Form 61A : Annual Information Return (AIR)

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Aakash (Quicko Customer Success Representative)

AIR
Form 61A
Income Heads
TIN NSDL
Last updated on May 4th, 2022

Some individuals need to file Form 61A to justify their High-Value Transactions. One can track the status of this filing on the TIN-NSDL website. Entities such as Banks and other Financial Institutes are responsible to furnish certain transaction details through Form 61A (Annual Information Return). Hence, with an aim to curb black money and track high-value transactions, the government has implemented new reporting guidelines. The “High valued transactions” of Individuals and Businesses are monitored u/s 285BA of the Income Tax Act.

Form 61A contains details of the transaction and reportable account maintained by the specified persons during the Financial Year. The Income Tax Department using AIR monitors these High valued transactions.

Who should file Form 61A (AIR)?

According to Section 285BA of the Income Tax Act, 1961, “Specified persons” must record and report “High-value financial transactions” of individuals and file Form 61A, upon receipt of the notice. For instance, these specified persons can be:

Detailed information on who should file Form 61A (AIR) as per the Tax Information Network (TIN) is as follows:

Class of Person

Nature and value of the transaction

Clarification by Central Board of Direct Taxes vide circular

A Banking Company to which the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 applies

Cash deposits of any person totaling INR 10,00,000 or more in a year in the savings account of any bank

The total of all the cash deposits in the savings account of a person should be reported as one single transaction. However, the date of the transaction should be the last date of the financial year

Banking Company to which the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 applies or any other Company or Institution issuing the credit card

If credit card payments against a person are INR 2,00,000 or more in a financial year

The total of all the payments by a person to the credit card company should be reported as one transaction. And hence the date of the transaction is to be the last date of the financial year

A trustee of a Mutual Fund or such other person managing the affairs of the Mutual Fund as may be duly authorized by the trustee in this behalf

This is if you are acquiring any units of fund amounting to Rs. 2,00,000 or more in a financial year

The amount actually received from the transacting party and not the amount relating to the allotment is to be reported

Company or Institution issuing bonds or debentures

This is if you are acquiring any bonds or debentures amounting to Rs.5,00,000 or more in a financial year by the Company or institution

The amount actually received from the transacting party and not the amount relating to the allotment is to be reported

Company issuing shares through public or rights issue

If you are acquiring any shares of a company amounting to Rs. 1,00,000 or more

The amount actually received from the transacting party and not the amount relating to the allotment is to be reported

Registrar or Sub Registrar appointed under section 6 of the Registration Act, 1908

If you are purchasing or selling any immovable property that values Rs.30,00,000 or more in a financial year

Certain situations where the transaction of property valued at Rs. 30,00,000 involves joint parties and value for one or more parties is less than Rs. 30,00,000.

In such situations, all such transactions are to be reported even though the value of transaction in the hands of one or more of the joint parties is less than the threshold limit

An officer of the Reserve Bank of India constituted under section 3 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 who is duly authorized by the Reserve Bank of India on this behalf

This is applicable if you are acquiring any bonds issued by the RBI amounting to Rs. 5,00,000 rupees or more in a year

The total of all the receipts from a person is required to be reported as one transaction and the date of the transaction is to be mentioned as the last date of the financial year

Circumstances under which Form 61A is rejected

The tax authority can reject the Annual Information Return i.e. AIR for the following reasons:

Consequences of not submitting AIR in time

Tax authorities of India, under section 285BA(5) can issue a notice to a specified person asking them to file Form 61A (Annual Information Return) within a period of 30 days from the date of receiving the notice. If they fail to file the statement within the allotted time then they will face a penalty of INR 1,000 per day after the date mentioned in the notice for furnishing the statements.

Steps to File Form 61A (AIR)

  1. Visit the TIN-NSDL website

    Download your AIR Return Preparation Utility (RPU) available on NSDLAIR RPU

  2. Next, you download your AIR RPU

    This is how your the AIR RPU form will lookAIR document

  3. Further, you need to fill in the required details in the given sheets under the downloaded excel file

    Post downloading the form

  4. Next, you need to download the E-AIR FVU application

    To do this you need to download the latest JAVA softwareDownload application for AIR

  5. After setting up the application, you can now upload your excel sheet there

    If your file has any errors, the application will generate errors through the error file path. All errors need to be cleared in order to have the file accepted.

