filing can differ — which is exactly why the comparison must be run before both. Tell the CA your actual numbers (rent paid, interest certificates, insurance premiums) rather than last year's answer.
4. The losses you're carrying — and the ones you forgot
Capital losses carry forward for eight assessment years — but only if the return is filed by the due date, and only if they were actually reported. The demat statement from three years ago that showed a ₹40,000 loss you didn't bother reporting is a vanished asset now. Same for business losses, and the set-off rules (short-term vs long-term, speculative vs non-speculative) are exactly the thing a CA gets right when told early. Hand over the loss statements with the holding-period breakdown, not a summary number.
5. The money that isn't income but looks like it
Gifts from specified relatives, inheritances, loan proceeds, the sale proceeds that moved between your own accounts — all legitimately large AIS entries that generate automated questions when unexplained. The department's system matches amounts, not intentions; your CA's job is to disclose the transaction and attach its character. The family settlement, the daughter's wedding gift from grandparents, the loan from your brother — each is fine, each is disclosable, and each is cheaper to explain than to have questioned.
The deadline discipline that makes all five work
The five items above are worth their value only if they reach the CA before the filing, not before the last date. Advance tax instalments (mid-June, September, December, March) are where freelancers and option-traders actually bleed — interest under Sections 234B/234C runs on shortfalls, and it is avoidable with a July projection rather than a March apology. Put the CA call in the calendar for the week after each advance-tax date, not the week before the filing deadline. The mistake that costs more than the tax saved is almost always a timing mistake.
Educational content, not financial advice. The mechanics referenced (AIS matching, carry-forward windows, advance-tax dates, VDA set-off rules, ESOP treatment) are current-law summaries verified on our tax pages as of 29 October 2026; specifics of your situation belong with your CA. This page is the handover checklist, not the advice.