This will bring some relief to the difficulties faced by non-residents in claiming benefits of the tax treaty as well as to the resident taxpayers while undertaking foreign remittances.
Non-resident taxpayers have to furnish additional documents and information in Form 10F if certain prescribed details are not available in the Tax Residency Certificate to avail tax treaty benefits at the time of withholding of tax.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Wednesday in a notification said such taxpayers may file Form 10F till September 30, 2023, manually.
In July 2022, the government had in July mandated furnishing of Form 10F electronically, which required the non-resident to get PAN. On request of many taxpayers, CBDT granted partial relaxation in filing electronic Form 10F till March 31, 2023, which now is extended till September, 2023.
“While the extension appears as a relief to non-resident taxpayers, it seems a makeshift solution currently. On reading between the lines, one cannot deduce whether the extension is meant to provide time window for non-residents to obtain PAN or to come with a non-PAN based utility for issuing Form 10F electronically,” Sandeep Jhunjhunwala, Partner at Nangia Andersen LLP said.
Form 10F comprises details of status, country of incorporation, tax identification number, period of residential status along with address of the taxpayer. Such obligation is relaxed in cases where all the details required in Form 10F are reflected on the Tax Residency Certificate.