CBDT Grants Relaxation in Electronic filing of Forms 15CA/15CB

Central Board of Direct Taxes has granted further relaxation in the electronic filing of forms 15CA and 15CB because of difficulties reported by taxpayers in the filing of forms online on the new Income tax e-filing portal 2.0. The date for submission of forms in manual format to the authorized dealers is extended to 15th August 2021.

Synopsis of CBDT Notification

Because of the difficulties reported by taxpayers in the electronic filing of Income Tax Forms 15CA/15CB on the new e-filing portal, it had earlier been decided by CBDT that taxpayers could submit Forms 15CA/15CB in manual format to the authorized dealer till 15th July 2021

CBDT has now decided to extend the date to 15th August 2021. The taxpayers can now submit the Forms in manual format to the authorized dealers till 15th August 2021.
Authorized dealers are advised to accept such Forms till 15th August 2021 for foreign remittances.
A facility will be provided on the new e-filing portal to upload these forms at a later date for the generation of the Document Identification Number.

Earlier Announced Relaxation in the Filing of Forms 15CA/15CB

This is the third time that the CBDT has relaxed the taxpayers from electronic filing of Form No. 15CA and Form No. 15CB and allowed manual filing of such forms since the launch of the new e-filing portal 2.0 on 7th June 2021.

Earlier on 14th June 2021, CBDT allowed taxpayers to file the Form 15CA and Form 15CB till 30th June 2021 due to the non-functioning of the new e-filing portal.
Thereafter, the date for submission of the forms in manual format to the authorized dealers was extended to 15th July 2021 via a press release date of 5th July 2021

Form 15CA and Form 15CB

Any person who needs to make a foreign outward remittance needs to file an online form/ declaration in Form 15CA specifying the nature of the transaction and the amount of income tax deducted on such foreign remittance. In certain cases, this Form 15CA is also backed by a chartered accountant's certificate in Form 15CB, which certifies that appropriate income tax has been deducted on such remittance. Such forms (15CA and 15CB) were required to be filled online using the income tax e-filing portal.

Purpose of Form 15CA and 15CB

Earlier, the person making remittance to Non-Resident was required to furnish a certificate in a specified format circulated by RBI. The basic purpose was to collect the taxes at a stage when the remittance is made as it may not be possible to collect the tax from the Non-Resident at a later stage. Thus To monitor and track the transactions in an efficient manner, it was proposed to introduce e-filling of information in the certificates and the Form 15CA and 15CB had been introduced.

Law Governing the Form 15CA and 15CB

Section 195 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 mandates the deduction of Income-tax from payments made to Non-Resident. The person making the remittance to non – resident needs to furnish an undertaking (in form 15CA) accompanied by a Chartered Accountants Certificate in Form 15CB According to Section 195 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, every person liable for making a payment to non-residents shall deduct TDS from the payments made to non-residents if such sum is chargeable to Income tax then the withholding tax needs to be deducted, and form 15CA and 15CB are the declarations for the same. A person making the remittance (a payment) to a Non Resident or a Foreign Company has to submit the form 15CA. This form is submitted online. In some cases, a Certificate from Chartered Accountant in form 15CB is required after uploading the form 15CA online.

Online Filing of Form 15CA/15CB

As per the Income-tax Act, 1961, there is a requirement to furnish Form 15CA/15CB electronically. Presently, taxpayers upload the Form 15CA, along with the Chartered Accountant Certificate in Form 15CB on the e-filing portal, before submitting the copy to the authorized dealer for any foreign remittance Due to the shutdown of the old e-filing portal post-May 31, 2021 and technical snags being faced with the new e-filing portal, filing of online Forms 15CA and 15CB has not been possible till now. This had created a significant hardship for businesses, which required payment to be made outside India, for placing the orders or for obtaining licenses, or meeting the commercial obligations. However, banks were not permitting foreign remittance, for want of Form 15CA/15CB. This practical problem had brought many business transactions to a standstill Realizing the hardships of businesses, the government has issued this circular allowing manual filing of Form 15CA/15CB with banks till 15^th August 2021, so that business transactions may go on despite the technical snags in the new e-filing portal.

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