TDS Traces

TRACES is a TDS Reconciliation Analysis and Correction Enabling System. It is an online portal of the Income Tax Department which helps in connecting all stakeholders involved in the implementation and administration of Tax Deducted at Source and Tax collected at Source. TDS traces helps in viewing and downloading key tax documents such as Form 26AS, 16A and 16 as per the requirement.

The facility available on the TDS TRACES helps to carry out a wide range of tax-related activities in a hassle-free manner. It is a replacement for a paper-based rectification system of PAN details and Challan which was significantly more time-consuming. Through this online rectification system, PAN details and challan corrections can be made with ease.

How helpful is the TDS traces website?

• View and make downloading of Form 26AS
• Fill TDS or TCS Statement corrections
• View challan status
• Check status of various tax statement online
• Submit fund request online
• Download consolidated file, Justification Report and Form 16 and Form 16A for TDS deductors.
• Complete online correction of previously filed TDS Returns.
• Online correction of OLTAS Challan

Key links on the TRACES website

• Dashboard giving summary of deductor’s account
• Online registration of TAN (Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number)
• Online filing of TDS statements
• Online correction of TDS statements
• Default Resolution
• Viewing Form 26AS

Grievance registration and resolution

Various facilities/services given by TRACES are categorized in three forms:

• Deductor services
• Tax Payer services
• PAO (Pay and Accounts Office) services

Registration process on TRACES

All those Online services which are accessible through TRACES (TDS reconciliation, analysis and Correction Enabling System), Pay and Account office or Deductor are required to register on the TDS Traces Website. Following are the steps:

Step 1

Go to the TRACES website and click on the “Register as new” link to access the option to register as Deductor, Tax Payer or PAO.

Step 2

If you click on the Tax Payer link shown above, you will be directed to the following page:

Details which a Tax Payer needs to give to complete TRACES registration include:

PAN Details

Date of birth/ date of incorporation

Name of the Taxpayer

Along with any one of the following:

• Details of TDS deducted/collected
• Details of Challan used to deposit tax by the taxpayer
• Details of 26QB Statement.

Step 3

After providing the required details, click on ‘Create Account’.  Post that, a confirmation screen appears to make validation of the submitted details.If you want to do any editing of any data that is visible on the confirmation screen, the ‘edit tab’ can be used to change the submitted information.

Step 4

On confirming the data, the account will be created an activation link and activation code will be sent to the applicant email id and mobile number. 

Traces Customer Care

TRACES Toll-free customer care number is 1800-103-0344

Alternately, you could call TDS TRACES customer care on (+91)120-481-4600 with queries related to the TRACES website.   

You can also contact TRACES customer care by email at contactus@tdscpc.gov.in

TRACES services offered to deductor

A deductor is an entity who is responsible for doing tax deduction at source on a specified payment made. Tax deduction takes place with the help of the TDS mechanism and it must get deposited with the Income Tax Department within a stipulated timeline.  Apart from that TDS deductor is also required to report the details of tax deducted in a statement.

Who are responsible to file an electronic TDS Statement ?

• Government offices
• Companies
• Persons required to get their accounts audited u/s 44AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961
• Deductors reporting more than 20 deductee records for any quarter in the financial year
  

Key activities/services that can be availed by the deductor on TRACES are :

• Registration of Admin User for a TAN.
• Creation of sub-users by Admin User.
• Viewing of challan status.
• Download Justification Report
• Download Form 16 / 16A
• View TDS – TCS credit for a PAN.
• View PAN Master for the TAN.
• View Statement Status
• Provide feedback.
• Manage user profile and change password
• Validate 197 Certificates
• Online Correction
• Declaration for Non – filing of Statement
• TDS Refund
• Offline Correction
  

TRACES Justification Report

TDS TRACES Justification report gives all details regarding defaults or errors identified by the Income Tax Department while processing the statement filed by the deductor on every quarter of the financial year. The rectification process takes place by filing a correction statement and making payment of the interest, fees or any other dues applicable. Alternately, deductors can use the information featured in this report to provide clarifications for any of the “errors” identified by the tax authorities.

Form 16/ 16A download from the TRACES

With the help of the online service of TRACES Deductor, it becomes easier to download Form16/ Form 16A. These documents provide records of tax deducted at Source which results in easy filing of Income Tax Return.

According to Section 192, Form 16 is issued on deduction of tax by the employer on behalf of the employee, i.e. in case of salary income. Form 16A is issued if tax is deducted under any provision except section 192.

Steps to follow by Deductor for making registration on TRACES:

• Go to the TRACES website
• Click on ‘Register as New User’
• Select ‘Deductor’ as a type of User.

Provide applicable details to register on TRACES as deductor as follows:

 Details to be filled out on each step and click on submit to complete TRACES deductor registration.   

• After making a successful registration, an activation link will be sent to the registered email address. Activation codes will be sent to registered email id and mobile number separately.
• Click on the activation link and enter user id and activation codes.
• After activation, the user can log in to TRACES.
  

