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Error in challan : New mechanism for correction

with 2 comments

Deposit of TDS can be made either electronically or by a physical challan. e-Payment of tax is mandatory for companies and others covered under mandatory tax audit. Several times, while depositing tax, errors may creep in. To rectify these errors, income-tax department has issued new guidelines effective 01-09-2011.

This new mechanism allows Banks to correct physical challans only.For correction in electronic challan, request will have to be made to Assessing Officer.

Correction in Physical Challans

What fields can be corrected by bank

  • Assessment Year
  • Major Head Code
  •  Minor Head Code
  •  TAN/PAN
  •  Total Amount
  •  Nature of payment (TDS Codes)

What is the time frame for correction request ?

  • Request for correction has to be made within 7 days of deposit of challan for correction in PAN, TAN and Assessment Year
  • For Major head, minor head and nature of payment, request can be made within 3 months of deposit of challan.

What is the remedy available after time frame is over ?

  • After lapse of time frame, request can be made to the Assessing Officer.

What is the time frame given to bank to carry out correction?

  • After receipt of request, bank must carry out the correction within 7 days

What are other conditions for correction ?

  • Correction in name is not allowed
  • Any combination of correction of Minor Head and Assessment Year together is not allowed
  • PAN/TAN correction will be allowed only when the name in the challan
    matches with the name as per the new PAN/TAN.
  • The change of amount will be permitted only on the condition that the
    amount so corrected is not different from the amount actually received by the bank and credited to Govt. Account.
  • For a single challan, correction is allowed only once. However, where 1st
    correction request is made only for amount, a 2nd correction request will be allowed for correction in other fields.
  • There will be no partial acceptance of change correction request, i.e. either all the requested changes will be allowed, if they pass the validation, or no change will be allowed, if any one of the requested changes fails the validation test.

What is the procedure for requesting correction ?

  • The tax-payer has to submit the request form for correction (in duplicate) to the concerned bank branch.
  •  The tax-payer has to attach copy of original challan counterfoil.
  •  In case of correction desired for challans in Form 280, 282, 283, the copy of PAN card is required to be attached.
  •  In case of correction desired for payments made by a tax-payer (other than an individual), the original authorization with seal of the non-individual taxpayer is required to be attached with the request form.
  •  A separate request form is to be submitted for each challan.

Correction in Electronic Challans

  • For correction in electronic challans and for correction after the time period for application to bank lapses, a written request in prescribed format has to be made to the Assessing Officer
  • Assessing Officer has power to rectify the error , in bona fide cases, to enable credit of tax to assessee

What is form of application to bank ?

income-tax department has given a format in which application can be made to the bank. The form is given in pdf format below

Bank Letter

Written by fastfactsindia

September 9, 2011 at 3:23 PM

TDS Default Notices : How to avoid Interest Defaults

with 26 comments

Each e-TDS statement is processed by TIN and defaults are put on web site for deductors to rectify.

In this article, we will examine what is default on account of interest and how it can be avoided

When is interest payable ?

As per income-tax , interest is payable under the following two circumstances

  1. Tax is not deducted , when it was deductible
  2. Tax once deducted, is not paid on or before  due date

When tax is to be deducted

At the time of credit or payment, whichever is earlier
193- Interest on securities
194A- Interest Other than “Interest on securities”
194C- Payment to contractors / sub contractors
194D – Insurance commission
194H – Commission or Brokerage
194G- Commission on sale of lottery tickets
194I- Rent
194J- Professional or technical fees
Before making payment or distribution
194- Dividend
At the time of payment
192- Salaries
194B- Winning from lotteries / crossword puzzles
194BB Winnings from horse races
194EE – Payment from National Saving Scheme
194F Payment for repurchase of units by UTI / mutual funds
194LA: Payment of compensation on acquisition of certain immovable property

What is the Due date of deposit of TDS ?

  • All the TDS deductions made during a month are to be paid on or before7th of the next month. Example : All deductions made during April ,must be paid on or before May 7th, 2010.In case 7th of the month happens to be a Sunday or a bank holiday, then the payment can be made on the next business day.
  • Beginning FY 2010-11 ,for deductions made during the month of March, payment must be made on or before 30th April.

What is the rate of interest ?

