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Dear shiv kumar i hope this will help you a lot
The court said it was the employer’s responsibility to employees to deduct the applicable tax at source on their income at the applicable rates. Further, such taxes had to be paid to the credit of the central government within the prescribed time limit. In case the company defaulted on depositing the TDS collected, it shall be liable to pay interest at the prescribed rate on the tax amount. Also, the Act had enough provision to both punish the defaulter and recover the TDS from the person who had deducted it.
The HC also noted Section 205 of the I-T Act said that where tax was deductible at source, the taxpayer shall not be called upon to pay the amount himself to the extent of deduction. The court deduced from the language of this section that once it was established that the tax had been deducted at source from the salary of the employee, the bar under Section 205 comes into operation.
It matters not whether the tax deducted at source was paid to the central government or not, because elaborate provisions are made under the Act for recovery of TDS from the person who did the deduction. In this case, Sahni had furnished monthly pay slips and bank statements to show that the employer had deducted taxes at source from his salary; the department hadn’t disputed this.
In the absence of the TDS certificate being issued to the taxpayer, said the court, it may not be possible to give credit for the TDS to him. Still, if he was made to pay the tax again, it would amount to double taxation, which was illegal. The fact that the employer had not issued the TDS certificate to the employee did not mean the liability ended. The liability to pay income tax, if deducted at source, was on the employer. And, even if the credit of the TDS amount was not available to the taxpayer for want of the TDS certificate, the fact that the tax had been deducted at source from his salary would be sufficient to ensure the department could not recover the amount with interest from him again. The department was asked to refund the demand amount paid by the former (at the time of filing the appeal to the court), along with the prescribed interest.
This case should be noted by taxpayers. To summarise:
- Preserve your monthly pay slips till at least the time you get Form 16 for the year;
- If Form 16 isn’t received, you can file your returns on the basis of the pay slips;
- The employee can get credit for the TDS if deducted, even if Form 16 is not available;
- The employee need not worry about paying taxes again on the income just for want of Form 16.