Guide for filing Form 61A (SFT)
Form 61A SFT, SFT stands for statement of financial transaction (SFT), as prescribed under Section 285BA of Income-tax Act 1961, which deals with Obligation to furnish statement of financial transaction or reportable account and rule 114E of Income Tax Rules.
The Due date to file Form 61A SFT is 31st May of Every Financial year,
In comparison, Annual information return (AIR) are been replaced by Statement of Financial Transactions (SFT) with effect from the financial year 2016- 17. In– Annual information return filing regime return was required to be filed only if there was a reportable transaction in the relevant year and Nil return was not required to be filed.
How to File Form 61 A Extract of Income Tax Rule 114E
Therefore, (1) The statement of financial transaction required to be furnished under sub-section (1) of section 285BA of the Act shall be furnished in respect of a financial year in Form No. 61A and shall be verified in the manner indicated therein.
(2) The statement referred to in sub-rule (1) shall be furnished by every person mentioned in column (3) of the Table below in respect of all the transactions of the nature and value specified in the corresponding entry in column (2) of the said Table in accordance with the provisions of sub-rule (3), which are registered or recorded by him on or after the 1st day of April, 2016.
Relevant Extract of Section 285BA
(1) Any person, being
(a) An assessee, or
(b) the prescribed person, in the case of an office of Government, or
(c) a local authority or other public body or association, or
(d) the Registrar or Sub-Registrar appointed under section 6 of the Registration Act, 1908 (16 of 1908), or
(e) the registering authority empowered to register motor vehicles under Chapter IV of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (59 of 1988), or
(f) The Post Master General as referred to in clause (j) of section 2 of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898 (6 of 1898), or
(g) the Collector referred to in clause (g) of section 3 of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (30 of 2013), or
(h) the recognized stock exchange referred to in clause (f) of section 2 of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (42 of 1956), or
(i) an officer of the Reserve Bank of India constituted under section 3 of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 (2 of 1934), or
(j) a depository referred to in clause (e) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Depositories Act, 1996 (22 of 1996), or
(k) An, prescribed reporting financial institution,
Here, who is responsible for registering or maintaining books of account or other documents. Therefore, it contains a record of any specified financial transaction or any reportable account. As it is prescribed, under any law for the time being in force and shall furnish a statement in respect of such specified financial transaction or such reportable account which is registered or recorded or maintained by him and information relating to which is relevant and required for the purposes of this Act, to the income-tax authority or such other authority or agency as may be prescribed.
Form 61A Specified transaction required to be reported
Financial transaction specifically required to be reported under Section 285BA and read with rule 114E of the Income Tax rule are as follows:
- Transaction of purchase, sale/exchange of goods or property or right or interest in a property, or
- transaction for rendering any service, or
- the transaction under a works contract, or
- transaction by way of an investment made or expenditure incurred, or
- transaction for taking or accepting any loan or deposit
SI No |
Nature of transaction to be reported |
A monetary threshold of transaction |
A specified person required to submit SFT |
| 1 | Cash payment purchase of bank drafts or pay orders or banker’s cheque Cash payments for the purchase of pre-paid instruments issued by Reserve Bank of India Cash deposits in one or more current account of a person Cash withdrawals from one or more current account of a person |
Aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more in an FY. An, Aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more during the FY.
|
A banking company or Co-operative bank to which Banking Regulation applies |
| 2 | Cash deposits in one or more accounts other than a current account and time deposit of a person | An Aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more in an FY. | A banking company or Co-operative bank to which Banking Regulation appliesPost-Master General of the post office |
| 3 | One or more time deposits (other than renewed time deposit of another time deposit) of a person | An Aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more in an FY | A banking company or Co-operative bank to which Banking Regulation appliesPost-Master General of post-officeNidhi Company as per Section 406 of the Companies Act, 2013NBFC – Non-banking financial company holding a certificate of registration under RBI Act to hold or accept deposit from public |
| 4 | Credit card payments made by any person either in cash or by any other mode in an FY. | An Aggregating to Rs 1 lakh or more in cash or Rs 10 lakh or more by any other mode in an FY. | A banking company or Co-operative bank to which Banking Regulation applies or any other company or institution issuing a credit card |
| 5 | Receipt from any person for acquiring bonds or debentures issued by the company or institution (other than renewal) | An Aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more in an FY | A company or institution issuing bonds or debentures |
| 6 |
Receipt from any person for acquiring shares (including share application money) issued by the company |
An Aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more in an FY | A company issuing shares |
| 7 | Buyback of shares from any person (other than the shares bought in the open market) | An Aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more in an FY | The listed company purchasing its own securities under section 68 of the Companies Act, 2013 |
| 8 | Receipt from any person for acquiring units of one or more schemes of a Mutual Fund (other than transfer from one scheme to another) | An Aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more in an FY | A trustee of a Mutual Fund or any such other person authorized to manage the affairs of the Mutual Fund |
| 9 | Receipt from any person for sale of foreign currency including any credit of such currency to foreign exchange card or expense in such currency through a debit or credit card or through an issue of traveler’s cheque or draft or any other instrument | An, Aggregating to Rs 10 lakh or more during an FY | An authorized person as referred to in Section 2(c) of the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 |
| 10 | Purchase or sale of immovable property | Here, Transaction value or valuation of stamp duty authority referred in Section 50C for a number of Rs 30 lakhs or more. | Hence, Inspector-General appointed under section 3 of the Registration Act, 1908 or Registrar or Sub-Registrar appointed under section 6 of that Act. |
| 11 | Cash receipt for sale, by any person, of goods or services of any nature (other than those specified at Sl. Nos. 1 to 10) | Exceeding Rs 2 lakh | Any person who is liable for audit under section 44AB of the Act |
| 12 | Cash deposits during the period 09th November 2016 to 30th December 2016 | An Aggregating to Rs 12,50,000 or more in one or more current account of a person or Rs 2,50,000 or more in one or more account (other than a current account) of a person. | Therefore, A banking company or Co-operative bank, which Banking Regulation applies Post Master General of the post office |
| 13 | Cash deposits during the period 1st of April, 2016 to 9th November, 2016 in respect of accounts that are reportable under Sl.No.12. | A banking company or Co-operative bank, which Banking Regulation applies Post Master General of the post office |
What forms to be used for furnishing Form 61A SFT and what is the procedure to submit SFT?
