The salaried class might be spared from filing Income-Tax returns from next year provided there was no income from any other source.

"We are considering the proposal," Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters, but added it depended on how soon the tax department put in place the fully online Tax Information Network.

Already the government has been mandated to move towards paper-less filing of Tax Deduction at Source from this year but this has been put off by a year as TIN as not fully operational.

So at the moment both hard copies and soft copies are filed and the ultimate plan is to do away with hard TDS, he said.

The idea behind online filing of returns is to move towards paperless filing of Income Tax returns, Chidambaram said, adding the salaried class would be spared from filing returns once the system is fully in place.

However, he did not make a commitment on a timeframe.