How I Automated ITR Document Preparation With 40 Lines of Python

My chartered accountant called me last week. Five days before March 31. His voice had that familiar panic — the same tone every CA in India carries between February and March. He needed my ITR documents. Form 16. AIS data. Twelve months of bank statements. The usual March-end package. I told him to check his email. My script had already sent everything. There was a long pause on the other end. Then: "What script?" I explained that I had written a 40-line Python script that automatically pulls my Form 16, downloads my AIS (Annual Information Statement) data, grabs twelve months of bank statements from my bank's portal, formats everything exactly the way he likes it, and emails him the complete package every March. No manual downloads. No PDF renaming. No forgetting that one statement from August. His response surprised me. He did not say "nice" or "that's cool." He said something far more interesting. "Can you build this for my other 200 clients?" That single conversation crystallised s