Section 195 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 mandates deduction of income-tax from payments made or credit given to non-residents at the rates in force. The person making the remittance to a non-resident needs to furnish an undertaking (in Form 15CA) accompanied by a Chartered Accountants Certificate in Form 15CB. The purpose of the undertaking and the certificate is to collect taxes at the stage when the remittance is made as it may not be possible to recover the tax at a later stage from non-residents.

What is Form 15CA?

• Form 15CA is an undertaking by the remitter furnished in an electronic mode at the website of the Tax Information Network (https://www.tin-nsdl.com) giving details of the proposed remittance and tax deducted at source in accordance with the provisions of section 195(6) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.
• This information should be furnished after obtaining a Certificate in Form 15CB from a Chartered Accountant. The print out of the Form 15CA (furnished online) should be signed by authorized signatory and submitted to the bank prior to remitting the payment along with certificate of a Chartered Accountant in duplicate in Form 15CB.
• The fields marked with (*) are mandatory.
• Select the values from the drop down wherever provided.
• Each transaction detail should be filled in separately.

Guidelines in filling up form 15CA

The following guidelines may be kept in mind while furnishing Form 15CA

Remitter :

• Permanent Account Number (PAN) and Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number (TAN) allotted by the Income Tax Department should be mentioned. TAN is mandatory in cases where-

- tax has been deducted or will be deducted at source;

- the remitter has obtained an order under section 195(2) of the Income-tax Act from the Assessing Officer.

• In case an invalid PAN and/or TAN is filled in by the remitter, the Form will not be generated.
• In case the remitter does not have a TAN, it is mandatory to quote PAN of the remitter.
• PAN of the remitter should invariably be given. However, the same is mandatory if status of entity is Company or Firm. If PAN is not given in such cases, the remitter will not be allowed to generate the Form.
• Details in at least two address fields for remitter should be mentioned.
• Name of the entity should be mentioned in the “Name of remitter” field.
• No value is to be provided in Area code, AO type, Range code & AO number. The fields will be entered by the system after validating the PAN and/or TAN.
• Email id and mobile no., if any, should be provided.

Recipient of remittance:

• Complete address of recipient of remittance, separated by coma, should be provided.
• PAN, allotted by the Indian Income Tax Department should be mentioned.
• If status of entity is “company”, then provide type of company i.e., “domestic” or “other than domestic”.
• In the field “Principal Place of Business”, the country of tax residence of the recipient of the remittance should be mentioned.

Information for accountant :

• Enter name of the Chartered Accountant in the field “Name of the accountant”.
• Details in at least two address fields should be mentioned.
• Date of certificate should not be a future date.
• Registration no. should be numeric.
• Details of accountant are not required if point no.15 is selected i.e. any order u/s 195(2)/ 195(3)/ 197 of the Income-tax Act has been obtained from Assessing Officer.
• Certificate number is an alphanumeric field.

Guidelines for Part B of the Form 15CA (Particulars of remittance and TDS) :

• Provide the values as per the accountant certificate obtained in Form 15CB.
• In case name of the country is not available in drop down list, select value “other” from the drop down and provide name of the country.
• In case currency name is not available in drop down then select value ”other” from the drop down and provide name of the currency.
• Proposed date of remittance should be current date or a future date.
• Amount of TDS should be less than amount of remittance.
• Actual amount of remittance after TDS should be less than amount of remittance.
• BSR code of the bank through which the remittance is made should be mentioned.
• Rate of TDS as per DTAA (if applicable) should be mentioned upto two decimal places.
• Amount should be mentioned upto 2 decimal places.
• Select any one out of fields 12, 13, 14 and 16. One form is to be filled for one type of remittance.
• Details of “responsible person” should be mentioned for verification.
• If no tax has been deducted then value “0.00” should be mentioned in “Amount of TDS” field (foreign currency and Indian Rupees.)
• Value for “rate of deduction as per the Income-tax Act” should be “0.00” if no tax has been deducted and “amount of TDS in Indian and foreign currency” should be “0.00”.

Generation of Form 15CA :

• After filling up the information, click “submit”. On submission of details if system shows any errors, rectify and re-submit the form.
• A confirmation screen with all the data filled by the user will be displayed. The same can be either confirmed or edited.
• On confirmation, a filled up Form 15CA with an acknowledgement number will be displayed. Print out of the Form should be taken, signed and submitted prior to remitting the payment.
• Form 15CA can be re-printed by selecting the re-print option. For re-printing, please enter “acknowledgement no.”, “PAN” and/or “TAN” mentioned in the Form.

What is 15CB?

• The person making the payment (remitter) needs to obtain a certificate from a Chartered Accountant in Form 15CB. The format of Form 15CB has been prescribed by Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

Common discrepancies noted while submitting Form 15CA and 15CB to the bank :

These are some of the common errors that could be avoided to ensure proper submission of these forms to the bank prior to making the remittance.

• Form 15CA and/or 15CB is not provided prior to the proposed remittance.
• Details stated in Form 15CA/ 15CB do not tally with each other or with the details in the A2 form and/or supporting documents.
• Form 15CB is unsigned/ un-stamped : Form 15CB has to be signed and stamped by the Chartered Accountant clearly mentioning the registration number and certificate number.
• Unsigned 15CA : The print out of the undertaking Form (i.e. Form 15CA) should be physically signed by the remitter.