W.e.f 01-07-2010

  • From the date when TDS was deductible till date of actual deduction,rate of interest is 1% p.m.
  • For delayed deposit, from date of deduction till actual date of payment, rate of interest is 1.5% p.m

Prior to 01-07-2010

  • From FY 2006-07 onwards for delayed deposit, from date of deduction till actual date of payment, rate of interest is 1.0% p.m

What is the due date of payment  of interest ?

Interest must be calculated and paid before filing of eTDS statement of the quarter.

Quarter 1 Jul-15
Quarter 2 Oct-15
Quarter 3 Jan-15
Quarter 4 May-15

How is interest to be calculated ?

  • Interest is to be calculated for every month or part of a month comprised
    in a period, any fraction of a month shall be deemed to be a full month
  • The amount of tax, penalty or other sum in respect of which such interest
    is to be calculated shall be rounded off to the nearest multiple of one
    hundred rupees and for this purpose any fraction of one hundred rupees
    shall be ignored and the amount so rounded off shall be deemed to be the
    amount in respect of which the interest is to be calculated.

Of course, those using TdsPac software from Fast Facts need not worry. Automatic and accurate calculation of interest is available in single click.

Example of Interest Calculation

Date Of Payment Date of Deduction Due Date Date of Deposit Delayed Deposit Delayed Deduction
Months Rate Months Rate
05/04/2010 05/04/2010 07/05/2010 09/05/2010 2 1% - -
10/04/2010 10/04/2010 07/05/2010 09/05/2010 1 1% - -
02/07/2010 04/08/2010 07/09/2010 07/09/2010 - - 2 1%
02/07/2010 04/08/2010 07/09/2010 15/09/2010 2 1.50% 2 1%

Avoiding Interest Default

To avoid interest default

  • Deduct tax at source in time
  • Deposit TDS by due date
  • In case of delayed deduction / deposit ,calculate interest and deposit the same
  • Show such interest properly in eTDS statement

Rectifying Interest Default

  • You may download default notices after logging into your TAN account.
  • Default Notice is a plain excel sheet without any password protection
  • If there is any default on account of non-payment or short  payment of interest, you need to pay up the same
  • After paying , you have to  file correction statement by including the interest payment challan.

Written by fastfactsindia

August 31, 2011 at 6:14 PM

Processing of eTDS Statement Begins

with 3 comments

Income tax department has started processing of each and every eTDS statement in terms of section 200A. If there is any default, the same is available in the TIN web site.

How to view the defaults

  • Visit www.tin-nsdl.com
  • Login->TAN
  • Click “Default”
  • You will be able to view a table containing Financial Year, Form No, Quarter and a link to download file containing defaults

File format

  • If the number of records is small, the file is in Excel format and without any password
  • If the number of records is very large, the file is ^ delimited text file and a format is given.

Various defaults

  • The file contains three type of defaults
  • Short Deduction
  • Short Payment
  • Late Payments
  • Each of the above is discussed in details

Analysis done by Fast Facts

Fast Facts team has done detailed analysis of several notices and the findings are given below for the benefit of our readers.

Late Payment Cases

  • For each deductee record, date of deduction is displayed
  • Due Date  is  worked out based on Provision and Non-Provision transactions
  • Late Payment interest amount is calculated as per provisions of income-tax Act and Rules
  • There is a column “Interest on Late Payment of Interest” , which is not filled. Possibly in future , this will also be calculated and shown
  • If any amount of Interest is paid thru challans, the same is deducted from total interest and remaining amount is shown

Short Deduction Cases

  • Short deduction = Amount deductible as per Tax Rate Flag Less Amount deducted
  • For a deduction record “Tax Rate Flag” is shown as follows

“P” – Tax deducted at prescribed rate as per Income Tax Act

“L” – Tax deducted at lower rate as specified in the return.  For sections having sub-sections, tax rate basis is assumed to be “L”

“H” – Higher Rate

  • Based on “Tax Rate Flag”, amount deductible as  calculated is shown
  • Amount deducted is subtracted from amount deductible to show “Short Deduction Amount”
Date of payment PAN of the deductee Section code Tax rate flag ** Amount paid Amount deductible (A) Amount deducted (B) Short deduction amount (C)
28-Jul-08 194J P 19950.00 2054.85 2009.00 45.85
10-JUL-10 BDDPS2497R 194J H 6000.00 1200.00 600.00 600.00

Above two cases are explained in detail

  • In the first case, Amount deductible is worked out by applying applicable rate of 10.3% on Rs. 19950 = 2054.85. Actual amount deducted is Rs. 2009. Hence there is a short deduction of  Rs. 45.85.
  • In the second case, everything appears to be correct. But the PAN given is not found in the income-tax database. This is reflected in “Tax Rate Flag” – H. Hence a penal rate of 20% is applied to Amount paid to arrive at amount deductible.
  • Fast Facts  team also found that such cases where PAN is not found in income-tax database,  Form 16A is also not issued by the TIN system.

