Tuesday 2 July 2013

Penalties for not filing eTDS return on time

eTDS  statement for 2013-14 first quarter is to be filed on or before July 15, 2013. Few important changes and points to remember are given below:
Mandatory Fees and Penal provisions
File eTDS Statement in time or pay late filing fees ( Section 234E)
failure to submit eTDS statement in time will result in fees
  • mandatory fees of Rs. 200 per day is applicable for any delay in furnishing of eTDS statement.
  •  Total fees will be limited to the amount of TDS deducted
  • Such fees must be paid before filing of eTDS statement and shown appropriately therein.
Penalty for late filing or incorrect filing ( Section 271H)
  • A delay beyond one year will result in penalty ranging from Rs. 10,000 to 1 lac.
  • Failure to file eTDS statement or filing incorrect details like PAN, challan details, TDS amount will also result in penalty being levied ranging from Rs. 10,000 to 1 lac
From the above, it is clear that this time when you fie eTDS statement, you need to file in time and also ensure that you are not filing incorrect details in the statement.

Rectification of errors in tax challans

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 with immediate effect.
This new mechanism allows Banks to correct physical challans only.For corrections 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.
More details can be had from the Income Tax Department link here

Rectification of errors in challans transmitted to the TIN central system


Rectification in name of the tax payer, amount and the major head code (indicating the type of deductee i.e. company deductee/non company deductee) in the challan transmitted to the TIN central system by the bank through OLTAS can be done by the bank. The bank shall rectify the same and transmit correct details to the TIN central system. 

Rectification in TAN/PAN, assessment year, minor head code in the challan transmitted to the TIN central system by the bank through OLTAS can be done only by the Assessing Officer.  In such cases the deductor may contact its Assessing Officer (TDS Assessing Officer in case of rectification of TAN and Assessing Officer for income returns in case of rectification of PAN) to get the same rectified.