OVERVIEW - AIR

HARANATH , Last updated: 26 January 2008
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ANNUAL INFORMATION RETURN (AIR)

Annual Information Return (AIR) of 'high value financial transactions' is required to be furnished under section 285BA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 by 'specified persons' in respect of 'specified transactions' registered or recorded by them during the financial year. The due date of filing of the return is the 31st of August of the following year. The 'specified persons' and the 'specified transactions' are listed in Rule 114E of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. Briefly, these are as under:

Sl. No. (1)	Class of Person(2)	Nature and Value of transaction(3)	Clarifications by Central Board of Direct Taxes vide Circular No.07/2005 dated 24thAug, 2005(4)
1.	A Banking Company to which the Banking Regulation Act, 1949(10 of 1949), applies (including any bank or banking institution referred to in section 51 of that Act).	Cash deposits aggregating to ten lakh rupees or more in a year in any savings account of a person maintained in that bank	Only the aggregate of all the cash deposits in the savings account of a person to be reported as one transaction and the date of the transaction is to be the last date of the financial year i.e. 31.03.2005 in respect of FY 2004-2005.
2.	A Banking Company to which the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (10 of 1949), applies (including any bank or banking institution referred to in section 51 of that Act) or any other Company or institution issuing credit card.	Payments made by any person against bills raised in respect of a credit card issued to that person, aggregating to two lakh rupees or more in the year.	Only the aggregate of all the payments by a person to the credit card company is required to be reported as one transaction and date of transaction is to be the last date of the financial year i.e. 31.03.2005 in respect of FY 2004-05.
3.	A trustee of a Mutual Fund or such other person managing the affairs of the Mutual Fund as may be duly authorized by the trustee in this behalf.	Receipt from any person of an amount of two lakh rupees or more for acquiring units of that fund.	The amount actually received from the transacting party and not the amount relating to allotment is to be reported.
4.	A Company or institution issuing bonds or debentures.	Receipt from any person of an amount of five lakh rupees or more for acquiring bonds or debentures issued by the Company or institution.	The amount actually received from the transacting party and not the amount relating to allotment is to be reported.
5.	A Company issuing shares through public or rights issue.	Receipt from any person of an amount of one lakh rupees or more for acquiring shares issued by the Company.	The amount actually received from the transacting party and not the amount relating to allotment is to be reported.
6.	Registrar or Sub Registrar appointed under section 6 of the Registration Act, 1908	Purchase or sale by any person of immoveable property valued at thirty lakh rupees or more.	There may be certain situations where the transaction in respect of property valued at thirty lakh rupees involves joint parties and value for one or more parties is less than rupees thirty lakh. In such situations, all such transactions are to be reported in respect of all the joint parties even though the value of transaction in the hands of one or more of the joint parties is less than the threshold limit.
7.	A person being an officer of the Reserve Bank of India constituted under section 3 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 who is duly authorized by the Reserve Bank of India in this behalf.	Receipt from any person of an amount or amounts aggregating to five lakh rupees or more in a year for bonds issued by the Reserve Bank of India.	The aggregate of all the receipts from a person is required to be reported as one transaction and the date of the transaction is to be mentioned as the last date of the financial year i.e. 31.03.2005 in respect of FY 2004-05.

As per this rule, specified persons (Filers) should prepare their AIR in Form 61A (Part B) on computer readable media (i.e. CD or Floppy), supported by a duly signed verification and control chart in Form 61A (Part A) in paper format.

AIR should be furnished to the Commissioner of Income-tax (Central Information Branch) i.e. CIT (CIB). CBDT has authorized NSDL to receive AIR through the TIN Facilitation Centers on behalf of CIT (CIB). Filers may also file AIR online through internet.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Only one AIR is allowed to be filed by a Filer for a given financial year. However, in case the Filer wants to rectify genuine/bonafide mistakes or if it wants to furnish additional transactions to be included in AIR, it may do so through 'Supplementary Information'.
There are three situations when a Filer may be required to file Supplementary Information:

in response to a notice issued by CIT (CIB) within the time allowed by CIT (CIB)
Suo moto - to furnish additional details not submitted in original AIR
in response to deficiency indicated by TIN-FC in provisional receipt

Some features of Supplementary Information are:

Supplementary Information should be furnished as per the data structure specified by ITD.
Supplementary Information should be incremental, i.e. contain information only on transactions reported earlier which are to be revised or if it wants to furnish additional information which is not provided in the previous return.
Supplementary Information should be filed at the same TIN-FC where the original AIR was filed.
In case the original AIR was filed online, Supplementary Information also should be filed online.
Supplementary Information should be filed in the same form and manner as an AIR with upload type as “R” for Supplementary Information.

CHARGES

The Filer has to pay upload charges as given below for AIR as well as Supplementary Information: