Scheme For Bulk Filing Of Returns By Salaried Employees

The Central Board of Direct Taxes has introduced the Scheme For Bulk Filing Of Returns By Salaried Employees. Under the scheme, eligible employers can file the bulk returns in electronic format together with the paper returns of their willing and eligible employees with the designated assessing officers. In this article, we will look at Scheme For Bulk Filing Of Returns By Salaried Employees in detail.

Eligibility Criteria

The scheme for Bulk Filing Of Returns By Salaried Employees applies to all eligible employers, and their eligible employees assessed in the following cities.

Ahmedabad
Bangalore
Baroda
Bhopal
Chandigarh
Chennai
Delhi
Gandhinagar
Hyderabad
Jaipur
Jabalpur
Kolkata
Mumbai
Nagpur
Pune
Thane

Furnishing Of Returns

The scheme For Bulk Filing Of Returns By Salaried Employees is optional and provides an additional mode of furnishing returns of income by person deriving incomes from salaries. Under the Bulk Filing Scheme, an eligible employee can provide his income tax return for an assessment year which she is required to furnish under section 139 of Income Tax Act during any current financial year to his employer. The employer will transcribe the data of the returns on computer readable media using the authorised BRPS - Bulk Return Preparation Software, which will be made available by the Income-Tax Department The employer will furnish these returns of income together with the data on specified computer-readable media, known as a Bulk return, to the designated Assessing Officer by the due date for furnishing of the returns of income.

Types of Returns to be Received

The scheme for the bulk filing of returns by Salaried Employees will apply to employees whose total income does not include any chargeable income to income tax under the head profits and gains of business or profession. Following types of returns will not be furnished under the Scheme For Bulk Filing Of Returns By Salaried Employees, 2002

Income tax return for any assessment year other than the assessment year for which they are needed to furnish the return of income under section 139 during the current financial year;
Income tax return where no PAN or incorrect PAN of the employee has been quoted;
Return of income under section 158BC and returns of any assessment year where the previous year falls within the block period
Returns of an employee having more than one employers during the previous year for which the return is being provided;
Return of employees who are not in receipt of her/his salary from the eligible employers as on the last day of the last financial year, for which the return is being furnished
A revised return of income under the sub-section (5) of section 139 of the Income-tax Act

Note: If an employee has failed his return of income for a year under the Scheme For Bulk Filing Of Returns By Salaried Employees, may furnish a revised return of income under section 139 before the assessing officer.

Procedure for Eligible Employees to File Income Tax Return

An eligible employee will have to take the below described steps for furnishing the return of income through the employer or DDO under the Scheme For Bulk Filing Of Returns By Salaried Employees. Step 1: Provide consent to the eligible employer in the prescribed application form for furnishing the return of income of an assessment year. Step 2: Furnish a return of income in Form 2D or Form Number 3 duly signed and verified under section 140, together with the documents required to be enclosed with such return Step 3: Enclose a photocopy of the PAN Card or intimation letter received for allotment of PAN to ensure the PAN has been correctly quoted in the return of income. Step 4: In cases of claims of refund, either give consent in the consent form for the refund, to be delivered through an employer; or indicate the particulars of the bank account in which the refund is to be directly credited by the Assessing Officers through the Electronic Clearing Scheme of RBI Step 5: Attach the mandate form, the bank account in which the refund is to be credited should be in the same cities where the returns being furnished. Note: The refunds are arising on the processing of returns furnished under the Scheme For Bulk Filing Of Returns By Salaried Employees, 2002 will not be sent through any mode other than those described above.

Procedure for the Eligible Employers to File Income Tax Return

An eligible employer will get the duly signed and verified returns of income from the eligible employees assessed to tax at any of the specified city. The employer will transcribe it correctly and completely the information contained in the returns of income using the Bulk Return Preparation Software to generate a Bulk return on a specified computer readable media. In case employees of an employer are assessed at more than one specified cities, separate Bulk returns will have to be generated in respect of each specified city. The employer will provide a bulk return on a prescribed computer-readable medium along with the corresponding returns of income in Form 3 or Form 2D before the designated Assessing Officer of the respective specified city An eligible employer will take the following steps:

Get Consent from Employees

An eligible employer will get consent from the eligible employees willing to furnishing their returns under the scheme along with the mandate forms, where a refund is to be transferred to the bank of the employee. Receive the duly signed and verified income tax returns in Form Number 2D or Form Number 3 of the eligible employees together with the enclosures required to be furnished with these returns.

Verify PAN

The employee needs to ensure that the PAN of the employees quoted in the returns of income is correct.
Verify the TDS claim in respect of salary income is as per the certificates in Form Number 16 issued by the DDO.
Sort the returns according to the concerned city where the concerned employees are assessed to tax.

Furnishing of Bulk return

Transcribe the data contained in the returns of income on the computer readable media using the authorised Bulk Return Preparation Software - BRPS. The BRPS will be collected from the Income-tax Department. The specified computer readable medium for the furnishing of Bulk return will be

lCD ROM of 650 MB capacity
l4mm 2GB/4GB (90m/120m) DAT Cartridge
l3.5" 1.44 MB floppy diskette

The employer will ensure the correctness of the transcribed data on the Bulk returns vis-a-vis the returns of income submitted by the employees Generate separate forms of control charts for the returns of income to be furnished at each specified city Generate a separate Bulk return on any prescribed computer media using the BRPS in respect of the eligible employee being assessed at each of the specified city. In no case, the Bulk returns of more than one employer, DDO or relating to the employee of more than one specified city of the employers or DDO should be included on the same unit of computer-readable media. Separate units of the computer-readable media should be used for the returns about each specified city. The unit of the computer readable medium used for a Bulk return should be serially numbered

Name and TAN of the employer
Name of the specified city
Assessment year
Serial number of the unit and total number of units of the computer readable medium used
Number of employees whose returns of incomes are included in the unit

Arrange the returns of income in the forms in the same sequence as in the Bulk returns and provide identical serial number both on the return of income and the Bulk return Note: Only one Bulk return at one of the specified cities should be furnished for one assessment year

Get Acknowledgement

Obtain an acknowledgement of the Bulk return provided on the control chart as appended to this Scheme For Bulk Filing of Returns By Salaried Employees. Also, get the acknowledgements for the returns of income so furnished from the receiving official.

Receive the Returns

The Bulk return on the computer together with the returns of income in Form Number 2D or Form Number 3 of the concerned employees and the consent forms/mandate forms, will be received at the designated counter. The designated Assessing Officer will also issue an individual acknowledgement for the returns of income in Form Number 2D or Form Number 3 of each employee. Such acknowledgements will be given by an appointed date not later than ten working days after the date of receipt of returns.

Processing of the Return

The Bulk return will be processed on a priority basis, after processing of the Bulk return, employee-wise intimations would be generated only in the cases where there is a demand or a refund. The consolidated statements showing the result of the processing the each return included in the Bulk returns, the amount of resultant refund, the manner in which it is being issued will be sent by the designated assessing officers to the respective employer, together with the intimation, and the refunds cheques mentioned above, for distribution amongst the concerned employees.