Form No. 12BB – Particulars of claims by an employee for TDS on salary

Employers seek information on and proof of investments/expenditure from employees who wish to avail tax benefits each year. The benefits include those on allowances such as House Rent Allowance and Leave Travel Allowance, and those on deductions such as interest payment on housing loan (Section 24) and payments towards life insurance premium etc. under Section 80C, and other sections. As of now (May 2016), there is no format as prescribed by the Income Tax Department with regard to how information on investments/expenditure should be collected. So far, organizations have been using their own formats for the purpose of collecting information from employees in this regard.

The Income Tax Department, by way of a notification dated 29-Apr-2016, has prescribed a format called Form No. 12BB for collection of investment/expenditure information from employees. This comes into effect on 01-June-2016.

According to Rule 26C of the Income Tax Rules:

The assessee shall furnish to the person responsible for making payment under sub-section (1) of section 192, the evidence or the particulars of the claims referred to in sub-rule (2), in Form No.12BB for the purpose of estimating his income or computing the tax deduction at source.

Information to be submitted in Form No. 12BB

Form No. 12BB should contain:

  1. Name, address, and PAN of the employee.
  2. Financial year to which the form pertains.
  3. For each of the tax benefit sought, the following information:
    • Nature of the claim (House Rent Allowance, Leave Travel Assistance, Housing Loan Interest, Benefit under Section 80C etc.)
    • Amount in Rs (HRA paid, LTA paid, Housing Loan Interest payable/paid, Investment under Section 80C. etc.)
    • Evidence/particulars (Landlord details for HRA, Lender details for housing loan, details for other benefits claimed)

Employees should sign Form No. 12BB with the declaration that the information provided is complete and correct, and submit the same to the employer along with the supporting documents.

You can take a look at the format of Form No. 12BB here.

Additional information to be provided in Form No. 24Q

A. Report landlord PAN to the Income Tax Department

Currently, employees who wish to avail HRA exemption are required to submit the PAN of their landlord to the employer if the rent payment exceeds Rs 1 lakh in a year. Until now, employers were not required to submit information on landlord PAN to the Income Tax Department. From FY 2016-17 onwards, employers will have to report the PAN of the landlord in Annexure II of Form No. 24Q. In the entry numbered 357 in Form No. 24Q Annexure II, the following should be provided.

In case of House Rent Allowance claim-Name and Permanent Account Number of the landlord if aggregate payment during the previous year exceeds rupees one lakh

B. Report PAN of the housing loan lender to the Income Tax Department

If an employee wishes to seek interest deduction under Section 24 (on housing loan), the PAN of the loan provider, if available, should be reported to the Income Tax Department from now on. In the entry numbered 358 in Form No. 24Q Annexure II, the following should be provided.

In case of deduction of interest under the head “Income from House property” – Name and Permanent Account Number of the lender (if available)

Here are the PAN of some of the banks/financial institutions for your benefit.

Bank / Financial Institution

Permanent Account Number (PAN)

