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FAQs - Direct Tax |
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What
types of taxes are included under Direct Tax ?
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Corporation Tax (Income
tax payable by Corporates) |
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Income Tax |
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Hotel Receipts Tax (since abolished)
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Interest Tax |
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Other Taxes on Income & Expenditure
(since abolished) |
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Estate Duty (since abolished) |
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Taxes on Wealth |
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Gift Tax (since abolished) |
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Securities Transaction Tax |
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Banking Cash Transaction Tax |
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Fringe Benefit Tax |
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What
type of taxes can we collect?
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| We have been permitted by the Central
Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to collect
all the above taxes. In case of the "since abolished", as mentioned above,
these are not payable for the current assessment year. However, payments under
these heads for earlier assessment years would be accepted. |
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When
are these taxes payable?
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| All taxes are payable at a periodicity as
defined by the Income Tax Act, 1956. For example, Corporation Tax and Income
Tax include advance tax that is paid on the 15 of every Quarter i.e., June
15, September 15, December 15 and March 15 each year. Further, Tax Deducted
at Source (TDS) from Salaries, Rent, Contractor payments, etc. are required
to be paid by the 7th of the following month. |
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How is tax paid ?
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| The assessee pays the tax by way of a challan
along with the cheque or cash. |
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What is a challan ?
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CBDT has defined specific forms (aka Challans)
for each type of tax. These are required to be filled in by the taxpayer and
submitted along with the cheque/cash at the bank counter. The Challans are
as follows:
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Can all our branches accept taxes ?
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At present CBDT and RBI have permitted us
to collect taxes at specified branches only.
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What is the process for depositing taxes and is it the same for all
types of challans and taxes ?
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Yes, the process is the same and is as follows
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| Step 1 |
The taxpayer will come to the collecting branch of
the bank with his challan and the cheque and submit the same at the
specified collection counter. |
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| Step 2 |
The collection counter staff will scrutinise the challan
as per the defined checklist, which will be provided at the counter.
The Cheques / Payorder should be in favour of "HDFC Bank a/c Income
Tax (tax as applicable)". |
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| Step 3 |
Collection counter staff will issue a pre-numbered "Paper
Token" as an acknowledgement of his challan and cheque. |
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| Step 4 |
The challans will be stamped with the "Received Date".
After the cheques have been realized, the challans will be stamped with
the "Date of Realisation" and further processed. |
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| Step 5 |
The branch will release the Challan ONLY against receipt
of the original paper token issued to the taxpayer. The branch will
take a signature of the bearer on the reverse of the token at the time
of release of the challans.
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| Step 6 |
The stamp on the challan and its counterfoil will indicate
a unique Challan Identification Number (CIN) comprising of :
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Seven digit BSR Code
allotted by RBI to that branch |
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Date of deposit (dd/mm/yy i.e.
six digits) |
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Challan serial number in 5 digits.
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CIN will, therefore, be unique for each challan through out the country
and will be used for identifying the challan in the On Line Tax Accounting
System. |
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| Step 7 |
The bank will capture the entire data of the challan
and transmit it electronically to the Income-tax Department. The information
received from banks will be used by the Department to give credit for
the tax paid based on CIN. |
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After how many days can the tax payer collect his challans from the
branch ?
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| We estimate this to be the third working
day from the date of submission of challan. However, if the assessee pays
tax through a HDFC Bank Cheque at an authorised branch of HDFC Bank, then
the challan will be processed immediately and returned to the assessee across
the counter. |
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Can the tax payer deposit Cash instead of Cheque ? In that case, what
would be the TAT ?
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| Yes, he can deposit cash too. However,
in this case, he will first deposit the cash at the teller by filling up
a special three-ply cash deposit slip. The Teller will retain one copy for
posting and return two copies to the tax payer. The Taxpayer will retain
one copy and attach the second copy to the challan and submit the same at
the Branch Collections Counter. Thereafter the process remains the same
(i.e., collect paper token, processing, etc.).
The date would be mentioned on the Paper Token. We estimate this to be
the third working day from the date of submission of challan. |
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What if the Paper Token is lost by the Tax Payer ?
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| In case of reported loss of Paper Token
by the taxpayer, a letter to this effect is to be obtained from the assessee/taxpayer.
Signature of assessee /taxpayer should be verified against signatures appearing
on the Challan. Only on confirmation of these signatures the Challans would
be handed over to the TaxPayer. |
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What if the bank losses the challan ?
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| CBDT has specified a certificate that
would be issued in lieu of the lost challan. This would be available at
all the collecting branches. |
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What is On Line Tax Accounting System ?
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| From June 01, 2004 the Income-tax Department
has introduced a new system for payment of taxes called Online Tax accounting
System (OLTAS). This system not only simplifies the procedure for payment
at the collecting branches of designated banks but is also a breakthrough
in accounting of direct tax payments. All collecting branches of various
banks have been networked and integrated with Tax Information Network (TIN)
and the Income Tax Department. OLTAS has introduced the single copy challan-cum-acknowledgement
form instead of the erstwhile four-copy challan. The challan will have a
unique identification number called Challan Identification Number (CIN).
With the help of CIN and PAN every payment will be uniquely identified thereby
resulting in correct tax credit as also enable online transmission of details
of tax payments to the Income Tax department. Further, it will not be necessary
to enclose a copy of challan along with the return of income. |
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