Notification No. 185

What it does

Under section 295 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the Central Board of Direct Taxes makes the Income-tax (Thirteenth Amendment) Rules, 2003, substituting rule 37E in Part VIA of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The substituted rule 37E prescribes the return regarding tax collected at source under sub-section (5A) of section 206C: every person collecting tax in accordance with section 206C shall, in respect of the period ending on 30 September and on 31 March in each financial year, deliver or cause to be delivered to the income-tax authority referred to in rule 37F the return for collection of tax in Form No. 27E. In Appendix II, Form No. 27EA is substituted.

Who it reaches

every person collecting tax at source under section 206C
the income-tax authority named in rule 37F to whom the return is delivered
buyers and licensees from whom tax is collected, whose credit rests on the return

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.206C	s.2, s.390, s.394, s.395, s.397, s.398, s.400, s.402
s.295	s.533

The instrument, as the Board published it

The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.

Notification No : 185

Section(s) Referred : s. 295

Date of Issue : 31/7/2003

Notification No. 185 of 2003/S.O. No. 879(E), dt. 31st July, 2003.

In exercise of the powers conferred by section 295 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the Central Board of Taxes hereby makes the following rules further to amend the Income-tax Rules, 1962, namely:

1. (1) These rules may be called the Income-tax (Thirteenth Amendment) Rules, 2003.

(2) They shall come into force from the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

2. In the Income-tax Rules, 1962,--

(a) in Part VIA, for rule 37E, the following rule shall be substituted, namely:

"37E. Prescribed return regarding tax collected at source under section 206C(5A)-Every person collecting tax in accordance with the provisions of section 206C shall, in respect of the period ending on 30th September and 31st March in each financial year, deliver or cause to be delivered to the income-tax authority referred to in rule 37F, the return for collection of tax in Form no. 27E."

(b) in Appendix II,--

(A) for Form No. 27EA shall be substituted.

[F.No. 62/FB/2003-TPL]

What it changes

The rule numbers are the 1962 Rules’ own, as the notification names them. The right-hand column is the department’s own mapping into the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything.

Rule of the 1962 Rules	Now, in the 2026 Rules
Rule 37E	no counterpart recorded
Rule 37F	no counterpart recorded

Forms it touches. Form No. 27E, Form No. 27EA

From when

the date of publication in the Official Gazette.

What to watch

The rules come into force from the date of publication in the Official Gazette, which the text does not itself give.
The return becomes half-yearly, for the periods ending 30 September and 31 March in each financial year.
The prescribed return is Form No. 27E, delivered to the authority referred to in rule 37F.
Clause (b)(A) of the notification, which substitutes Form No. 27EA in Appendix II, is incomplete as printed and does not set the Form out.

Where you meet it

In the half-yearly return of tax collected at source filed by a collector, and in a buyer's claim to credit for tax collected.

What it names

Forms it names. Form No. 27E, Form No. 27EA

Rules it names. Rule 37E, 37F of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The 1962 Rules were replaced by the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which renumbered nearly everything: a rule number quoted here almost never means the same rule today.

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

Notification No. 35/2025 [F. No. 370142/11/2025-TPL] / GSR 252(E) — Ministry of Finance 22 April 2025
Notification No. 36/2025 [F. No. 370142/11/2025-TPL] / SO 1825(E) — Ministry of Finance 22 April 2025
Notification No. 115/2024 [F. No. 370142/21/2024-TPL] / SO 4545(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 16 October 2024
Circular No. 11/2023 — Circular No. 11 of 2023 6 July 2023
Circular No. 10/2023 — Circular No. 10 of 2023 30 June 2023
Notification No. 99/2022 [F. No. 370142/9/2022-TPL Part (2)] / SO 3878(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 17 August 2022

← Notification No. 186 · Notification No. 184 →

What a notification is. A notification is made under a power the Act itself gives, and within that power it is law — unlike a circular, which only binds the department. Its reach is the reach of the enabling provision and no wider, and the date it carries decides from when it works.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.

What this is