ITR Filing Charges: What a CA Costs for Your Type of Income

A CA's fee for an income tax return depends on the kinds of income you have, not on how much you earn. At AprilTax the fixed fee is Rs 1,499 for salary or a presumptive business, Rs 2,499 once capital gains are added, and Rs 2,999 for F&O or crypto. Filing it yourself on the government portal costs nothing.

Why does the fee change with your type of income?

Why did your colleague pay less than you? Because each kind of income brings its own work.

• Salary. Form 16 and the AIS (Annual Information Statement, the department's record of income reported against your PAN) cover most of it.
• Capital gains. Every sale of shares, funds or property needs a purchase cost, a holding period and the right tax rate. It moves you to ITR-2, a longer form.
• F&O and crypto. Futures and options are business income, so the return becomes ITR-3 with a profit and loss account. Crypto has its own schedule and its own rules.
• Business. On presumptive tax (a fixed share of turnover is taken as profit, under section 44AD or 44ADA) the work is light: turnover, TDS and bank details. With books of account, it is a full set of accounts.
• NRI. Your residential status has to be worked out first. ITR-1 and ITR-4 are for residents only, and tax treaty relief may come in.
• Updated return. A return filed after all normal dates carries additional tax of 25% or more of the tax and interest, and the earlier year has to be rebuilt from old records.

Not sure which form you fall in? Start with which ITR form to file.

What does AprilTax charge?

These are AprilTax's own fixed fees for one year's return, as listed on our services page on 12 Nov 2026.

The list has no fixed fee for NRI returns, updated returns or a business with regular books. For those, ask for the fee before you share documents. Sellers can read what their return involves in ITR for online sellers.

What do other CAs charge?

There is no official price list. The nearest thing is the minimum scale of fees that the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) recommends to its members. As reported by Taxscan in July 2024, it suggests Rs 8,000 and above for an individual's return with salary and other income in the largest cities, Rs 6,000 in mid-sized cities and Rs 4,000 in smaller ones. The scale is advisory. Many CAs and online services charge less, and complex returns cost more.

What should the fee include?

Before you pay anyone, ask whether the fee covers these:

1. Choosing the form and the tax regime, with the tax shown under both.
2. Matching your income and TDS with Form 26AS and the AIS.
3. The capital gains or trading working, not only the final figure.
4. A draft computation for you to approve before filing.
5. Filing, and a reminder to e-verify within 30 days.
6. What happens if a notice or a correction follows, and what that costs.

Can you file it yourself for free?

Yes. The e-filing portal at incometax.gov.in lets you file online without a filing charge. Its guide tells you to check your AIS and Form 26AS against your own records before you submit.

Self-filing suits you if you have salary, up to two houses and bank interest, and your Form 16 agrees with the AIS. A seller with one marketplace and a margin above 6% can manage ITR-4 too. Pay for help when you have capital gains from many trades, F&O, crypto, a loss to carry forward, foreign income or a late return.

A worked example

Rohan earns a salary of Rs 11,00,000. This year he switched two mutual funds and made a short-term gain of Rs 40,000. That single gain rules out ITR-1, so he needs ITR-2. At AprilTax that is the Salary + capital gains plan at Rs 2,499. His sister Asha has only salary and interest. She files ITR-1 herself and pays nothing.

Now the cost of a slip. If Rohan files late, the late fee is Rs 5,000 because his income is above Rs 5 lakh. A revised return filed after 31 December also carries a fee from this year: Rs 1,000 or Rs 5,000. See belated return filing for the dates.

The mistake people usually make

They pick the cheapest plan instead of the right one. A salaried person with a few share sales buys a salary-only plan, the gain is left out, and the AIS shows it anyway. The second mistake is comparing prices without comparing what is included. Tell the CA every income you had, then compare fees.

Frequently asked questions

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