Paying income tax regularly is not sufficient to have the taxmen stay off your back. You need to file I-T returns under Section 192 of the I-T Act also to keep them at bay.
Employees of a few government sector offices are now running from pillar to post, having received notices from the I-T Department seeking payment of penalties of several lakhs of rupees as their tax accounts do not display any tax amount being credited, as their department did not file tax deducted at source (TDS) returns since the last few years. The notices have spread fear among government employees of many other departments, especially teachers, who too expect similar notices in the future.
It has been a practice with organisations to deduct the tax of their employees – mostly done in February every year – and credit it into the amount of the I-T department. No office, however, bothers to file returns which specify the amount deducted on behalf of individual employees.
For example, a government school with 10 teachers on its rolls may be deducting and remitting the TDS money on behalf of all the teachers but failing to file the relevant returns under Section 192 of I-T Act will prevent the amount being shown against the names of individual teachers. In effect, the accounts will show that tax has not been paid by the individual.
There are over 4,500 schools in Adilabad district with over 10,000 teachers on rolls. The total number of government employees, including teachers, is about 25,000.
“Delay in filing I-T returns attracts penalty of Rs. 200 per day under Section 234 E of the I-T Act or equivalent of the amount of income tax during a given year. The number of such defaulters, however, will be known only at the TDS Commissionerate at Hyderabad,” said an I-T official.
According to experts, no government employee downloads Form 16 from the I-T website TRACES as required, as it would show nil returns.
“We need the I-T return papers for availing bank loans. Even if we produce just Form 16, we hardly bother with pressurising our officers to file the TDS returns,” disclosed a teacher .
The treasury department is also guilty of filing late returns, which puts the employees in the dock. “The only solution is to pay the penalty and get accounts updated,” said chartered accountant Jitesh Khandelwal.