Short Payment

  • These are simple cases, where amount deposited is less than amount deducted

In a separate article , Fast Facts Bulletin will explain what corrective actions are to be taken in response to the defaults and what precautions to be taken to avoid generation of such default notices.

Written by fastfactsindia

August 3, 2011 at 12:04 PM

How to download Form 16A from TIN Web Site

with 12 comments

For the financial year 2011-12, it is mandatory for companies and banks to download Form 16A from TIN Website and issue only such downloaded TDS certificates to deductees. For others it is optional.

This facility has been activated in the NSDL web site

Step 1 : Login with your TAN

If you have not made online TAN registration, then it must be done immediately. You can login with TAN, login ID and password under Login->TAN Account menu

Step 2 : Request for Form 16A file

Click Form 16A file request menu. Prior to this keep eTDS statement for the desired quarter handy, as some verification questions will be asked for this request.

Select the Financial Year and Quarter for which Form 16A file is required

Two questions , one related to any one challan and another related to any 3 deductee details will have to be filled in.

You can make a request for either one PAN or all PANs

You may also download “PDF Converter” utility from the same menu.

Step 3 : Wait for file to arrive by email. This should arrive within 48 hours.

Prior to this keep the 12 digit online TAN registration number handy

The file attached to email will be a .zip file ,which will be password protected. And the password in this case is 12 digit TAN registration number.

After extracting the file you will get a .txt file

Step 4 : Covert txt file to PDF file

The java based utility can read the txt file and convert the same to Form 16A PDF format

Comments on Form 16A generated

Fast Facts tried out the whole process  for its own Q4 data and converted the txt file to PDF. Some observations

  • A unique TDS Certificate number is coming for each certificate
  • One certificate is getting generated for one PAN covering all TDS sections
  • CIT TDS name and address is automatically coming
  • Address of the Deductee is automatically coming based on the PAN database with the department
  • One additonal column Status which shows Booking status is also appearing against each line
Comments by Fast Facts
With this step, the mismatch between eTDS statement and Form 16A will be a thing of past.
The process of making request is quite simple, provided user keeps the challan and deductee details handy. In the absence of this info, the request will not be processed
The java based utility is quite simple and effective and could be useful for deductors having moderate volume of TDS certificates.
However deductors having large volume of TDS certificate and needing proper classification e.g. location wise etc will need a separate application for proper management of certificate distribution

Written by fastfactsindia

May 27, 2011 at 11:55 AM

Posted in Form 16, TDS

Now TIN Website to provide Form 16A

with 3 comments

CBDT has issued Circular 03/2011 on May 13, 2011 detailing new procedure of Issuance of TDS Certificates in Form No. 16A downloaded from TIN Website and option to authenticate the same by way of digital signature

FY 2010-11

FY 2011-12

Download Form 16A from TIN Web Site Optional Mandatory for Companies and Banks. Optional for others
Digitally Sign Form 16A Optional but only if downloaded from TIN Web site Optional but only if downloaded from TIN Web site
Manually Issue TDS Certificate All deductors can manually issue TDS Certificate Companies and Banks cannot manually issue TDS Certificate

TDS Certificates Form 16A for Financial Year 2011-12

  • For the following categories of deductors,  it is mandatory to download Form 16A from TIN Web Site and issue such downloaded certificates to deductees
    • Companies
    • Banks
    • Co-operative society engaged in banking business
  • For other deductors, it is optional to download Form 16A from TIN Web site
  • Such downloaded TDS certificate will have a unique TDS Certificate Number
  • This procedure is applicable for all deductions made on or after 01-04-2011

TDS Certificate Form 16A for Financial Year 2010-11

  • Any deductor has option to download Form 16A from TIN Web site.
  • It is not mandatory for any one

Digitally Signing Form 16A

  • A deductor has option to digitally sign Form 16A .
  • However this option is available only in respect of Form 16A downloaded from TIN Website.
  • TDS Certificates not downloaded from TIN web site will  have to be manually signed

Procedure and Format 

  • Director General of income-tax (Systems) shall specify the standards , procedure and format for issuing of TDS Certificates by way of downloading from TIN Web Site
Analysis by Fast Facts
The above circular is applicable for Form 16A only. Hence there is no change in the procedure for issuing Form 16 for tax deducted on salaries.
Banks and companies stand to gain a lot by digitally signing and emailing TDS certificates.
Above circular will ensure that  companies and banks  improve accuracy of eTDS statement by filing complete and correct details. Deductee will stand to benefit as they will get prompt credit for tax deduction.


