Can you download Form 16, Form 16A, other TDS certificates from TRACES website if your tax has been deducted?

At times, it happens that the taxpayer does not receive Form 16 or Form 16A. Form 16 or Form 16A is a TDS certificate that informs individuals about the total tax deducted in a financial year and the total income paid to the taxpayer. Due to this, many taxpayers often ask whether they can simply log in to the TRACES portal and download their Form 16, Form 16A, or other TDS certificates to ease the ITR filing process.

ET Wealth Online spoke to the tax experts about whether it is possible for taxpayers, whose tax has been deducted, to download from the TRACES website. Here’s what they have to say.

Can you download Form 16, Form 16A from TRACES website?

Tax experts have clarified that only the deductors, such as your employer or bank, are authorised to download and issue these certificates to you.

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Shubham Jain, Associate Director, Nangia Andersen LLP, says, “Under the Income Tax Act, the responsibility of generating and issuing TDS certificates, whether Form 16 (issued by employers) or Form 16A (issued by other deductors), rests solely with the tax deductor i.e., the person who is deducting the tax. Taxpayers (whose taxes have been deducted) themselves cannot access or download these TDS certificates directly from the TRACES portal. However, they can monitor their Form 26AS, which serves as a consolidated annual tax statement, to verify whether the TDS deducted by various deductors has been correctly deposited and reported against their PAN.”

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Poorva Prakash, Partner, Deloitte India, says, “Final Form 16 (for TDS on salary income), Form 16A (for TDS on non-salary income) and other TDS forms (e.g. Form 16B, Form 16C) cannot be downloaded by the deductees from the TRACES website. The deductor is required to download these forms from their TRACES (online) account and issue it to the deductee. The deductees can view details of TDS deducted under their PAN in their Form 26AS, which can be viewed or downloaded by logging into the online income-tax e-filing portal. Additionally, there is a feature to view provisional Part A of Form 16 and Form 16A by logging into the online income-tax e-filing portal. However, this is just a provisional Form and the final Form would need to be obtained from the deductor.”

What is Form 16?

Form 16 is a tax certificate issued by employers to their employees. It serves as a certificate of tax deducted at source (TDS) on salary payments. The form contains details about the income earned, TDS deducted, and other deductions allowed under the Income Tax Act. Form 16 is a vital document for salaried individuals as it simplifies the process of filing income tax returns (ITR).