Remitting money abroad? Banks and dealers will accept physical forms 15CA/CB till July 15

Glitches experienced by users on the new income tax e-filing portal have prompted the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to allow authorised foreign exchange dealers to accept manual forms 15CA/CB until July 15. Earlier, it was allowed till June 30, 2021.

When you make payments over Rs 5 lakh to individuals or entities abroad, barring certain exceptions, you have to electronically upload the Form 15CA, along with the chartered accountant certificate in Form 15CB, on the e-filing portal. You then have to submit the copy to banks or authorised dealers before initiating foreign remittance.

“This is applicable primarily to business payments. For example, if you are availing of any services through an international website or importing products with value exceeding Rs 5 lakh, then banks ask for these documents while making the funds transfer,” explains Karan Batra, Founder, Chartered Club.

The purpose is to intimate the income tax department and completing the process is necessary for banks to authorise the payments.

"These could be payments for purchases made from NRIs such as vehicles, payments for artwork purchases and so on. Similarly, payments for any services offered by NRIs - for instance, web development, consultancy for medical or other grounds too would be included in these,” says Raju Shah, Partner, R C S P H & Associates, an Ahmedabad-based chartered accountancy firm.

Since uploading is difficult at present due to I-T portal glitches, particularly digital signature uploads for authentication, manual submission has been permitted till July 15, 2021. “A facility will be provided on the new e-filing portal to upload these forms at a later date for the purpose of generation of the document identification number,” the CBDT release said.