Income Tax - Reporting of Financial Transactions
AS per Section 285BA of the Income Tax Act, certain authorities responsible for registering, or, maintaining books of account or other document containing a record of any specified financial transaction or any reportable account as may be prescribed are required to 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.
As per Sub rule (9)(a) of Rule 114G of the Income Tax Rules, the statement shall be furnished to the Director of Income-tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) or the Joint Director of Income-tax (Intelligence and Criminal Investigation) through online transmission of electronic data to a server designated for this purpose under the digital signature in accordance with the data structure specified in this regard by the Principal Director General of Income-tax (Systems).
Now, the Director General of Income-tax (Systems) lays down the procedures, data structure and standards for ensuring secure capture and transmission of data, evolving and implementing appropriate security, archival and retrieval policies.
(a) Registration of the reporting financial institution: The reporting financial institution is required to get registered with the Income Tax Department by logging in to the e-filing website with the log in ID used for the purpose of filing the Income Tax Return of the reporting financial institution. A link to register reporting financial institution has been provided under "My Account". The reporting financial institution is required to submit registration details on the screen. A reporting financial institution may submit different registration information under different reporting financial institution categories.
(b) Submission of Form 61B: Once the reporting financial institution gets registered successfully, it is required to submit the Form 61B or Nil statement under "e-File" menu. The prescribed schema for the report under form 61B can be downloaded from the e-filing website. The reporting financial institution will be required to submit the calendar year for which report is to be submitted and the reporting entity category for which the report is to be submitted. The reporting financial institution will then be provided the options to upload the Form 61B. The form is required to be submitted using a Digital Signature Certificate.
(c) Submission of Nil statement: In case nil statement has to be submitted by the reporting financial institution, the option to submit Nil statement is required to be selected. The reporting financial institution will then be required to submit a declaration with respect to pre-existing accounts (As defined in Rule 114H(2)(h) of Income Tax Rules, 1962 and new accounts (As defined in Rule 114H(2)(d) of Income Tax Rules, 1962. The declaration is required to be submitted using a Digital Signature Certificate.
(d) Digital signature certificate: in case if the designated director (as reported in registration details submitted by the reporting financial institution as per para 2(a) above) is same as the person authorised to verify the return of income of the reporting financial institution as per the provisions of section 140 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, the Form 61B or Nil statement is required to be submitted with the digital signature certificate of the person authorised to sign the return of income of the reporting financial institution, in other cases, the procedure will be notified separately.
CBDT Notification No. 03/2015., Dated August 25 2015. Please also see Nosy Government peeps at Citizens Through More Returns