Section 197A

Section 197A — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 197A, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• A. Kowsalya Bai v Union of India High CourtHelps taxpayerNo later treatment found
  My income is below the taxable limit and I filed Form 15G, but the finance company says it cannot act on it without a PAN. Can section 206AA be applied to me?
  No. The Karnataka High Court read section 206AA down as inapplicable to persons whose income is below the taxable limit. Section 139A obliges only certain persons to obtain a permanent account number, and a person with income below the exemption limit is not among them. Section 206AA, which invalidates a section 197A declaration filed without a PAN, runs contrary to that earlier provision and, so applied, is discriminatory. The Court held that banking and financial institutions must not insist on a PAN from such small investors, adding that any evasion or concealment can be dealt with under the penal provisions. Section 206AA continues to apply to those above the taxable limit.
• Statutory position — s.194A: tax on interest other than interest on securities, with the threshold at ₹50,000 for a bank, co-operative bank or post office, ₹1,00,000 for a senior citizen and ₹10,000 in any other case — the 1961 Act position from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  My bank has deducted tax on my fixed deposit interest and I was told the limit had gone up. My father is a senior citizen and his bank deducted too. There is also a loan I took from a friend on which I pay interest, and a co-operative society that pays me interest on a deposit. Who exactly has to deduct under section 194A, on what amount, and what are the limits as they stand now?
  Section 194A requires any person who is not an individual or a Hindu undivided family, and who pays a resident interest other than interest on securities, to deduct tax at the rates in force at the time of credit or payment, whichever is earlier. An individual or HUF is drawn in only by the proviso to sub-section (1), and only if total sales, gross receipts or turnover exceeded one crore rupees in business or fifty lakh rupees in profession in the preceding financial year. Section 194A(3)(i) sets the thresholds. From 1 April 2025 they are fifty thousand rupees where the payer is a banking company, a co-operative society carrying on banking business or a post office deposit scheme, one lakh rupees where the payee is a senior citizen, and ten thousand rupees in any other case — each figure substituted by Act No. 7 of 2025, the Finance Act, 2025. Section 194A(3) also carries the exclusions: interest paid to a banking company, a financial corporation, the Life Insurance Corporation, the Unit Trust of India or an insurer under clause (iii); interest paid by a firm to its partner under clause (iv); the co-operative society exemptions in clauses (v) and (viia), which since 1 April 2020 are switched off only where both conditions in the proviso are met — the society's turnover exceeded fifty crore rupees in the preceding financial year and the interest to that payee crossed one lakh rupees for a senior citizen or fifty thousand rupees for anyone else; and the two Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal limbs in clauses (ix) and (ixa), where interest credited is never liable and interest paid is liable only above fifty thousand rupees in the financial year — a figure the Finance Act, 2025 did not move. Section 197A(1A) and (1C) let a payee stop the deduction by declaration — Form No. 15G, or Form No. 15H for a resident individual aged sixty or more, both prescribed by rule 29C. From 1 April 2026 the Income-tax Act, 1961 was repealed by section 536 of the Income-tax Act, 2025; the successor is section 393(1) of the 2025 Act, whose Table carries the same three figures.
• Statutory position — s.197: the Assessing Officer may certify a lower rate, or nil, for a listed section, but only on the payee's application and only for a period of the previous year — the 1961 Act position, for deductions up to 31 March 2026 CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  My money is stuck. Every invoice I raise has tax deducted at the full rate, my actual tax for the year is far less than the deductions, and I only get it back a year later when the refund comes. Somebody told me to apply for a lower-deduction certificate under section 197. What does section 197 actually say — which payments does it cover, what does the Assessing Officer have to be satisfied about, what form do I file, and can the certificate be backdated to cover the deductions already made?
  Section 197(1) lets the payee apply to the Assessing Officer for a certificate that the payer may deduct at a lower rate, or not at all. It is not open-ended: it works only for the sections named in it, and the Assessing Officer must be satisfied that “the total income of the recipient justifies” the lower rate. The list is sections 192, 193, 194, 194A, 194C, 194D, 194G, 194H, 194-I, 194J, 194K, 194LA, 194LBA, 194LBB, 194LBC, 194M, 194-O, 194Q and 195 — 194LBA was added by Act No. 8 of 2023 with effect from 1 April 2023 and 194Q by Act No. 15 of 2024 with effect from 1 October 2024. Section 197(2) then binds the payer: once a certificate is given, he deducts at the certified rate, or nothing, until the Assessing Officer cancels it. Section 197(2A) is the rule-making power, and the rules made under it are rule 28 (application in Form No. 13, filed electronically), rule 28AA (how the rate is worked out and how long the certificate lasts) and rule 28AB (a no-deduction certificate for trusts and other section 139(4C) filers). Nothing in the section or the rules confers a power to backdate a certificate, and in substance it operates forward: rule 28AA(4) sends it to the named deductor, who cannot un-deduct months already past. From 1 April 2026 this machinery is gone — the Income-tax Act, 1961 was repealed by section 536 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 and the successor is section 395 of the 2025 Act, applied for in Form No. 128 under rule 213 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, and from the same date section 395(6) lets that application go to a prescribed income-tax authority instead of the Assessing Officer.
• Statutory position — section 206AA, sub-section (7) and rule 37BC: the twenty per cent rate, the five per cent provisos, and the non-resident's way out CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  My non-resident payee has no PAN. Must I deduct at twenty per cent, and is there any prescribed alternative?
  Section 206AA(1) requires a deductee to furnish his permanent account number, failing which tax is deducted at the higher of the rate specified in the relevant provision, the rates in force, or twenty per cent — but two provisos substitute five per cent for twenty where the deduction is under section 194-O or section 194Q. Sub-section (7) disapplies the section altogether to a non-resident not being a company and to a foreign company in respect of interest on long-term bonds under section 194LC and any other payment subject to prescribed conditions, and rule 37BC prescribes those conditions. Under rule 37BC(1) the section does not apply to interest, royalty, fees for technical services, dividend and payments on transfer of any capital asset if the deductee furnishes the four items in sub-rule (2) to the deductor.

Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.