Circular No. 797/2000-Income Tax Dated 10-10-2000

1188. Filing of returns regarding tax deduction at source/tax collection at source on Computer Media

1. The Finance Act, 1997 has made provision w.e.f. 1-4-1997 for filing of a return on  floppy diskette, magnetic cartridge tape, CD-ROM or any other computer readable Media. Pursuant to this, rule 37B was inserted in the Income-tax Rules, 1962 which, inter alia, states that the Computer Media must conform to the specifications given therein. Therefore, the Board hereby lays down the following guidelines for the persons responsible for deducting the tax under Chapter XVII-B and desirous of filing any return or statement referred to in rule 37 or 37A on a Computer Media.

Background

2.1 Under sub-sections (2) and (3) of section 206 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, read with rule 37B of the Income-tax Rules, 1962, a person responsible for deduction of tax at source, may file his TDS return on Computer Media in lieu of a paper return [as prescribed under section 206(1), read with rule 37 of the Income-tax Rules, 1962], subject to the conditions, limitations, rules and guidelines prescribed for the preparation, execution, filing and corrections thereof.

Computer Media Test Return

3.1 With a view to ensure that the TDS return intended to be filed on Computer Media conforms to the specifications of the Income-tax Department, a person responsible for deduction of tax at source, who desires to file his TDS return(s) on Computer Media for the first time, should submit a Test Return, to the concerned Chief Commissioner of Income-tax/Commissioner of Income-tax, three months prior to the relevant due date for filing of the TDS Return.

3.2 While submitting the Test Return, the person responsible for deduction of tax at source should ensure the following :

    (a)       ( i)   Form No. 27A, duly filled, in respect of the Test Return is enclosed;

   (ii)   Computer Media containing the Test Return is enclosed;

  (iii)   A certificate regarding clean and virus free Computer Media containing the Test Return is enclosed.

    (b)   The Computer Media containing the Test Return should be clearly marked as under :

           “For Test purposes only.”

    (c)   The Test Return should be submitted on a separate Computer Media for each type of TDS Return.

    (d)   The person responsible for deduction of tax at source shall, to the extent possible, ensure that no data compression/backup software utility is used to copy the test data on Computer Media. In case data compression/backup software utility is used to copy the Test Return data on Computer Media, the person responsible for deduction of tax at source shall ensure that the corresponding software utility and procedure for its decompression/restoration is also submitted alongwith the Test Return.

3.3 The concerned Chief Commissioner of Income-tax/Commissioner of Income-tax, after ascertaining from his Computer Centre whether the Test Return submitted by the person responsible for deduction of tax at source on Computer Media conforms to the data structure specifications of the Income-tax Department, will inform the person responsible for deduction of tax at source, within 30 days of receiving the Test Return, whether there were any problems in processing the Test Return.

3.4 The Test Return on Computer Media, which can be read on the computer system of the Income-tax Department without a ‘Job Abort’ and which has no errors, would generally constitute an acceptance to enable the person responsible for deduction of tax at source to file his TDS return(s) on Computer Media. If, however, a person responsible for deduction of tax at source submits a bad Computer Media, the concerned Chief Commissioner of Income-tax/Commissioner of Income-tax will inform the person responsible for deduction of tax at source of the fact. In such an eventuality, the person responsible for deduction of tax at source must supply a new Computer Media containing the complete Test Return within thirty (30) days of such intimation. If a person responsible for deduction of tax at source does not receive a communication for filing the TDS return on Computer Media within 45 days of receipt of Test Return on Computer Media by the Income-tax Department, the person responsible for deduction of tax at source must submit his return on paper media under section 206(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 read with rules 37 and 37A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962, to the authority as provided in rule 36A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. Any delay in submission of the TDS return will not be condoned under any circumstances, in any case.

3.5 A fresh Test Return based on the amendments/changes in the Income-tax Laws/Rules/Procedures or in the Hardware/Software specifications as notified by the Income-tax Department shall be submitted by the person responsible for deduction of tax at source as per the procedure laid down in paras 3.1 to 3.4 above.

3.6 The submission of a Test Return or filing of a TDS Return for any year on Computer Media, does not in any way, prevent the person responsible for deduction of tax at source from filing his TDS Return for the same or any subsequent year on paper media.

Guidelines for filing of TDS return on Computer Media

4.1 The TDS return on Computer Media, referred to in sub-sections (2) and (3) of section 206 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, should be furnished to the income-tax authority prescribed under rule 36A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962.

4.2 The TDS return filed on Computer Media should comprise Form No. 27A prescribed under rule 37B of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 and the attachment or attachments of specified Computer Media containing the data relating to the relevant TDS Return alongwith a certificate regarding clean and virus free Computer Media.

4.3 A TDS return, filed on Computer Media, shall contain all the information that is required to be furnished in a TDS return under section 206(1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, read with rules 37 and 37A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 on paper media.

