Statutory position — s.200A: the CPC computes tax, interest and the s.234E fee on a TDS statement and issues an intimation
CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both waysSuperseded by amendment
CPC has sent me an intimation under section 200A with a late fee on it. What does section 200A actually let them compute, when did the fee limb go in, and can I appeal it?
Section 200A is the machinery for processing a quarterly TDS statement under the Income-tax Act, 1961. Sub-section (1) runs (a) to (f): correct arithmetical errors and incorrect claims apparent from the statement, compute interest, compute the fee under section 234E, determine the sum payable or the refund, send an intimation, and grant the refund. The fee limb is clause (c), and the old clauses (c), (d) and (e) became (d), (e) and (f) when section 52 of the Finance Act, 2015 substituted clauses (c) to (f) for clauses (c) to (e) with effect from 1 June 2015 — so a submission that still calls the intimation clause (d) or the refund clause (e) is describing the law before that date. Under the 1961 Act the intimation cannot be sent after one year from the end of the financial year in which the statement is filed, and that limit sits in the proviso to sub-section (1), not in sub-section (2); under the successor provision, section 399 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, the same one-year limit is sub-section (2) itself. The intimation is deemed a notice of demand under the proviso to section 156, is appealable to the Commissioner (Appeals) under section 246A(1)(a), and can be rectified under section 154(1)(c). Whether a section 234E fee can be charged in a section 200A intimation for a quarter before 1 June 2015 is the point on which the High Courts have split — Karnataka and Kerala for the deductor, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madras for the Revenue — and which High Court you are in decides it.
Statutory position — s.195: tax is deducted only on a sum “chargeable under the provisions of this Act”, and Explanation 2 fixes who owes the duty, not what is taxable
CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both waysSuperseded by amendment
In March 2026 I remitted a fee to a company outside India without deducting anything, because I did not think any part of it was taxable here. The Assessing Officer now says section 195 obliged me to deduct on the whole remittance, or at least to apply to him before paying. Does section 195 say that — and since the new Act has come in, which Act governs my payment at all?
Which Act governs is settled by one date: on the CBDT's transition FAQ, where the earlier of credit or payment falls on or before 31 March 2026 the Income-tax Act, 1961 applies, and where it falls on or after 1 April 2026 the Income-tax Act, 2025 applies instead — there, the deduction duty sits in section 393(2), Table, Serial No. 17. So a March 2026 remittance is a section 195 question. Section 195(1) does not tax a remittance; it attaches a deduction duty to “any interest … or any other sum chargeable under the provisions of this Act” paid to a non-resident or a foreign company, at the time of credit or of payment, whichever is earlier. Those five words are the gateway, and in GE India Technology Centre the Supreme Court held on 9 September 2010 that they cannot be read out of the sub-section: a payer who is fairly certain that no part of the sum is chargeable in India may make that determination himself and is not obliged to apply under section 195(2) first. Section 195(2) is the payer's application where a composite payment is partly chargeable; section 197 is a different route, taken by the recipient. Sub-section (6) requires information about every sum, whether or not chargeable, in the form prescribed by rule 37BB — which is why the bank asks for a 15CA even where nothing is deductible.