Written by fastfactsindia

May 17, 2011 at 2:53 PM

Posted in Form 16, TDS

FVU 3.2 : Key Changes

with 5 comments

In quick succession , NSDL has released new FVU version 3.2 for FY 2010-11 and FVU  2.130 for prior years.

FVU version 3.1 was released on March 18,2011. Details can be viewed in our blog http://blog.ffcs.in/2011/03/21/new-validations-fvu-3-1/

Based on user feedback,  the present FVU has been launched

The key changes vis-à-vis  FVU 3.1 are described below

Rounding Off problem leading to T-FV-4278 Error

In our earlier blog Fast Facts Bulletin had mentioned how rounding off to nearest rupee was resulting in validation error T-4278. http://blog.ffcs.in/2011/04/27/fvu-3-1-tds-rounding-off-validation/

This problem was reported to NSDL and Income-tax department and now stands resolved in FVU 3.2

Reporting Transactions below threshold

Transaction below threshold limit must have : “Y” in the column “Reason for non deduction /lower deduction” , 0.00 as rate of Deduction, 0.00 as Amount Deducted, 0.00 as Amount Deposited

 Deductor has option to report such transactions

  • The new guidelines issued by Directorate of Income Tax – Systems state the words “..if deductor wishes to report ……”
  • Hence it is clear that user has the option to report transaction below threshold limit

Deductor can adopt  one of  three approaches to show such transactions

n FVU 3.1 only one method of showing such transaction was given. Now there are three different ways such transactions can be shown. For ease of explanation,we will use the following abbreviations :

TBT :  Transaction below threshold

TCT : Transaction crossing threshold

Approach 1

  • Show TBT and TCT in the same quarter in which payment is made / amount is credited

Approach 2

  • Show TBT in the quarter in which related TBC  is shown and TBT to be shows with Rate 0 and Date of deduction blank

Approach 3

  • Show TBT in the quarter in which related TBC  is shown and TBT to be shows with Applicable Rate  and Date of deduction as date of TBC

Example

Interest paid in Q1, Q2 and Q3. Threshold crossed in Q3

Date of Payment Amount Paid Rate Date of Deduction Tds Amount Flag To be Shown in Approach

01/04/2010

1000

0

0

Y Q1

Approach 1

01/07/2010

1000

0

0

Y Q2

01/10/2010

4000

15

01/10/2010

600

Q3

01/04/2010

1000

0

0

Y Q3

Approach 2

01/07/2010

1000

0

0

Y Q3

01/10/2010

4000

15

01/10/2010

600

Q3

01/04/2010

1000

10

01/10/2010

100

Y Q3

Approach 3

01/07/2010

1000

10

01/10/2010

100

Y Q3

01/10/2010

4000

10

01/10/2010

400

Q3

View point by Fast Facts

In our view, such important and far reaching changes must be announced for Q1 and not in Q4.

This will create confusion for deductors about treatment of TBT and TCT transaction already shown in Q1 , Q2 and Q3

Written by fastfactsindia

May 7, 2011 at 11:48 AM

Posted in eTDS Statement, FVU 3.2, TDS

Form 16 : Erroneous reference to Form 12BB

with one comment

For tax deducted on salaries , the employer has to issue Form 16 to the employees. The form was modified vide Notification 41/2010  dated 31.05.2010

In this form there is a reference to Form 12BB

Gross Salary  Rs.

(a)  Salary as per provisions contained in sec.17(1)  Rs.

(b)  Value of perquisites u/s 17(2) (as per Form No.12BB, wherever  applicable)  Rs.

