Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Income Tax efiling utility and DSC working on Ubuntu Linux.

I am using Linux since Sep 2004 and Ubuntu since July 2005. I was forced to use Windows for Bank of Baroda Netbanking and efiling of Income Tax Return.

Bank of Baroda changed in 2012 and I could use Chromium Browser with JRE 7 on Ubuntu.

Income Tax efiling utility worked only on Windows besides the Digital Signature upload and signing.

Since last two years my CA prepares the xml file of the Income Tax Return but last year I had to use Windows for uploading the xml file using Digital Signatures.

On going through Downloads on Income Tax efiling website I find that besides Excel utility there is Java utility which is having following instructions in Readme.txt
To run in LINUX
Change the ITR.sh file's permission, provide execution permission by executing the following command
> chmod 755 ITR.sh                
run using the command "sh ITR.sh" or ./ITR.sh


This year I find that I could use Firefox with latest JRE 7 on Ubuntu for uploading and signing the Digital Signatures (DSC).

Thanks to the demise of Windows XP, the Income Tax Department had to switch to latest JRE 7 which works on Windows 7/8 as well as Ubuntu 12.04.

Creating signed Form 15H file using pdftk and Drive app.

 I had invested in NCDs because there was no TDS on interest income on NCD. But from the current FY 2023-24 there is TDS on interest on NCD....