Archit from ClearTax here. We are working very hard on creating a new product for freelancers and businesses.
Following is for the freelancer / business scenario:
We have to invent the interfaces, the design language, while making sure people can deal with tax concepts and pay appropriate tax. There are difficult concepts like depreciation which need careful handling.
Our freelancer / smb version of taxes will dramatically simplify life for self preparation.
Imagine an ITR-4S equivalent for freelancers which we are creating.
Note that a good CA can help you and come out ahead of software because of the complexity involved. But we hope to make software good enough for the services industry.
By the way, we are the makers of TaxCloudIndia.com which has 10K+ CA firms using our software. We have some of the largest CA firms using our tech. I believe a good CA can offer advisory today which software isn't able to yet.
I'm hoping to fix the "difficult to do" tag for Indian taxes with the efforts of the ClearTax team. That's our mission!
Addressing some common points in the thread: we work great for both simple and complex tax returns.
For simple tax returns: The huge improvement is zero data entry -- we'll automatically parse your Form-16 and fill out the correct tax form. We'll ask questions relevant to you. We automatically detect corner cases, mistakes, scenarios for notices and flag them for you.
We help in cases where you haven't claimed HRA, have interest income (and claim 80TTA deduction automatically for you!)
There's a lot of tax complications which self filers don't know and the Government software isn't informative and automated enough.
We end up saving taxes because our software does more. :)
It is great for us. Better APIs, more stability, clear wind behind our backs for a more digitization, more tax payers, more transparency, no middlemen, more things in white.
The Government software isn't very simple to use if you have switched jobs, have HRA to claim, or have more deductions than you have declared to the employer.
Many people miss out on deductions (such as 80TTA) which we automatically account for.
Plus we reduce data entry mistakes, and the other things I pointed out in the original comment.
The existing site is simple enough. Digital India would probably help these guys with Aadhaar auth, FACTA link for NRIs, and unified API.
The issue with IT website is not simplicity or functionality -- it is the fact that it assumes you know what you're doing. Which is simple for a nominal case, but gets increasingly complex with a diversified income sources and portfolios.
Many people find the Government tool intimidating and difficult to use. It is hard to figure out which Form to file (there is ITR-1, 2, 3, 4S, 4) and now there's a new tax form (ITR-2A) which muddies the waters further.
ClearTax identifies the correct tax form for you automatically. You upload your Form-16 (W-2 equivalent for India) and our software will automatically read everything and fill out the correct tax form within seconds. We'll take you through a simplified form which will ask basic questions and help you make progress. If you get stuck, our support team answers questions or you can buy CA assistance for complex plans.
The Government form is sufficiently complicated for Income earned from Rent (if you own a house), because it won't give you the 30% deduction (Section 24) in the ITR-1.
If you need to figure out long term or short term capital gains when you sell assets, the Government form is very very difficult to use even for experts (We have 10K+ Chartered Accountants using the professional version of ClearTax).
I truly believe that the level of cognitive complexity in the Government's tool is much higher than ClearTax.
Lakhs of users in India e-File on ClearTax because they find it simpler than the Government's tool.
I do agree that for an expert user, the tools may feel equivalent :)
ClearTax (YC S14) is hiring in New Delhi, India.
Hiring software engineers -- founders are programmers, engineering first culture.
Drop me an email: archit @ cleartax.in
ClearTax is in the unique position to shape the future of India's financial software. Software and experiences designed by us will determine how Indians e-File, save on their taxes, invest and lead simplified financial lives.
Most financial software in our country is from the 80s and stuck in legacy. Most people today have powerful smartphones in their pockets and their lives are better because of apps like WhatsApp, Google Maps and Evernote.
Simple and intuitive financial tools for taxes, accounting, payroll, invoicing, investing do not exist in our country today. We want to change this.
Our mission is to simplify every Indian's financial life.
And we'd like to invite you to join us in this mission.
We use a range of programming languages: Functional programming (F#), Java and C#, Python, Javascript. We are huge fans of brevity in code. We use both SQL and noSQL databases.
These are very nice changes. Especially the ability to write a quick lambda for named functions (or functions which are needed often).
The elvis operator is useful to. Makes me think sticking to F# will cause fewer classes of bugs that can happen in C# (the onChanged example is quite interesting).
Following is for the freelancer / business scenario:
We have to invent the interfaces, the design language, while making sure people can deal with tax concepts and pay appropriate tax. There are difficult concepts like depreciation which need careful handling.
Our freelancer / smb version of taxes will dramatically simplify life for self preparation.
Imagine an ITR-4S equivalent for freelancers which we are creating.
Note that a good CA can help you and come out ahead of software because of the complexity involved. But we hope to make software good enough for the services industry.
By the way, we are the makers of TaxCloudIndia.com which has 10K+ CA firms using our software. We have some of the largest CA firms using our tech. I believe a good CA can offer advisory today which software isn't able to yet.
I'm hoping to fix the "difficult to do" tag for Indian taxes with the efforts of the ClearTax team. That's our mission!