(c)  Profits in lieu of salary under section 17(3) (as per Form No.12BB ,wherever applicable

However there is no Form 12BB notified. It certainly is a typo error and it should read Form 12BA

Reference may also be made to Circular 8/2010 :  Section 192 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 – Deduction of tax at source – Salaries – Income-tax deduction from salaries during the financial year 2010-11

 In this circular , detailed guidelines for compliance with TDS on salary are given for the FY 2010-11

Paragraph 4.6.5 of above circular clearly states that

“…..information related to nature and value of perquisite is to be provided by employer in Form No 12BA……..”

Hence deductors may treat this as type error and replace 12BB with 12BA.

Written by fastfactsindia

May 6, 2011 at 8:03 PM

Posted in Payroll, TDS

Refund of Excess TDS Paid : Circular 2/2011

with 4 comments

CIRCULAR NO. 2/2011 [F.NO. 385/25/2010-IT(B)], DATED 27-4-2011

If a deductor has deposited excess amount of TDS , the procedure for getting refund was given in Board Circular 285 dated 21-1-1980. Now CBDT has issued new circular in this respect.

  •  This Circular 2/2011 is issued in  suppression of  circular No 285 / 21-10-1980
  • It covers TDS sections 192 to 194LA
  • It does not cover TDS on non-resident payments i.e. section 192, 194E and 195 ( which are  separately covered by circular No. 7/2007)
  • It covers refunds for the period upto 31-03-2010 .
  • Refunds for period thereafter will be covered under provision of section 200A which prescribes processing of TDS Statements

Excess to be refunded :

The excess payment to be refunded would be the difference between:

  •  the actual payment made by the deductor to the credit of the Central Government; and
  •  the tax deductible at source

Excess payment discovered during financial year

In case such excess payment is discovered by the deductor during the financial year concerned, the present system permits credit of the excess payment in the quarterly statement of TDS of the next quarter during the financial year.

Excess payment discovered after financial year

  • In case, the detection of such excess amount is made beyond the financial year concerned, such claim can be made to the Assessing Officer (TDS) concerned.
  • However no claim of refund can be made after two years from the end of financial year in which tax was deductible at source.

Safeguards to avoid double claims

To avoid double claim of TDS by the deductor as well as by the deductee, the following safeguards must be exercised by the Assessing Officer concerned:

The applicant deductor shall establish before the Assessing Officer that:

(i) it is a case of genuine error and that the error had occurred inadvertently;

(ii) that the TDS certificate for the refund amount requested has not been issued to the deductee(s); and

(iii) that the credit for the excess amount has not been claimed by the deductee(s) in the return of income or the deductee(s) undertakes not to claim such credit.

Prior  approval of the Additional Commissioner  is required for refund in excess of Rs. 1 Lakh

Prior  approval of the  Commissioner  is required for refund inexcess of Rs. 10 Lakhs

After meeting any existing tax liability of the deductor, the balance amount may be refunded to the deductor.

Written by fastfactsindia

April 28, 2011 at 6:34 PM

FVU 3.1 : TDS Rounding Off Validation

with 3 comments

FVU 3.1 was launched on March 18,2011 and is applicable for Q4 eTDS Statements for FY 2010-11 and  FY 2011-12.

Many deductors are not able to create eTDS statement and are getting the following error:

T-FV-4278 Invalid tax deducted amount. Enter valid tax deducted amount.

New Validation for TDS Amount

The above error is because of a new validation introduced in FVU 3.1

Correct TDS Amount = Amount Paid * TDS Rate

TDS Amount Shown in Statement

Variance Amount = Correct TDS Amount – TDS shown in statement

Variance % = Variance Amount / Correct TDS Amount * 100

If the variance % is 10 or above – the above error is generated

Rounding Off problem leading to T-FV-4278 Error

A common practice among deductors is to round off TDS payable to nearest rupee.  This practice has been followed for last several years. Now suddenly because of this new validation , such records are being flagged as erroneous.

Example : Amount Paid : Rs. 140 Rate 1% TDS Deducted Re 1.00

Correct TDS Amount =  140 * 1% = Rs 1.40

TDS Amount Shown in Statement = Re 1

Variance Amount = 1.40 – 1.00 = 0.40

Variance % = 0.40/ 1.40 * 100 = 28.57%

Solution

Income-tax department and NSDL have been apprised of this problem. A possible solution could be change in FVU to ignore the validation for rounding off cases.

Let us all wait for a new FVU version.


Written by fastfactsindia

April 27, 2011 at 1:37 PM

Posted in TDS

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