Friends,
Income Tax Department, Department of Revenue, Ministry of Finance, Government of India has made it compulsory to issue Form 16-A downloaded from the official website of Income Tax Department at www.tdscpc.gov.in. By downloading the forms from this site, the deductee will get the accurate Form. From now and on-wards, Form 16A text file will be available at TRACES (www.tdscpc.gov.in) web site only. So if you have not registered you TAN on TRACES then first register you TAN at Traces and start the procedure of download of Form 16A. The procedure to register your TAN at www.tdscpc.gov.in is available here
So now you can download your Form 16-A from TIN-NSDL website . Other feature that has been transferred to new site www.tdscpc.gov.in (TRACES) has already been explained to you in the Link as mentioned above.
What is Form 16 / 16A?
It is the certificate of deduction of tax at source by any person in accordance with Chapter XVII-B of IT Act.Form 16 is issued on deduction of tax by the employer on behalf of the employee under section 192 of IT Act, 1961.Form 16A is issued if the deduction of tax is under any other provision of Chapter XVII-B of IT Act.
These certificates provide details of TDS / TCS for various transactions between deductor and deductee. It is mandatory to issue these certificates to Tax Payers u/s 203 of IT Act, 1961.
Is there any format for these certificates?
Form 16 / 16A are issued as per the provisions of Rule 31(1).
How are these forms generated?
These forms shall be generated by TDS CPC on processing the quarterly TDS / TCS statements filed by deductor. Deductor will have to raise a request for the same on TRACES. Deductor shall have the option to digitally sign the certificates.Procedure in detail has been explained in post below.
What is the due date for the issue of these certificates?
- Form 16 is to be issued Annually by 31st day of May of the financial year immediately following the financial year in which the income was paid and tax deducted
- Form 16-A is to be issued every quarterly within fifteen days from the due date for furnishing the statement of tax deducted at source under rule 31A.
Can I make any changes in the certificate generated by TDS CPC?
The certificates shall be generated in PDF format, therefore they are not editable. Deductor is thereby not permitted to make changes these certificates. If any error is identified in the certificate, deductor will have to file a correction statement for the same.
How can I request for Form 16 / 16A?
Login to TRACES as deductor and submit download request for Form 16 / 16A under ‘Downloads’ tab. File will be available under ‘Requested Downloads’ in ‘Downloads’ tab.
Text file will be provided containing details of all requested PANs. User must convert this text file to PDF using ‘TRACES PDF Generation Utility’. This utility will convert the text file into individual PDFs for each PAN. Deductor can also opt to digitally sign the PDFs while converting.
When will Form 16A file be available?
- Form 16A text file will be available only after you have submitted regular statement in Form 26Q/27Q and the same has been processed at TDS CPC
- Form 16A files are available from FY 2007-08 onwards
- Steps to download Form 16A file
Login with your UserId and Password
- In the main menu ,click Downloads->Form 16A
- You can either download file for all PANs or for selected PANs. For all PANs ,you need to select FY and Quarter. For Selected PANs, you have to select PANs from the given list.
- Validation Screen will appear. Enter validation details. This will also generate an authentication code.
- Details of authorized signatory will be picked up from “profile” and displayed
- Click Submit
- File will be available in Download->Requested Downloads
Downloading Form 16A text File
Click Download->Requested Downloads
Search option 1 is Request Number . Search Option 2 is Request Date. Enter requisite details and click “View All”
All requests will be displayed. Click on the desired row
Download file either thru HTTP Download or thru Download Manager. HTTP Download is for smaller files while Download Manager is useful for large files and has the capability of resuming download in case of interruption
Entering Validation details
- Enter Token Number for the Form type displayed on the screen. For this you must have acknowledgement copy ready
- Non-Government Deductors must enter Challan Identification Details . The details must pertain to the selected FY, Quarter and Form
- Amount must be entered in 2 decimal places.
