Mandatory e-Filing
The Director General of Income Tax (Systems) with the prior approval of CBDT has mandated the e-filing of various forms including Form 10F on the Income Tax e-Filing Portal vide Notification No. 03/2022 dated 16.07.2022 effective on an immediate basis.
What is Form 10F?
In order to claim the benefit of Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) under section 90 of the Act, there is a requirement of furnishing Tax residency certificate which must contain certain specified information such as Status, Nationality, Tax identification number, Tax Period and Address of Assessee. If the specified information is missing in Tax residency certificate, then Form 10F has to be furnished duly depicting all such missing information in order to claim the benefits of DTAA.
Earlier such information was to be furnished in an offline manner. However, post 16.07.2022, this form has to be furnished online on the Income Tax e-Filing Portal.
Difficulty caused by such Notification
Since the Form 10F has to be filed online on the Income Tax e-Filing Portal, the non-resident payee has to register on the portal for which PAN is a pre-requisite. This will result in forcing the non-resident payee to apply for allotment of PAN in cases where the Tax Residency Certificate does not contain the specified information.
Further, even though the Income Tax Department has commenced the online filing of Form 10F, still there are many glitches (majorly, the absence of current assessment year in the drop down menu) which is causing hindrance in the filing process.
