Income Tax department revises Form 16: Here is what's new
The Income Tax department has notified changes in Form 16 that requires more details about deductions under tax saving schemes, investment in tax saving schemes and income from other sources. The amended form will come into effect from May 12, 2019. The move is aimed at stricter scrutiny of claims made by assessees to check tax avoidance or evasion. The Income-tax Act, 1961 requires every employer to issue a certificate giving details of salary along with the tax deducted at source (TDS) of each its employee in Form 16.
"Earlier, where the disclosure of various deductions were mentioned in a consolidated manner, ranging from 80C, 80CCD, 80E, 80G would now be required to be disclosed separately," said Sanjoli Maheshwari, Director, Nangia Advisors.
These specific disclosures would provide ease to the tax authorities in understanding the various components of income of the taxpayer and thereby, facilitating the conduct of scrutiny more precisely.
Maheshwari said that Form 16 and TDS return Form 24Q have been amended with an intent to make them more elaborative and informative.