SFT shall be submitted either in Form 61A (other reporting entities) or Form 61A (prescribed reporting financial institution).
Therefore, SFT shall be submitted electronically, under the digital signature certificate to the Director of Income-tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) or the Joint Director of Income-tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation). A Post Master General or a Registrar or an Inspector General may furnish SFT in a computer readable media being a Compact Disc or Digital Video Disc (DVD), along with the verification in Form-V on paper.
SFT shall be submitted through the following procedure:
- If already registered on e-filing portal, log in and go to My Account>Manage IT DRAIN (Income Tax Department Reporting Entity Identification Number)
- Now, Click on ‘Generate New IT DRAIN’
- Then, Select the form type and Reporting entity category and click on ‘Generate IT DRAIN’
- Hence, Based on this selection, appropriate IT DRAIN will be generated and confirmation email and SMS will be sent to registered email id and mobile number respectively
- IT DRAIN generated will now appear under My Account>Manage IT DRAIN
- Go to e-file>Upload Form ‘X’ (appropriate Form No appears based on the selection made during registration)
- Verify/enter PAN, Form Name, FY, Reporting entity category, Half year, upload type i.e., whether original/correction form /Nil statement
- Hence, On successful validation of the above details, upload the file along with the digital signature certificate
- However, A success message will be displayed on the screen on successful uploading and confirmation email and SMS will be sent to registered email id and mobile number respectively
- Uploaded file may be either ‘accepted’ or ‘rejected’. In case of rejection, the reason for rejection would be mentioned and correction form shall be submitted through the above procedure
Consequences of failure to File Form STF 61A under rule 114B read with Section 285BA and related Rules
Failure to furnish SFT:
In case of non-furnishing of SFT within due date, the prescribed income-tax authority may serve notice upon such person requiring him to furnish SFT within a period not exceeding 30 days from the date of service of such notice, and he shall furnish the statement, within the time specified in the notice.
Therefore, If reporting person does not furnish the SFT within the original, due date the penalty of Rs. 500 per day of default. Further, if no report has furnished. The extended due date specified in the notice has served upon the person. A penalty of Rs 1000 per day will be levied from the day immediately following the day, on which the specified time in the notice expires.
Overall, a penalty of Rs 500 per day from the expiry of the original due date. The due date has mentioned in the notice and Rs 1,000 per day beyond, the due date specified in the notice.
Inaccurate information in SFT form STF 61A
If any person who has furnished SFT, comes to know or discovers any inaccuracy in the information provided in the statement, he shall inform the inaccuracy in such statement and furnish the correct information to the income-tax authority or specified authority or agency within 10 days.
Special provision for the penalty in case of prescribed reporting financial institution
Therefore, A penalty of Rs 50,000 will be levied on the prescribed reporting financial institution. If it provides inaccurate information in the statement where:
- inaccuracy is due to a failure. As to comply with the prescribed due diligence requirement or is deliberate on the part of that person, or
- the person knows the inaccuracy at the time of furnishing the statement of financial transaction or reportable account. But it does not inform the prescribed income-tax authority or such other authority or agency, or
- Therefore, the person discovers the inaccuracy, after the statement of financial transaction or reportable. An account has furnished and fails to inform and furnish correct information, within 10 days as mentioned above.
In case of any help or assistance in filing your SFT in Chennai, SFT in Mumbai, SFT in Bangalore contact Virtual auditor support team on 9962 230 333/9513 93 9333/044- 48560333 /mail us [email protected], our team will guide through the entire process and help you comply
