Applicability of 15CA CB and How to file form 15CA CB

Under section 195(6) of income tax act 1961, government imposes a responsibility on every person who is responsible for remit any sum outside India, to furnish certain information of this remittance to income tax department. Let’s understands what section 195(6) talk about, “The person responsible for paying to a non-resident, (not being a company), or to a foreign company, any sum, whether chargeable or not under the provisions of this Act, shall furnish the information relating to payment of such sum, in such form and manner, as may be prescribed.”

Under rule 37BB of income tax rules, government has prescribed the form 15CA and 15CB. These forms have to be filed by remitter (either 15CA or 15CA and 15CB as the case may be) to comply with requirement of section 195(6).

Let’s understand which forms to be filed:

Form 15CA is to be furnished by the person who (remitter) is responsible for paying the sum and 15CB is a certificate which is to be filled by Chartered Accountant on behalf of remitter. Further such 15CB is requires further approval from payee through his income tax credential as 15CB was filed by CA on remitter’s request.

The form 15CA has been categorized into four broad categories which are illustrated below. Lets understand what is the relevancy of each four parts of form 15CA.

Part-A of form 15CA:

If the amount of payment or the aggregate of such payments, as the case may be, made during the financial year does not exceed five lakh rupees (Whether Taxable or not) then part A of form 15CA is required to be filed by remitter.

Part-B of form 15CA

Where lower or NIL rate certificate/order has been obtained from Assessing officer under section 195(2)/195(3)/197 of income tax act then part B of form 15CA is required to be filed. In other way we can say if payee/beneficiary have lower deduction certificate then part B of form 15CA will be applicable.

Part-C of form 15CA

The Part C of Form 15CA has to be filed after obtaining a certificate in Form 15CB from an accountant as defined in the Explanation below sub-section (2) of section 288. This part is applicable where remittance is chargeable to tax and the remittance or the aggregate of such remittance exceeds 5 lakh rupees during the financial year. It means that if amount is chargeable to tax and amount is less than 5 lakh then part C will not be applicable and details will be required to submit in part A.

Part-D of form 15CA

This part is applicable where remittance is not chargeable to tax under the provisions of the Income Tax Act. In other words if there is no applicability of TDS then part D is required to be filed.

Further there are certain cases of foreign remittance where no form (15CA and 15CB) is required to be furnished:

Any sum which is not chargeable under the provisions of the Act, and if,-

1. The remittance is made by an individual and it does not require prior approval of Reserve Bank of India as per the provisions of section 5 of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 (42 of 1999) read with Schedule III to the Foreign Exchange (Current Account Transaction) Rules, 2000; or
2. The remittance is of the nature specified in list below:

 How to file form 15CA

As elaborated above Filing of 15CA is to be done by remitter (person who is remitting money) hence income tax login credential of remitter will be required. The remitter will be required to login with their PAN and navigate to e-file> Income Tax Forms > Form Name -15 CA – Select Year – Submission mode then Click on Continue.

Now you have to choose relevant part of form 15CA as elaborated above. Following details will be required to submit in form 15CA:

Details of Remitter:

• Name as per PAN card
• TAN
• Complete address
• Email ID
• Mobile no
• Legal Status (like Company or Trust)

Details of Payee:

• Apart from same details as required for Remitter, country name of payee will also be required

Details of Transaction:

• Amount before TDS payable
• Aggregate amount of payment/payments
• Name of bank through which payment is being made
• Propose date of remittance
• Nature of remittance (like Royalty or Interest)
• Purpose code
• Amount of TDS
• Rate of TDS
• Date of tax deduction

Once details have been submitted, form can be filed with the help of digital signature of authorised person of remitter. After successfully filing of form, an Acknowledgment no will be generated which remitter has to be kept in their records.

How to file form 15CB

As explained earlier, form 15CB is to be filed by Chartered Accountant hence his Login Credential will be required. Login ID will be combination of ARCA and 6 digit membership no of Chartered Accountant like if a CA have membership no 123456 then his login ID will be ARCA123456.

Once you logged in, navigate to e-file> Income Tax Forms and enter following details to proceed for:

• PAN of Remitter
• Select form 15CA
• Select Submission mode as Upload XML
• Provide UDIN
• Then upload XML and affix DSC of Chartered Accountant and Click on Submit.

A Chartered Accountant cannot file form 15CB for their client unless client (remitter) has added CA on income tax portal through their income tax credential with membership no of CA.

Form 15CB is to be prepared in income tax utility which can be downloaded from https://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/downloads/offlineUtilities?lang=eng and XML to be generated. To prepare form 15CB following details will be required:

• Name and PAN of remitter
• Name of Payee or beneficiary
• Address of beneficiary
• County of remittance
• Currency Type
• Amount payable in foreign currency and in INR
• Name of bank and BSR code through which payment is being made
• Propose date of remittance
• Nature of remittance (like Royalty or Interest)
• Purpose code
• Taxability details under income tax act
• Taxability details under DTAA
• Amount of TDS
• Rate of TDS
• Date of tax deduction
• Amount of remittance after TDS
• And Complete details of Chartered Accountant

Penalty on non filling/wrong filling of Form 15CA/CB

As per section 271-I of income tax act If a person, who is required to furnish information under sub-section (6) of section 195, fails to furnish such information, or furnishes inaccurate information, the Assessing Officer may direct that such person to pay, by way of penalty, a sum of one lakh rupees