In a recent development that is likely to benefit taxpayers, the last date for filing income tax payments deductions for non-resident Indians (NRIs) and other non-residents has been extended by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) till July 15, 2021. Taxpayers will now be able to complete the process manually.
In a statement, the Finance Ministry clarified that the reason why the date has been extended is that taxpayers face problems while filing Income tax forms 15 CA and 15 CB on the new e-filing portal of the income tax department. Earlier, the process was supposed to have been completed by June 30, 2021.
“In view of the difficulties reported by taxpayers in electronic filing of Income Tax Forms 15CA and 15CB on the portal www.incometax.gov.in, it had earlier been decided by CBDT that taxpayers could submit these forms in a manual format to the authorised dealer till June 30, 2021. It has now been decided to extend the aforesaid date to July 15, 2021,” the ministry’s statement read.
The taxpayers can now submit the two forms in manual format to the authorised dealers, the department has said. The dealers have been asked to accept these forms till July 15, 2021, for the purpose of foreign remittances.
According to the ministry, the e-filing portal will have a facility allowing people to upload these forms later so that the Document Identification Number of DIN can be generated.
Forms 15CA and 15CB will need to be furnished for foreign remittances or payments to non-residents. The remitter comes under a legal obligation to deduct income tax every time someone must make a remittance to a non-resident.
A bank cannot possibly ascertain whether tax has been duly deducted or not because a bank does the remittance on its customer’s behalf. In order to check compliance, Form 15CA and a certificate of a Chartered Accountant in Form 15CB is required to be furnished. This will enable a bank to remit the amount abroad.
