Online submission of Form 15G/15H to benefit taxpayers

Arnav PandyaThere will now be an element of relief for those who have to file their Form 15G and Form 15H for ensuring non deduction of tax at source. Till now the entire process had to be done in a physical form and this caused a lot of time and effort to be spent on completing the requirements. The income tax department has now allowed for this process to be done online and this change will be able to provide some relief for the taxpayers. It does not change the whole taxation structure but will reduce the effort that has to be made on this front. Here are some additional details related to this which needs the attention of the taxpayers.Nature of formsThere is the provision of a tax deduction at source for several receipts that a person gets. The whole process involves the payer deducting a part of the payment and then depositing this with the government against the PAN of the person who has to receive the payment. This is considered as a tax paid by the person who would have received the payment. This ensures that a part of the transaction goes to the government and then this has to be adjusted at the time of the filing of the income tax return and the calculation of the final amount of taxes. An example of this is the interest received on a bank fixed deposit. When the interest earned during a year crosses the Rs 10,000 mark then the bank will deduct tax at source and remit the net amount to the fixed deposit holder.There are several people who might not have any tax to be paid because the total amount that they earn is less than the amount that is taxable under the Income Tax Act. If there was no option available for these taxpayers which includes a large section of senior citizens then they would have to wait a long time till they can file their tax returns and get a refund. The option for them is to fill in Form 15G if they are less than 60 years of age and Form 15H if they are more than 60 years of age. This will ensure that the person who has to deduct the tax will not make any deduction at the time of making the payment.Earlier procedureThe procedure that had to be followed till now required the filling up of the form and then submitting this to the entity that had to make the deduction. Normally 3 copies of the form had to be filled in and submitted as one copy would be returned after acknowledgement, one would be sent to the income tax department and the third one would be kept with the entity making the deduction. This involved a lot of time and effort and hence was not an easy thing to complete.Online submissionThe ability of the taxpayer to now submit these forms online means that they have been freed from the requirement of physically filling in the form and the details that are required online would be easier. Also an acknowledgement would be generated online with a unique number and this would also make it easier to track in terms of what is the situation after the submission. Earlier there were a lot of instances wherein even after submission of the forms the deduction was made and it was difficult to know where the problem was. This will now be eliminated and all that the taxpayer has to do is to ensure that they have their basic details in place which they can submit and complete this process quickly.