ClearTax

ClearTax
Type Private
Founded 2011
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Area served India
Founder(s) Archit Gupta
Key people Srivatsan Chari
Ankit Solanki
Industry Income tax in India
Parent Defmacro Software Pvt. Ltd.
Website www.cleartax.in

ClearTax is an Indian Income Tax Return e-filing website, founded by Archit Gupta in 2011. It is also the first India-focused start-up to be funded by Y-Combinator.[1] The company is headquartered in Bengaluru, India.[2]

ClearTax helps Individuals file their Tax returns online via their website. On the website, users upload their Form-16 PDF and the ClearTax software prepares the tax return automatically. ClearTax processed tax return e-filings for 300,000 individuals in assessment year 2014-15.[3] An estimated 1 million users filed their returns using the website in the assessment year 2015-16.[4]

History

ClearTax was started in 2011 by Archit Gupta along with his father Raja Ram Gupta, a Chartered Accountant. Srivatsan Chari and Ankit Solanki joined him later. Archit is an IIT Guwahati alumnus who went on pursue a master in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was also pursuing a Ph.D. but dropped out to work at Data Domain Inc., which was later acquired by EMC Corp.[5]

It was in 2010, that Archit Gupta tried to file his returns in India while working in the US. He was unable to file returns online because the IT department utility was in Microsoft Excel sheets that were not compatible with Apple Macbook back then. By 19 July 2011, the first version of the product was launched, 11 days before the tax filing season ended in India.[5]

In 2014, ClearTax was accepted into the Y Combinator Summer Batch of 2014 (YCS14) as one of 47 startups that year.[3] It was only the fourth Indian startup to be ever funded by Y Combinator and the first one to be focused on the Indian market.[6] ClearTax received seed capital of $120,000 (around Rs.73 lakh) from Y Combinator.[5]

Website

Income tax efiling
File income tax returns with ClearTax

The ClearTax website is developed for Indian taxpayers, with or without tax knowledge. Taxpayers can file income tax returns by uploading Form 16 or by preparing the income tax returns on the website. The platform has parsed thousands of Form 16s to be able to create tax returns automatically.

Apart from Form 16, ClearTax website also helps prepare other income tax return forms like ITR-2A, ITR-2, ITR-3, ITR-4S, ITR-4, ITR-5 and ITR-6 for Indian taxpayers. A taxpayer can enter tax information like other sources of income, income from capital gains, income from house property, income from business or profession apart from income from salary, to prepare the tax returns.

The website also has various tax tools for a layman.

Product and Business

ClearTax helps people e-file I-T returns by parsing the uploaded Form-16 as compared to Income Tax department’s excel/Java based software.[3]

The company offers the following products in the 'taxes' domain:

  1. ClearTax (https://cleartax.in/) - It helps to prepare & file the Income Tax Return online. It is simple to use and offers quick support when you need help.
  2. ClearTDS (https://cleartds.com/) - Prepare TDS (FVU) without installing any software. FVU stands for File Validation Utility.[7]
  3. TaxCloud (https://taxcloudindia.com/) - Web based IT Return and e-TDS Software for CAs, Accountants and Companies.

All the services on the website are free of cost, however for special assistance there are paid CA plans.

Key Partnerships

Corporate Affairs

Offices

ClearTax was bootstrapped for the first years of operation. After coming back from the Y Combinator program last July, ClearTax shifted base from Delhi to Bengaluru to attract the best talent of the country.[4] Bengaluru is also known as the Silicon Valley of India.

Team Size

The start-up currently has a team of 55 people, working out of two office, Delhi and Bengaluru. It plans to add an additional 150 employees by May 2016.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "YC-Backed ClearTax Tackles India’s Fast Growing Online Tax Filing Market". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
  2. ↑ Chengappa, Sangeetha. "ClearTax to invest ₹20 cr to support growing demand for e-filing services". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
  3. 1 2 3 "ClearTax targets India's fast growing Online Tax Filing Market — TechCrunch".
  4. 1 2 3 Chengappa, Sangeetha. "Fin-tech: ClearTax leads with 1m e-filings". The Hindu Business Line. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
  5. 1 2 3 Ghosh, Aparna. "ClearTax : Click open, file". http://www.livemint.com/. Retrieved 2016-04-05. External link in |website= (help)
  6. ↑ "ClearTax — YCombinator — NextBigWhat".
  7. ↑ "ClearTax launches TDS platform for SMBs, startups - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 2016-04-05.
  8. ↑ "ClearTax integrates with Karnataka's m-governance platform".
  9. ↑ "Tax Cloud India: ICAI Free TDS Return Software".
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