Form 16 and TDS Certificates

Overview

A TDS certificate is the proof the deductor gives to the payee showing how much tax was deducted and deposited in their name. The common ones are:

• Form 16: for salary, issued by the employer. Part A summarises quarterly TDS deducted and deposited, with employer PAN and TAN, and is generated from the TRACES portal. Part B gives the salary breakup, exempt allowances and Chapter VI-A deductions.
• Form 16A: for non-salary payments such as professional fees, contractor payments, rent or interest, generated from TRACES after the quarterly statement is processed.
• Form 27D: the certificate for tax collected at source.
• Related certificates exist for property sale (Form 16B) and certain rent payments (Form 16C).

Certificates can be generated only after the matching TDS statement has been filed and processed with correct challans and PANs. This service helps employers and deductors produce them, and helps employees and payees get, check and use them.

Who needs it

• Employers who must issue Form 16 to employees, including those who left during the year.
• Businesses and professionals paying contractors, consultants, landlords or others who deducted tax and must give Form 16A.
• Sellers who collected tax and must give Form 27D.
• Employees who have not received Form 16, or whose Form 16 does not match Form 26AS.
• Payees whose Form 26AS shows tax deducted against their PAN but who hold no certificate.

What Zenith does

We listen first: whether you are the employer or the payee, which year, and what is wrong or missing. We then confirm scope, share a tailored quotation, a checklist, and your relationship manager.

For deductors and employers:

• Confirm the TDS statements for the year are filed and processed, and correct them if they carry errors.
• Generate certificates from TRACES, review the figures against payroll or payment records and authenticate them.
• Prepare Part B of Form 16 from salary and deduction data, and issue the certificates to payees.
• Reissue corrected certificates after a correction statement.

For employees and payees:

• Locate missing certificates and explain what to ask the deductor for.
• Reconcile Form 16, Form 16A, Form 26AS and AIS so that every credit is claimed.
• Prepare the income tax return where needed, using payslips if Form 16 is unavailable.

Where a dispute with a deductor needs formal representation, it is handled only through appropriately authorised professionals.

Eligibility and key rules

• Form 16 is mandatory when tax has been deducted from salary. Many employers give it even when no tax was deducted, as a record of income.
• Employers must issue Form 16 by 15 June after the end of the financial year, according to the source read.
• Employees who changed jobs should get a Form 16 from each employer for their period of employment.
• The deductor must have a valid TAN, have filed the quarterly statements and deposited the tax; otherwise the certificate cannot be generated.
• Errors in a certificate are fixed by the employer filing a revised or correction statement, after which an updated certificate is issued.
• Form 16A comes from the 26Q or 27Q statement, and Form 27D from the 27EQ statement.
• Under the Income-tax Act, 2025, some form numbers change (for example, Form 121 replaces Forms 15G and 15H), so Zenith confirms the form number in force for your tax year.

Documents required

For employers and deductors:

• TAN, PAN and TRACES login details.
• Acknowledgements (token numbers) of filed quarterly statements.
• Salary register, payroll records and deduction declarations of employees.
• Payment register for non-salary payments.
• Deductee PANs and addresses.
• A DSC if the certificates are digitally signed.

For employees and payees:

• PAN, payslips, bank statements and any Form 16 or Form 16A already received.
• Form 26AS and AIS from the portal.

Process and timeline

1. Scoping and quotation; you share the checklist documents.
2. We check that statements for the year are filed and processed and fix defaults.
3. Certificates are requested and generated from TRACES.
4. Figures are checked against your records and authenticated.
5. Certificates are issued to payees, and corrections are reissued if needed.
6. For employees, we reconcile with Form 26AS and AIS and the return.

Timelines depend on when statements were processed and on the completeness of data.

Government fees, penalties and due dates

Item	Rule
Form 16 (salary)	Issue by 15 June after the end of the financial year
Form 16A and Form 27D	Generated from TRACES after each quarterly statement is processed
Government fee for generating certificates	None on the portal

Delay in issuing certificates carries a per-day penalty for the deductor, and late filing of the underlying statement attracts a late fee of ₹200 per day under Section 234E plus possible penalty under Section 271H. Zenith confirms the current rule for your case.

Amounts and dates above reflect public sources read in October 2026 and change with notifications, so Zenith confirms the current figures in your quotation.

Common mistakes

• Issuing Form 16 before the quarterly statements are processed, so TDS does not match.
• A wrong PAN in the statement, which breaks credit for the employee.
• Not issuing Form 16 to employees who left before year end.
• Employees filing returns without comparing Form 16 to Form 26AS.
• Not correcting errors at the source and relying on manual edits.
• Overlooking certificates for payments other than salary.
• Using incorrect deductions in Part B.

FAQs