Allahabad Bank

AACCA8464F

Axis Bank Limited

AAACU2414K

Bank of Baroda

AAACB1534F

Bank of India

AAACB0472C

Bank of Maharashtra

AACCB0774B

Canara Bank

AAACC6106G

Canfin Homes Limited

AAACC7241A

Central Bank of India

AAACC2498P

City Union Bank Limited

AAACC1287E

Corporation Bank

AAACC7245E

DCB Bank Limited

AAACD1461F

Deutsche Bank

AAACD1390F

Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited

AAACD1977A

Dhanlaxmi Bank Limited

AABCT0019J

GIC Housing Finance Limited

AAACG2755R

GRUH Finance Limited

AAACG7010K

HDFC Bank Limited

AAACH2702H

Housing Development Finance Corporation Limited

AAACH0997E

ICICI Bank Limited

AAACI1195H

IDBI Bank Limited

AAACI1603C or AABCI8842G

Indian Bank

AAACI1607G

Indian Overseas Bank

AAACI1223J

Indusind Bank Limited

AAACI1314G

Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

AAACK4409J

LIC Housing Finance Limited

AAACL1799C

Oriental Bank of Commerce

AAACO0191M

PNB Housing Finance Limited

AAACP3682N

Punjab & Sind Bank

AAACP1206G

Punjab National Bank

AAACP0165G

REPCO Home Finance Limited

AACCR0209F

State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur

AADCS4750R

State Bank of Hyderabad

AADCS4009H

State Bank of India

AAACS8577K

State Bank of Mysore

AACCS0155P

State Bank of Patiala

AACCS0143D

Syndicate Bank

AACCS4699E

The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited

AAACT2786P

The South Indian Bank Limited

AABCT0022F

UCO Bank

AAACU3561B

Union Bank of India

AAACU0564G

United Bank of India

AAACU5624P

Vastu Housing Finance Corporation Limited

AABCV9934C

Vijaya Bank

AAACV4791J

YES Bank Limited

AAACY2068D

Parting thoughts

  1. According to the income tax rules, employees can submit a “No PAN” declaration from their landlord, if the landlord does not have PAN. The current format of Form No. 12BB does not refer to the No PAN declaration. The Income Tax Department would do well to clarify this.
  2. In Annexure II of Form No. 24Q, we present one row of information for each employee. In case of an employee presenting more than one landlord/housing loan lender PAN due to the fact that the employee has paid rent to more than one landlord or taken housing loan from more than one lender, we are not sure how to enter the same in Form No. 24Q. We are also not sure if an entry should be made in Form No. 24Q in case of No PAN declaration from the landlord. We await the new format of Form No. 24Q to be notified by the Income Tax Department for clarity on this.
  3. We find many payroll managers being undisciplined about collecting investment/expenditure proof from employees while finalizing tax calculations each year. Now that Form No. 12BB has been notified by the Income Tax Department, payroll managers would do well to ensure that they collect Form No. 12BB from employees at the time of final settlement processing for exiting employees and before the end of the year for active employees. In the event of a query from the Income Tax Department, employers may well have to submit Form No. 12BB for scrutiny.

Please check with your payroll software or service provider regarding Form No. 12BB after 01-June-2016.  Of course, if you are a customer of Hinote, we will make it available for you on our payroll portal – sorry, couldn’t resist that :D.

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Form No. 24Q filing deadline change effective 01-June-2016

Currently (as of May 2016), the deadlines for Form No. 24Q filing are as follows:

Quarter Deadline
First quarter, ending 30th of June Immediately following 15th of July
Second quarter, ending 30th of September Immediately following 15th of October
Third quarter, ending 31st December Immediately following 15th of January
Fourth quarter, ending 31st of March Immediately following 15th of May

The Income Tax Department, by way of a notification dated 29-Apr-2016, has changed the deadline for Form No. 24Q filing each quarter.

Revised Form No. 24Q filing deadline

With effect from 01-June-2016, the deadlines for Form No. 24Q filing are as follows.

Quarter Deadline
First quarter, ending 30th of June Immediately following 31st of July
Second quarter, ending 30th of September Immediately following 31st of October
Third quarter, ending 31st December Immediately following 31st of January
Fourth quarter, ending 31st of March Immediately following 31st of May

As you may have observed, organizations will have an additional 15 days for filing Form No. 24Q each quarter from 01-June-2016 onwards. Given that the last date for TDS remittance is the 7th, we at Hinote receive TDS challan information from many of our clients only after the 7th, and consequently burn the midnight oil to file Form No. 24Q by the 15th after completing all the checks regarding TDS data. The additional 15 day period comes as a relief to us and payroll compliance managers.

Deadline for Form No. 16 issuance

For the last quarter, the Form No. 24Q filing deadline has been extended to 31st of May. Rule 31 of the Income Tax Rules states that Form No. 16 should be issued “by 31st day of May of the financial year immediately following the financial year in which the income was paid and tax deducted.” This means that the deadline for Form No. 16 issuance too is 31st of May. Given that it takes a few days for the TRACES system to generate Part A of Form No. 16 once Form No. 24Q is filed, it is currently impossible to issue Form No. 16 by 31st of May if Form No. 24Q is filed on 31st May or even a day or two ahead of 31st of May.

Maybe the Income Tax Department should consider moving the Form No. 16 issuance deadline by a week or 15 days after 31st of May.

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SBI Lending Rates for Loan Perquisite Calculation – 2016-17

State Bank of India (SBI) has published the reference lending rates for the purpose of loan perquisite calculation for the financial year 2016-17. You can find the SBI rates as on 01-Apr-2016 here.

SBI provides reference rates for different types of loan (home loan, car loan etc.) and employers should use the correct reference rate for the purpose of perquisite calculation. For example, if a car loan is provided to an employee, the reference rate for perquisite calculation shall be the SBI car loan rate.

Reference rate for personal loan provided to employees

SBI’s loan product called “Xpress Credit” corresponds to personal loans provided by employers to their employees. There are 3 categories of reference rates under this loan – Full Check-off, Partial Check-off, and No Check-off. The term Check-off, in this context, refers to the system whereby the employer regularly deducts a portion of an employee’s salary and makes payments towards loan repayment. If the loan repayment from an employee happens entirely by way of salary deduction (and not by the employee paying by cheque/cash outside of salary deduction), the Full Check-off rates should be considered for perquisite calculation.

For 2016-17, SBI has published a range of rates for the 3 categories (Full, Partial, and No Check-off). It is not clear how employers should interpret the range provided. For example, the reference rate range for the “Full Check-off” category is as follows:

Full Check-off: 330 bps – 380 bps above Base Rate i.e., 12.60 % p.a. – 13.10% p.a.

If an employer provides a personal loan at 0% interest rate and the loan deduction happens entirely by way of deduction from salary, should the employer consider 12.60% or 13.10% as the reference rate? It would be useful if SBI or the Income Tax Department provides a clarification on how employers should interpret the range of reference loan rates published by SBI.

In addition to offering Xpress Credit, SBI offers a number of other personal loan products such as SBI Saral – the interest rates for these products are different from those of Xpress Credit as of 01-Apr-2016. It may be noted that SBI has chosen Xpress Credit alone as the reference loan product for perquisite calculation in the personal loan segment.

You can read about how to calculate perquisite value on loan provided to employees in this blog post.

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