Fees & Penalty for late / Non filing of TDS Return

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No filing or Late filing of TDS returns or TDS statement shall invite 2 penal consequence 1.Fee for late filing U/s 234E and 2. Penalty for late filing or Non filing of TDS statement U/s 271H.

Duties of the person liable to deduct/collect tax at source

• He shall obtain Tax Deduction Account Number or Tax Collection Account Number (as the case may be) and quote the same in all the documents pertaining to TDS/TCS.
• He shall deduct/collect the tax at source at the applicable rate.
• He shall pay the tax deducted/collected by him to the credit of the Government.
• He shall file the periodic TDS/TCS statements, i.e., TDS/TCS return.He shall issue the TDS/TCS certificate in respect of tax deducted/collected by him.

Due Dates for filing of TDS/TCS return

The due dates for filing of statement of TDS i.e. TDS return for different quarters are as follows:

Date    of    ending    of the quarter of the        financial year	Due date for Government deductor	Due date for any other deductor
30th June	31st July of the financial year	15th July of the financial year
30th September	31st       October      of      the financial year	15th      October      of      the financial year
31st December	31st January of the financial year	15th       January      of      the financial year
31st March	15th May of the financial year immediately following the financial year in which deduction is made	15th          May        of       the financial year immediately following the financial year in which deduction is made.

Now we will understand the provisions relating to penalty for not furnishing the TDS/TCS statement i.e. TDS/TCS return.

Fee U/s 234E for late filing of TDS Statement:

If you filed late income tax return, there is consequential penalty in form of interest u/s 234A if there was tax due as per return. Similarly in the same chapter new section 234E has been proposed to be effective from 1^st of July 2012, with heading ‘Levy of Fee in certain case’ deductor will be liable to pay by way of fee of Rs 200 per day till the failure to file TDS statement continues, However, the total fee cannot exceed the amount of TDS deductible for which statement was required to be filed.

TDS/TCS return cannot be filed without payment of late filing fees as discussed above. In other words, the late filing fees shall be deposited before filing the TDS return. It should be noted that Rs. 200 per day is not penalty but it is a late filing fee.

Computation of fee under Section 234E at the time of processing of TDS/TCS statement

Section 200A of the Income-tax Act provides for processing of TDS statements for determining the amount payable or refundable to the deductor. Provisions of Section 200A has been amended by the the Finance Act, 2015 so as to enable computation of fee payable under under section 234E at the time of processing of TDS statements.

As the mechanism of TCS statement is similar to TDS statement, a new section 206CB has been inserted by Finance Act, 2015 to provide for processing of TCS statements on the lines of existing provisions for processing of TDS statement contained in section 200A of the Income-Tax Act. The new section 206CB also provides for mechanism for computation of fee payable under section 234E at the time of processing of TCS statement.

Penalty for late filing or non- filing TDS statement

Similarly a new penalty provision has been inserted as section 271H which provides that a deductor shall pay penalty of minimum Rs 10,000 to Rs 1 lakh for not filing the TDS statement within one year from the specified date within which he was supposed to file the statement. This amendment is also effective from 1st July 2012. Penalty under section 271H will be in addition to late filing fees prescribed under section 234E.

Apart from delay in filing of TDS/TCS return, section 271H also covers cases of filing incorrect TDS/TCS return. Penalty under section 271H can also be levied if the deductor/collector files an incorrect TDS/TCS return. In other words, minimum penalty of Rs. 10,000 and maximum penalty of upto Rs. 1,00,000 can be levied if the deductor/collector files an incorrect TDS/TCS return.

No penalty will be levied under section 271H for the failure to file the TDS/TCS return, if the person proves that after paying tax deducted/collected by him, along with the late-filing fee and interest (if any), to the credit of the Central Government, he had filed the TDS/TCS return before the expiry of a period of one year from the due date of filing the TDS/TCS return. In other words, no penalty under section 271H will be levied in case of delay in filing the TDS/TCS return if following conditions are satisfied:

·         The tax deducted/collected at source is paid to the credit of the Government.

·         Late filing fees and interest (if any) is paid to the credit of the Government.

·         The TDS/TCD return is filed before the expiry of a period of one year from the due date specified in this behalf.

It should be noted that the above relaxation is applicable only in case of penalty levied under section 271H for delay in filing the TDS/TCS return and not in case of filing incorrect TDS/TCS statement.

Apart from above relaxation, in following two cases the taxpayer can get relief from penalty under section 271H:

·         Under section 273A(4) the Principal Commissioner of Income-tax or Commissioner of Income-tax has power to waive or reduce the penalty levied under the Income-tax Act. Penalty can be waived or reduced by the Commissioner of Income-tax if the conditions specified in section 273A(4) in this regard are satisfied.

·         Apart from shelter of section 273A(4), section 273B also provides immunityfrom penalty in genuine cases. As per section 273B, penalty under section 27111 will not be levied if the taxpayer proves that there was a reasonable cause for failure.

Thus, if the present due time for filing TDS statement is taken, the time up to which the penalty u/s 271H cannot be imposed are explained for any tax deduction for FY 2014-15

Sl. No	TDS Statement	Due date	Date up to which no penalty u/s 271H can be imposed
1	30th June	15th July 2014	15th July 2015
2	30th September	15th October 2014	15th October 2015
3	31st December	15th January 2015	15th January 2015
4	31st March	15th May 2015.	15th May 2015

At the time of preparing statements of tax deducted, the deductor is required to mandatorily quote:

(i)  his tax deduction and collection account number (TAN) in the statement;

(ii) his permanent account number (PAN) in the statement except in the case where the deductor is an office of the Government( including State Government). In case of Government deductors “PANNOTREQD” to be quoted in the e-TDS statement;

(iii) the permanent account number PAN of all deductees;

(iv)furnish particulars of the tax paid to the Central Government including book identification number or challan identification number, as the case may be.

(v) furnish particular of amounts paid or credited on which tax was not deducted in view of the issue of certificate of no deduction of tax u/s 197 by the assessing officer of the payee.