4.4 As prescribed under rule 37B(4), while filing the TDS Return(s) on Computer Media, the person responsible for deduction of tax at source should ensure the following :

     (i)   The TDS return on Computer Media conforms to the specifications laid down in rule 37B(3) of the Income-tax Rules, 1962.

   (ii)   Form No. 27A, duly filled in, is enclosed.

  (iii)   In no case, more than one return is included on one unit of Computer Media. However, a single return, may spawn multiple units of the same Computer Media. If more than one unit of Computer Media is used in the case of a particular type of return, then each Computer Media should be serially numbered. For example, if a particular return spawns to 5 units of the same type of Computer Media, then the units should be numbered as 1 of 5, 2 of 5 and so on. Further, the package consisting of one or more units of Computer Media should be labelled as “TDS Return on Computer Media for Form No. ………..”.

   (iv)   If the data relating to a TDS return, submitted by the person responsible for deduction of tax at source, is copied using a data compression or backup software utility, the corresponding software utility and/or procedure for its decompression/restoration should also be supplied along with the Computer Media return.

    (v)   A certificate regarding clean and virus free Computer Media containing the data for TDS return should be submitted alongwith each TDS Return filed on Computer Media.

   (vi)   The Computer Media should be properly labelled clearly indicating the following :

    (a)   TAN

    (b)   Financial year

    (c)   The TDS Return Form No. e.g. Form 24, Form 25 etc.;

    (d)   The periodicity of Return i.e. Annual or 1st Half-Year or 2nd Half-year or 1st Quarter or 2nd Quarter or 3rd Quarter or 4th Quarter;

    (e)   Name of the person responsible for deduction of tax at source;

     (f)   Serial No. of each unit of Computer Media submitted e.g. 1 of 5, 2 of 5 and so on.

           Note : The person responsible for deduction of tax at source is advised to have a separate set of sequence of numbers for each type of Return Form to avoid any confusion;

    (g)   The Directory Structure as per the Instructions for Creating Data File (Refer to para 9.1);

    (h)   Name of the Ward/Circle/Range of the Assessing Officer with whom the TDS Return on Computer Media is filed.

           A Sample label for Computer Media is given in Annex XI.

  (vii)   The nomenclature of the TDS Return data file and the Directory Structure under which it will be stored on the Computer Media, should be in accordance with the Instructions for Creation of TDS Return on Computer Media.

 (viii)   The different types of records should be arranged according to hierarchy in the data file on Computer Media. The return record type, namely, RTN is highest in the hierarchy.

   (ix)   Each return record type, namely, RTN should be followed by return detail records depending upon the type of TDS Return Form.

    (x)   The record layout of each type of record should be in conformity with the respective record layouts as stated in the Instructions for Creation of TDS Return on Computer Media (Refer to para 9). The layouts of different records are given in Annexures I to X.

Important Notice

4.5 If the TDS return submitted by the person responsible for deduction of tax at source on Computer Media does not conform to the specifications, as specified in para 9 of these Guidelines, of the Income-tax Department, and the person responsible for deduction of tax at source cannot produce a satisfactory replacement thereof, the person responsible for deduction of tax at source shall submit the paper copies of return.

Date of filing of TDS Return on Computer Media

5. Any person filing the TDS return on Computer Media should deliver the return by the end of the month falling in the financial year immediately following the previous year, as specified in rules 37 and 37A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962, to the income-tax authority as provided in rule 36A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962.

Receipt of the TDS Return on Computer Media

6. An acknowledgement of having received the TDS Return on Computer Media shall be issued by the income-tax authority prescribed under rule 36A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962 to receive such return.

While issuing the acknowledgement, the income-tax authority will allot the RRR No. and put on the magnetic media for further recognition.

Revision of TDS Return filed on Computer Media

7. A person responsible for deduction of tax at source desirous of revising the original TDS Return filed on Computer Media, may file a revised TDS Return either on Computer Media, following the aforesaid procedure, or on paper media.

Returning of Computer Media

8. The Computer Media on which the TDS Return(s) is/are filed, shall become the property of the Income-tax Department and will not be returned under any circumstances to the person filing such a return.

Creation of TDS return on Computer Media

9. The necessary requirements for creation of TDS Return on Computer Media are given below :—

9.1 The TDS Return data file should be created as a flat file using US 7 ASCII Mode.

9.2 Nomenclature of the Data File and the Directory Structure under which it will be stored.

The data file in the Computer Media should be stored under a Directory having the following directory structure :

NNNNXXXXNNXXXXXXX.DAT

where

For example, if the TAN is DELR00002C, return financial year is 1996-97, form number is 24, periodicity is 00 i.e, annual return, then the return year will be 1996, the name of the data file will be R00002C.DAT and the directory structure alongwith data file name will be.

1996240R00002C.DAT

The above directory structure along with data file name should also be mentioned on the label affixed on the Computer Media containing the TDS return.