  6. Your accepted file needs to be copied on a CD or a Floppy

    Lastly, you need to visit the TIN-NSDL AIR section and skip to the 5th step and download Part A of Form 61AAIR Form 61A

  7. Next, visit your nearest TIN Facilitation Center (TINFC) and file your AIR return

    Now that you have your file on a CD or a Floppy and have your Part A of Form 61A filled.

Track Form 61A Filing Status

AIR service on TIN - Form 61A
AIR status view for filers - Form 61A
Status of AIR - Form 61A

FAQs

What is File Validation Utility (FVU)?

FVU created by NSDL is a program to verify the format of AIR that the filers submit and to measure its accuracy.
FVU will accept AIR submissions only if it is error-free. If there are any errors in the details, the screen shall display the error code, error description, and details about the error.
You can resubmit your form after correcting the errors. If there remains no error in filing AIR then the “File Validation Successful” message pops up.

How does the Income Tax Department (ITD) come to know about my “High-value Transactions”?

If any Individual/Business makes a Financial Transaction that is a “High-value Transaction”, then the Bank and other Financial Institutes are responsible to report the transaction to the ITD, along with the registered PAN of that Person. Hence, ITD can come to know about your “High valued Transactions”

What are the Forms required for AIR?

AIR can be furnished through Form 61A (Part B) in a digitized form in a CD/Floppy. While Form 61A (Part A) in a paper format duly signed.

Got Questions? Ask Away!

  1. Hey @TeamQuicko

    Thanks for the blog! Just one quick question - Why do we have to report a quarterly breakdown of Dividend Income under IFOS?

    Thank you!

  2. I had received dividend recently but I had noticed that TDS had been deducted. any idea as to why has it happened and is there a way I can claim this TDS?

  3. Hey @HarshitShah

    After the introduction of Budget 2020, dividend income is now taxable in the hands of the shareholder; and is also subject to TDS at 10% in excess of INR 5000 u/s 194 & 194K. Foreign Dividend is taxable at slab rates. TDS is not applicable to such dividends. The taxpayer should report such income under the head IFOS in the ITR filed on the Income Tax Website.

    Hope this helps!

  4. Hi @Maulik_Padh,

    You need to pay Income tax on the net taxable income, i.e. after subtracting deductions, expenses, etc.
    If the net taxable income is negative i.e. if there is loss, you can carry it forward when filing the ITR

    Here are some of the articles which might help

  5. Hi @ameyj

    The amount of TDS deducted shall reflect in your Form 26AS only and it will also reflect the name of the deductor.
    Using the name of the deductor you can find out on which share you have received the dividend and you can also cross-check the same in your bank statement.

    Yes, you are right, TDS is to be deducted when the dividend paid exceeds 5000 INR in a financial year. However, the 5,000 INR limit pertains to all the dividends an individual gets in a year, or the total dividend per shareholder that a company pays out in a year, is left to interpretation, and hence registrars and share transfer agents (RTA) are not taking any chances and are deducting TDS even on small amounts.

    Hope this helps :slightly_smiling_face:

  6. Hi @ameyj

    You can submit a grievance on Income Tax Portal mentioning the issue and also attach the 26AS.
    The other option is to leave it as it is and clarify it when the tax department sends the notice.

  7. Hi @TeamQuicko

    Consider that I have 10 shares each of 10 different Indian companies. Each of the 10 companies are declaring a dividend of INR 100 before the FY ends. Now I will be recieving 1000 as dividend from each company, thereby a total of 10,000.

    The 5,000 dividend limit, is it applicable to each company / total dividend recieved by me in a year. If it is applicable to each company, then I would not attract TDS of 10% for dividend.

    Also pl clarify, how would the company B know that I have got shares of Company A,C,D,E so on…

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