Summary: For remittances to non-residents made on or after 1 April 2026, Form 145 and Form 146 apply under the Income-tax Rules, 2026, broadly replacing the earlier Form 15CA and Form 15CB framework, with the reporting requirement linked to Section 397(3)(d) of the Income-tax Act, 2025. While the substantive compliance framework remains broadly similar, practitioners may encounter technical difficulties while filing Form 145 on the income-tax e-filing portal, including a generic “fix the following issues” message without identifying the actual error. Based on practical filing experience, such problems may sometimes be resolved by completing the remitter’s and CA’s portal profiles, manually entering the Form 146 ARN, removing special characters from relevant fields, abandoning an old saved draft and starting afresh, re-registering the DSC where signing fails, using a clean browser session, or using an available offline utility. Where the error persists, a helpdesk ticket should be raised with screenshots and the relevant draft reference. These are practical troubleshooting measures rather than official departmental guidance and should therefore be applied after checking the applicable form instructions and official FAQs.
Introduction
For remittances to non-residents made on or after 1 April 2026, Form 145 (corresponding broadly to the erstwhile Form 15CA) and Form 146 (corresponding broadly to the erstwhile Form 15CB/CA certificate) apply under the Income-tax Rules, 2026. The relevant reporting requirement is now contained in Section 397(3)(d) of the Income-tax Act, 2025. Although the underlying compliance requirements remain broadly similar to the earlier regime, practitioners may face technical difficulties while filing Form 145 on the income-tax e-filing portal.
Form 145 Filing Errors: Practical Troubleshooting Steps and Solutions
A frequently reported issue is that the portal displays “fix the following issues” while failing to identify any specific error. Based on practical filing experience, the following troubleshooting steps may help:
- Complete both portal profiles: Ensure that the remitter’s profile as well as the CA’s profile on the e-filing portal is complete, including applicable key-person and other mandatory details. An incomplete profile may result in unexplained validation errors.
- Enter the Form 146 ARN manually: Instead of copying and pasting the Form 146 Acknowledgement/ARN number, type it manually. Spaces or hidden characters introduced during copy-paste may result in an “invalid ARN format” error.
- Remove special characters: Avoid unnecessary special characters such as commas, ampersands (
&) and quotation marks in address, purpose-of-remittance and other free-text fields where the portal validation does not accept them. - Start with a fresh Form 145: If the form was previously saved as a draft, consider deleting or abandoning the existing draft and starting a fresh Form 145. An older draft may retain validation or data issues even after individual fields are corrected.
- Check DSC registration: Where the error arises at the signing or submission stage, re-register the Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) under the relevant profile and ensure that the required signing utility is properly installed and running.
- Use a clean browser session: Clear the browser cache or try filing through an incognito/private browsing window. If the online form continues to fail, consider the offline/JSON utility, where such facility is officially available for Form 145.
- Raise an e-filing grievance/helpdesk ticket: If the error persists despite the above steps, raise a ticket with the Income Tax e-filing helpdesk. Attach screenshots of the error and mention the relevant draft/reference details so that the technical team can identify the failed validation.
Important: The above troubleshooting measures are based on practical filing experience and should not be treated as official guidance of the Income Tax Department. The applicable provisions, Income-tax Rules, form instructions and official e-filing FAQs should be checked before relying on any particular workaround.
