BACKGROUND
“Chapter XVII – Collection and Recovery of Tax” of Income Tax Act 1961 provides for the various provisions related to deduction of tax at source. These provisions work as a tax collection mechanism. Apart from upfront collection of tax, TDS provisions also ensure the surrendering of income to the tax and defeats the tax evasion.
However, in certain cases, these provisions also results in genuine hardship to a certain class of assessee. There are large numbers of assessee, who are not liable to tax due to total income less than basic exemption limit. TDS provisions apply to the Income earned by such assessee also. This hardship specially concerns the retired assessee having their savings in the form of bank deposit or other interest bearing debt investment.
SECTION 197A
Section 197A is instrumental in providing relief against the hardship as explained above. Relief under section 197A is available to the assessees having income in the nature of Interest on securities (on which TDS deductible u/s 193) or Interest other then interest on securities (on which TDS deductible u/s 194A). Such assessees may file a self declaration to the payer of the income to the effect that the tax on his estimated total income of the previous year in which such income is to be included in computing his total income will be nil.
After furnishing of above declaration no deduction of tax shall be made on such income.
NOTE: Relief u/s 197A is also available in respect of incomes of certain other nature, other than those specified above. See Section 197A for details.
MANNER AND FORM OF SELF DECLARATIONS
As per rule 29C self declarations are to be furnished by the assessee in Form 15G or Form 15H
FORM 15H - In case of resident person (except company or firm)
FORM 15G - In case of a resident individual whose age is 60 years or more at any time during PY
PROCEDURES TO FURNISH FORM 15 G AND 15 H
Assessee may furnish the Form 15G or 15H, manually, in paper format. However payer of income may also establish a system to receive the declarations electronically. In such cases assessee may also furnish these declarations in electronic form.
Deductor shall receive the declarations manually or electronically and allot a UIN (as explained in next paragraph) to each of such declaration. He shall further digitalise the declarations received in manual format.
ALLOTMENT OF UIN
Deductor is required to allot a specific UIN to each declaration received by him. Such UIN shall be in following format
10 Digit Alphanumeric No + Financial Year + TAN
10 Digit Alphanumeric No -> 10 Digit alphanumeric no shall start with G (for 15G) and with H (for 15H) and followed by the 9 digit consecutive numbers starting with 1. [E.g. G000000001 or H000000001]
Financial Year -> Financial Year for which declaration is furnished
TAN -> TAN of Payer
Example of UIN -> UIN for FY 2015-16 for a deductor having TAN ABCD12345Z
G000000001201516ABCD12345Z (for 1st 15G Received)
G000000002201516ABCD12345Z (for 2nd 15G Received)
H000000001201516ABCD12345Z (for 1st 15H Received)
H000000002201516ABCD12345Z (for 2nd 15H Received)
FILING OF DECLARATION AND UIN
The payer shall upload all the declarations (electronic declarations and digitalized declarations) received during a quarter at the department E-filing website. i.e. https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in.
Further deductor shall also furnish the transaction covered by form 15G and 15 H in the quarterly TDS return. Such data is to be furnished in quarterly TDS return even if NIL tax is deducted during the period.
INSTRUCTIONS TO E-FILE “STATEMENT OF FORM 15G/15H”
Registration – To upload the Form 15G/15H to the department website user must hold a valid TAN and should be registered at such website as a “Tax Deductor & Collector”.
Filing Process – Download java utility for 15G/15H. Also download DSC management utility. Fill the 15G/15H utility and generate the zip file. Generate the signature for zip file using DSC utility. Upload zip file along with signature file.
The author can also be reached at prateekgargco@gmail.com
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