INCOME TAX ACT, 1961

Section 234E

Late fee under section 234E - Intimation under section 200A - Late filing of TDS returns/statement - Quantification of late fee--From date of payment of TDS

AO levied fees under section 234E of Rs. 22,000 for late filing of TDS statement. Assessee submitted that as per provisions of section 200(3), the quarterly statement has to be filed after the payment of TDS to the credit of Central Government. He further submitted that Form No. 26Q for quarter 1 for financial year 2015-16 was filed on 02-11-2015 and the date of payment of TDS was 21-10-2015, thus, the delay was of only 12 days and therefore, the late fees under section 234E payable should be for 12 days of delay @ Rs. 200 per day and hence, the late fees should be only Rs. 2,400 and not Rs. 22,000 as levied by the AO. Held: Late fees under section 234E is leviable only when the TDS statement is not filed as prescribed under section 200(3), which in turn provides that the statement is to be filed after payment of the TDS to the prescribed authorities. In instant case, the TDS was deposited on 21-10-2015 and the actual date of filing of Form 26Q was 02-11-2015, therefore, the delay in filing of statement was to be counted from the date of payment of TDS because before the payment of TDS, the quarterly statement could not be filed and if the delay was computed in that manner, the delay was of 12 days only. Accordingly, the levy of fees under section 234E to that extent, i.e., Rs. 2,400 was upheld and the balance amount of fees as levied by the AO was deleted.

REFERRED : Meghna Gupta v. ACIT [ITA No. 2649/Del/2018, dated 1-10-2018] : 2018 TaxPub(DT) 7101 (Del-Trib)

FAVOUR : Partly in favour of assessee.

A.Y. : 2016-17

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