CBDT Clarification on furnishing SFT form 61A & Preliminary Response to report Nil specified transaction

CBDT Clarification on furnishing SFT form 61A and Preliminary Response to Nil specified transaction for the year

Government of India
Ministry of Finance
Department of Revenue
Central Board of Direct Taxes

New Delhi, 26th May, 2017.

PRESS RELEASE

CBDT Issues Clarification on furnishing Statement of Financial Transaction (SFT) & SFT Preliminary Response

Section 285BA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 requires furnishing of a statement of financial transaction (SFT) for transactions prescribed under Rule 114E of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The due date for filing such SFT in Form 61A is 31st May 2017.

In case there are reportable transactions for the year, the reporting person/entity is required to register with the Income Tax Department and generate Income Tax Department Reporting Entity Identification Number (ITDREIN) The same can be generated by logging-in to the e-filing website (https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in/) with the log in ID used for the purpose of filing the Income Tax Return of the reporting person / entity. Entity having PAN can take only PAN based ITDREIN. Entity having TAN can generate an ITDREIN only when such TAN’s Organisational PAN is not available.

The registration of reporting person (ITDREIN registration) is mandatory only when at least one of the Transaction Type is reportable. A functionality “SFT Preliminary Response” has been provided on the e-Filing portal for the reporting persons to indicate that a specified transaction type is not reportable for the year.

Detailed procedure of ITDREIN registration and upload of Form 61A is available under the “Help” section and Form 61A utility and Schema are available under the download section of http://www.incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in and https://www.cleanmoney.gov.in. Online filing of form 61A requires a valid class 2 or 3 digital signature certificate of person responsible for filing the same. Please refer “DSC Management Utility” manual under help section on how to generate the signature file, attaching the XML with signature and uploading of XML with signature file in e-Filing portal.

(Meenakshi J Goswami)
Commissioner of Income Tax
(Media and Technical Policy)
Official Spokesperson, CBDT.

Author’s Note:

It is notable as per Rule 114E(2), no such “SFT Preliminary Response” is envisaged if there is no reportable transaction is registered or recorded by the reporting entities.

Thus, despite what CBDT is suggesting by way of issuing a “Press Release”, the “SFT Preliminary Response” at the best could be a voluntary exercise and is not mandated by the Rules.

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