Record Types

9.3 The records should be arranged in the data file according to hierarchy as given below in Table I. For example, the return record of type RTN is the highest in hierarchy. Each return record should be followed by return detail records, payment detail records, F24 records and so on, depending on the TDS Return Form. The kind of record is identified by the record type, which is the first field in the record. Each new record should start from a new line for a new type of record.

I. The various record types with their descriptions, in hierarchical order, are given below :

TABLE I

II. The types of records, mentioned against each Form in the following table, will be applicable to a Form :

TABLE II

III. The valid record types for each type of form are as under :

TABLE III

Record Layouts

9.4 The following should be kept in mind while preparing the TDS Return on Computer Media :

     (i)   The latest file and the data structures prescribed by the Income-tax Department should be used;

   (ii)   Separate Computer Media should be used for every return;

  (iii)   All alphanumeric fields should be left-justified and blank-filled;

   (iv)   All numeric fields should be Right-justified and zero-filled;

    (v)   Currency signs, -ve sign, commas or periods should not be used in numeric fields;

   (vi)   Decimals should be correctly aligned;

  (vii)   Date field should contain only valid date.

Conventions used

9.5 Following conventions have been used :

     (i)   In the record layouts, the

      *   implies that the field is mandatory

     ü    implies that the field is valid for the given form type

     D   implies that the field is not valid for the given form type

      b   implies that corresponding to the field, the value to be inserted will be blank

      0   implies that corresponding to the field, the value to be inserted will be zero

   (ii)   Number field should not contain any decimal character. It should be of fixed length. The value should be right justified and padded with zeros at the left. If no value is there, zeros of the desired length should be entered. For example, if the field requires to store a Number (say consisting of 10 digits), then in case if nothing has to be entered for this field then the value entered will be 0000000000. On the other hand, if the field requires the entry of decimal number then the decimal need not be stored. At the time of reading, the last two digits will be interpreted as precision of the number. For example, number (10, 2) will have 10 digits. At the time of reading, the last two digits will be interpreted as precision of the number i.e., 99.99 will be written as 0000009999. Similarly, 99 will be written as 0000009900.

  (iii)   Character field should be of fixed length, left justified and blank padded at the right. The null values should have blanks of desired length. For example, if the field has a maximum length of 10(ten) characters and the value to be stored in the field is ggggg then it should be stored in the format gggggbbbbb, where b represents the blank character. If the field has a maximum length of 10(ten) characters and the value to be stored is null then it should be stored as bbbbbbbbbb, where b represents the blank character.

   (iv)   Date field should be of eight characters. The format to be followed should be ddmmyyyy, where dd is the day, mm is the month and yyyy is the year. Thus, the date formats dd/mm/yyyy, dd-mm-yyyy, dd-mm-yy, dd/mm/yy, dd-mon-yyyy etc. (i.e., other than ddmmyyyy), are invalid. For example, if the date to be stored is 1st Jan., 1996, then it should be stored as 01011996 only.

9.6 Record Layouts for each Record Type

     (i)   The record layout for record type RTN is given in Annex I.

   (ii)   The record layout for record type RTD is given in Annex II.

  (iii)   The record layout for record type PMT is given in Annex III.

   (iv)   The record layout for record type TDS is given in Annex IV.

    (v)   The record layout for record type NTD is given in Annex V.

   (vi)   The record layout for record type F24 is given in Annex VI.

  (vii)   The record layout for record type SEC is given in Annex VII.

 (viii)   The record layout for record type DIV is given in Annex VIII.

   (ix)   The record layout for record type F26 is given in Annex IX.

    (x)   The record layout for record type UNT is given in Annex X.

Instructions for furnishing the Control Total

9.7 The total in respect of the particular column of the relevant TDS Return Form, mentioned below, should be furnished under the head “Control Total” in Form 27A.

Change of name, address etc. of the person responsible for deduction of tax at source

10. The person responsible for deduction of tax at source shall communicate in writing, any change in his name, address etc. in the format given in Annex XI.

11. The above guidelines will also apply for filing of returns regarding tax collection at source on Computer Media in respect of Form No. 27EA or Form No. 27EB or Form No. 27EC or Form No. 27ED as required by under the provisions of sub-section (5B) of section 206C of the Income-tax Act, 1961 read with rule 37EA of the Income-tax  Rules, 1962.

ANNEXURE I

RECORD LAYOUT FOR RECORD TYPE RTN

APPLICABLE TO FORM(S) : 24, 25, 26, 26A, 26B, 26BB, 26C, 26D, 26F, 26G, 26H, 26-I, 26J, 26K, 27

ANNEXURE II

RECORD LAYOUT FOR RECORD TYPE RTD

APPLICABLE TO FORM(S) : 26A, 26B, 26BB, 26C, 26D, 26F, 26G, 26H, 26-I, 26J, 26K, 27