Place of payment of direct taxes, etc - Income Tax - 306/1981

Place of payment of direct taxes, etc Circular No. 306 Dated 19/6/1981 To All Chambers of Commerce. Sir, Subject : Place of payment of direct taxes, etc. Instances of delay in giving credit to the taxpayers for the payment of direct taxes have been brought to the notice of the Board where such payments are made at a place other than the place of assessment of the taxpayer. The delay is generally due to the time taken in the departmental copy of the receipted chalan reaching the Income-tax Officer concerned. 2. In order to avoid such delays it is suggested that, as far as possible, payment of direct taxes, other than of tax deducted at source, should be made at the place where the taxpayer is assessed to tax. The departmental copy of the chalan will then reach the Income-tax Officer concerned quickly and the department will be able to give credit to the taxpayer for his tax payment expeditiously. 3. As regards the tax deducted at source the payment should be made at the place of the Income-tax Office where the person responsible for deduction and payment of tax is required to file the annual/periodical statements of tax deducted at source as prescribed under the Income-tax Rules, 1962. 4. As mentioned in paragraph 2 above, payment of direct taxes other than of tax deducted at source should be made at the place where the taxpayer is assessed to tax. The volume of payments on account of direct taxes is very much larger in the metropolitan cities, viz., Delhi, Greater Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Kanpur. In these cities, therefore, offices of the Reserve Bank, all branches of State Bank of India and all branches of 2 to 3 other selected public sector banks which were in existence on April 1, 1976, provide the facilities for acceptance of payments of direct taxes either in the form of cash or by cheques/drafts. A list showing the names of banks and the number of branches which have been authorised for the purpose in these cities is enclosed for information of your members. Likewise, in other important and bigger centres, in addition to branches of the State Bank of India, branches of 2 other selected public sector banks accept payments of direct taxes and the Income-tax Offices do guide the assessees in this regard. 5. An important point which the Board would like to stress is that while payment by a local cheque or draft can be made at any of the branches of banks authorised for the purpose, the assessees are advised that if they have an account in any branch of an authorised bank they should tender cheques at the said branch of the authorised bank. This arrangement will enable them to get the receipted copies of chalans without any delay and will also save man-power, etc., by eliminating the Clearing-House Operations in respect of such cheques. Another advantage of this procedure will be that if any payment made by the taxpayer is misclassified, the mistake can be immediately corrected. 6. You are requested to bring the foregoing to the notice of all your members for their information. 7. The co-operation of all assessees is solicited so that the Income-tax Department and the public sector banks can serve them better with regard to the acceptance and accounting of their payments of direct taxes. Yours faithfully, (Sd.) S.R. Wadhwa Director, Central Board of Direct Taxes