How to Decode the Form 16A Password for TDS on Non-Salary Income

[Ishita Ramani]

Many times, it happens that a lot of us get stuck while opening the PDF downloaded/received from various government sites such as the site of the Income Tax Department or TDS site. These sites contain documents that are password-protected. There are different types of passwords to open the PDF downloaded/received from such various sites. In this article, we are going to be talking about how to know/decode for password for Form 16A for TDS Return.

What is Form 16A?

• Form 16A, just like Form 16 is a TDS certificate.
• It is an acknowledgment receipt that states the tax that has been deducted from income other than salary by the employer and the same has been deposited with the Income Tax Department.
• Form 16A is issued when the TDS deduction is made for the income of fixed deposits in the bank or TDS deducted on insurance commission, TDS deducted on your rent receipts, etc.
• Hence, Form 16A is issued when TDS is deducted from any other income you receive that is liable for such deduction.
• Form 16A, just like Form 16 contains the details of the deductor and deductee, like name and address, details of PAN and TAN, also the amount of TDS deducted and deposited with the government.
• All details that are there in Form 16A are available on Form 26AS.

How to get Form 16A- TDS on income other than salary?

• It is mandatory for the person who deducts the TDS to issue a TDS certificate in Form 16A to the deductee.
• Form 16A can be downloaded from the TRACES website. Once the deductor furnishes the details in Form 26AS and deposits the TDS, he or she can download Form 16A online.

What is the password for Form 16A?

• Form 16A is always password-protected.
• The password for Form 16A would be the first 5 characters of the PAN number in uppercase i.e. capital letters and  Date of Birth of the employee in DDMMYYYY format.
• That means if your PAN number is BPTRA5997L and the date of birth is 11th November 2000, then your password for Form 16A would be BPTRA11112000.

Form 16A is important as this form helps taxpayers in filing TDS returns smoothly. Form 16A also helps in verifying the income details and the rate at which the TDS has been deducted. To avoid any sort of inconstancy when it comes to filing taxes, the taxpayers must find out details about Form 16 and other Forms and use them accordingly.