- Government deductors must enter BIN details
- Enter any three PAN and Amounts from the CIN/ BIN details. If the number of PANs in the given CIN/BIN is less than three, then enter all such details i.e. one or two
- Click Proceed. An authentication code will be generated
- If for some reason , you need to submit request for download again , you will not be asked to enter validation details again. In such case, you can simply enter “authentication code” and proceed.
Downloading PDF Generator.
- This is the most tedious Job ,even we have able to download this file after several attempts .But for you we have made life easy and file can be downloaded easily from here
- http://www.simpletaxindia.net/2013/01/download-traces-pdf-generation-utility.html
- Download PDF Generator after login .
- How to Install the PDF generator is provided here
- If your download is not complete or hangs, try again
- The downloaded file is a zip file. Unzip it and Run. This will install the utility
- Run the Utility
- Please make sure that you have the latest version of PDF generator. As of writing this blog, the version is 1.1. dated Jan 18, 2013
Printing/ Generating Form 16A PDF files
- After you have downloaded PDF Generator and Form 16A text file, run PDF Geneator
- Select Form 16A text file in zip format. Do not unzip it
- Enter TAN as password
- Select Folder where Form 16A PDFs will be saved
- Select Digital Signature file, if you want to digitally sign your Form 16A
- Click Proceed
- Separate PDF will be generated for each PAN in the selected folder
Notes:
- TRACES PDF Generation Utility should be used to convert text file for Form 16 / 16A into individual PDFs
- Download the utility and install it on your desktop
- Pass the text file through the utility to generate PDFs for individual PANs
- You can opt for manual / digital signature for the PDFs
- File name for Form 16 / 16A text file will be as mentioned below. TAN will be masked
- Form 16 -
_Form16_ , e.g., ABCxxxxx5E_Form16_2012-13.zip - Form 16A -
_Form16A_ _ , e.g., ABCxxxxx5E_Form16A_2012-13_Q2.zip - Password for Form 16 / 16A text file is TAN of deductor. Enter password to open file
- File name for individual PDF files will be as mentioned below. PAN will be masked
- Form 16 - Form16_
_ , e.g., Form16_2012-13_ABCxxxxx4F' - Form 16A - Form16A_
_ _ , e.g., Form16A_2012-13_Q2_ABCxxxxx4F - There is no password for individual PDF files
Frequently Asked Questions
Q : While entering Validation details for downloading Form 16A text file, I am getting “invalid details”
A : Unfortunately , TRACES is not giving exact cause of error. The possible causes can be:
You are entering amount without decimal places
You have entered incorrect CIN details
You have entered correct CIN details, but they do not pertain to the given FY, Quarter and Form
You have entered incorrect PAN/Amount details
You have entered correct PAN/Amount details, but they do not pertain to given CIN
Q : I am not able to download PDF Generator. It interrupts or gives error messages “Download interrupted”
A : The only solution is to try again or try on a PC having better internet connectivity
Q : While generating Form 16A PDF file thru PDF Generator, I am getting message “input file is tempered”
A : Download Form 16A file has a checksum and you may have tried to open it in notepad and edited it. Download again and do not edit anything in the file.
FY 2010-11
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FY 2011-12
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FY 2012-13 onwards
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Download Form 16A from TDSCPC (TRACES) Web Site
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Optional
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Mandatory for Companies and Banks. Optional for others
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Mandatory for all type of deductors
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Digitally Sign Form 16A
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Optional but only if downloaded from TDSCPC (TRACES) Web site
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Optional but only if downloaded from TDSCPC (TRACES) Web site
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Optional but only if downloaded from TDSCPC (TRACES) Web site
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Manually Issue TDS Certificate(Form 16A)
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All deductors can manually issue TDS Certificate
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Companies and Banks cannot manually issue TDS Certificate
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No deductor can issue manually TDS certificate
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Manually Issue TDS Certificate(Form 16 salary)
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All deductors can manually issue TDS Certificate
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All deductors can manually issue TDS Certificate
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Form 16(PartA) is mandatory to downloaded form TDSCPC website
Part B to be issued manually
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So manually field form 16A cannot be issued for tax deducted on or after 01.04.2012.
