Did Clear just tell people, ‘Don’t file income tax’?

By leveraging the power of print, ClearTax made India wake up to a shock.

Clear (formerly ClearTax) has rolled out a number of ads to showcase the ease and convenience of filing income tax returns (ITR) over the last few days. However, in a recent ad, Clear, by leveraging the power of print, tells people, ‘Don’t file income tax’.

The ad is published on the front page of The Times of India. Since the last date for filing taxes for the financial year 2021-22 is July 31, most people tend to file at the last minute.

The ad is written in a quirky way. ‘Don’t file income tax’ is written in bold letters to grab the attention of readers. Below it is a line in small font size that reads, ‘… on the last day’. The line is followed by a QR code scanner, with a tagline that says, ‘tax filing in minutes’.

The scanner takes the users to Cleartax.in website, which says ‘File IT Return by yourself in 3min’. Through this ad, the brand aims to amplify its message of completing the complex process in just three minutes, with minimal manual data entry. This ad provides users with the easiest and quickest way to file taxes.

Clear’s last campaign highlighted the simplified process of filing taxes through its pre-fill solution.

Srivatsan Chari, co-founder, Clear, stated that the company wanted to emphasise on the different aspects of filing taxes that the company has automated.

"The main brief is that to file your tax, you don't need tax knowledge as such. The complex math is being done at the back-end and the process is intuitive. This is the value proposition that we wanted to communicate."

Chari added that the biggest challenge, when it comes to filing taxes, is knowledge. Many people don't understand the different tax filing clauses and how to deal with them.