Introduction
Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) is a Income Tax. It is deducted by a person while making payment of salary, commission, rent, professional fee, contract payment or other specified payment. Tax deducted as per specified rate under income tax provisions.
Tax so deducted should be deposit into the government of India account before 7th of next month or 30th April for March payment. Non payment or delay payment is also liable for interest 1% or 1.5% per month compounding.
Threshold Limit of TDS Salary
While an employer makes payment of “Salaries”, the employer has to deduct TDS from salary of his employee under section 192 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and deposit it to the credit of government. However, in case the total income of the employee is upto Rs. 5,00,000/-, TDS is not required to be deducted.
What is TDS Return?
A TDS Return is a summary of all the transactions related to TDS made during a quarter. TDS Return is a quarterly statement submitted by the deductor to the Income Tax Department. The statement shows a summary of all the entries for TDS collected by the deductor and the TDS paid by the deductor to the Income Tax Authority.
TDS Sections
- 192A – Salary paid to govt. employees other than union govt. employees
- 192B – Salary paid to non-government employees
- 192C – Salary paid to union govt. employees
Form 24Q – TDS Return for Salary payment
As per Section 192 of the Income Tax Act, 1961, an employer is required to deduct TDS at the time of paying salary to an employee. An employer has to file salary TDS return in Form 24Q for TDS deduction and submit to the Income Tax Department on a quarterly basis.
In simple words, Form 24Q is a quarterly statement which contains details of the salary paid and the TDS deducted from it. All the companies and firms in India are required to make this declaration and payment on quarterly basis.
Content of Form 24Q
TDS Salary for salary payment in Form No. 24Q is divided into two parts: Annexure I and Annexure II.
Annexure I contains details about the deductor, challans and deductees. The annexure has to be filed and submitted for all four quarters of a financial year.
Details of challan(s) mentioned in Annexure I
- BSR code of the branch
- Date of Deposit of Challan
- Challan Serial Number
- Total Amount of Challan
- Total amount to be allocated among deductee
- Interest amount to be allocated among deductee
Details of Deductee(s) mentioned in Annexure I
- Employees reference number, if available
- PAN and Name of Employees
- TDS Section Code
- Date of payment and credit
- Amount paid or credit
- TDS Amount and cess
Annexure II
Annexure II contains salary details that need not be submitted during the first three-quarters but, only for the fourth quarter of every financial year along with the salary details of the employee for the complete financial year. This annexure covers all deductions that have to be claimed by the employee, income from other sources, house property and overall tax liability as calculated.
Form 24Q Format
E-TDS/e-TCS return as per the file formats is to be prepared in clean text ASCII format, with ‘txt’ as filename extension. It can be prepared with the use of any other third-party software or by using NSDL e-Gov e-TDS/TCS Return Preparation Utility (RPU) that can be downloaded free of cost from the website of TIN.
After the file has been created in accordance with the file format, it needs to be verified using the File Validation Utility (FVU) provided by NSDL e-Gov. should there be any errors; the FVU shall give a report of the errors. Once the errors are corrected, verify it again through the FVU. The file generated by the FVU following successful validation has to be furnished to a TIN-FC.
Form 24Q Online
The form can be submitted online as well as offline mode along with the necessary documents. However, for certain people, it is mandatory to submit the quarterly return online in case of the following deductor is:
- A Government office
- A company’s principal officer
- Assessee has had its accounts audited for the previous year under 44AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
- If the record of deductees in a statement is 20 or more during any quarter of a particular financial year.
How to Download TDS Return Forms
TDS Return forms can be downloaded by following the below mentioned steps:
- Step 1: Visit the official website of NSDL at https://www.tin-nsdl.com/
- Step 2: Click the “Downloads” tab and choose E-TDS/E-TCS from the drop down list menu
- Step 3: Click “Quarterly Returns” and then choose “Regular”
- Step 4: You will be redirected to the new page
- Step 5: Choose the TDS Return Form as per the requirement mentioned under section “Form”