Process to log on TRACES using registered TAN

• Log in to TDS – CPC portal
• Click ‘Login’ to go to the login screen.
• Enter Login ID and Password i.e. TIN and click on ‘Go’
• The login has only ‘Profile menu’ activated, click on the Profile menu.
• Provide the details of the deductor such as PAN No., Date of birth, etc. and click on Submit.
• Confirm the detail appearing on the confirmation screen and click on submit.
• After making successful registration, an activation link will be sent to registered email id and separate activation codes will be sent to registered email id and mobile number.
• Click on the activation link and enter User Id and activation codes.
• After activation, the user can log in to TRACES.
  

Admin user role on TRACES

The admin user role on TRACES is created when a TAN registration on TRACES is done for the first time. This role can be registered only by surrendering the TAN to an Assessing Officer.

Sub user role on TRACES

The creation of a sub-user role on TRACES is done by the Admin user. Maximum 4 sub-users can be created by the admin user of a specific TAN.

A sub-user can be deleted by the admin, however, once a sub-user is deleted, all details of the sub-user will be deleted from the TRACES system and Admin User will have to add all the sub-user information again to get the system activated.

TRACES services for taxpayer

A Taxpayer is a person who is paying taxes on the income earned. Any person whose tax has been deducted or who has deposited the tax can register on TRACES. The online registration services available to taxpayers are:

• Registration
• Download form 26AS
• Download of Form 16B
• Manage user profile & change/recover TDS TRACES password
• Verify TDS Certificate
• View / Download Aggregated TDS Compliance Report
  

TRACES form 26 AS download by Taxpayer

• Details of tax deducted on behalf of the taxpayer by deductors
  
• Details of tax collected on behalf of the taxpayer by collectors
• Details of tax deducted on Sale of Immovable Property
• Advance tax/self-assessment tax/ regular assessment tax etc. deposited by the taxpayers (PAN holders)
• Refund received during the financial year
• Details of transactions in Mutual Fund, Shares and Bonds, etc. (as reported by AIR filer)
• TDS Defaults related to processing of Statements.

In the context of tax deducted by DDO, Pay and Account office is required to file Form 24G to the agency authorized by the Director-General of Income Tax (Systems) within 10 days after the end of each calendar month.

For availing the services offered by TRACES, the taxpayer needs to register on the website of TRACES. Steps for registration are as follows:

• Go to the TRACES website.
• On the Login page, click on ‘Register as New User’
• Select ‘PAO’ as a type of User
• Provide requisite details as shown on the TRACES Registration Form:
  

After that, follow the instructions mentioned below:

• Confirm the details which were appearing on the confirmation screen.
• Click on Submit.
• On successful registration, an activation link will be sent to registered email id and separate activation codes will be sent to registered email id and on your mobile number.
• Click on the activation link and enter activation
• After activation, the user can log in to TRACES using the applicable user id and password.
  

Steps for correcting TDS or TCS statements that are available on the TRACES website: 

• Log in on the TRACES website.
• Under defaults Tab, go to ‘Request for correction’
• Fill the required details, i.e. quarter, financial year, form type, latest accepted token number. Select the category as ‘Online’.
• Once the request for change is being submitted, a request number will be generated.
• Request will be available under “Track Correction Request” when request status becomes “Available” click on Available/In progress status to proceed with the correction.
• Enter the information of valid KYC.
• Select ‘Challan Correction’ as a type of category.
• Make the required corrections in the file.
• Click on “Submit for Processing” to submit the correction
• 15 digits token number will be generated and mailed to the registered e-mail ID
  

Online Correction services status on TRACES

There are following online correction services status available to a TRACES registered individual/entity:

Requested: It means the user has made a request submission for correction.

Initiated:  The processing of request done by CPC cell of TDS

Available: It indicates that the correction request has been accepted and the statement is available to start the correcting process.

Failed: The correction request cannot be initiated due to technical reasons and the user needs to make request re-submission.

In Progress : Once the user clicks on the hyperlink available at ‘available’ status and it changes in to ‘in progress’. It indicates that a statement of correction is being worked on.

Submitted to Admin User:  Sub User / Admin User has made submitted a correction statement to Admin User.

Submitted to ITD: It denotes that the Admin user has submitted a correction request to the Income Tax Department for processing.

Processed: It means that the request has been processed by TDS CPC.

Rejected: It means that the statement has been rejected by the TDS CPC after processing. The reasons for rejection are displayed in the ‘Remarks’ column.

Steps for aggregate TDS Compliance reports

• In case an entity level PAN is attached with more than one TAN for instance, e -PAN of Central office is taken which has multiple TANs for each of its branches. 
• This report can be used to make an identification of defaults in all TANs associated with entity-level PAN.
• These features prove to be useful in doing effective TDS administration, control, and compliance at the organizational level.
  

Following are the steps for generating the TDS Compliance Report:

Log in to TRACES as a taxpayer.

Click on the ‘Aggregate TDS Compliance’ tab to get the following options: 

• Default based – Choose the relevant Financial year for which there is a requirement of the TDS Compliance Report.
• Financial Year based – Select the Default type for which TDS Compliance Report is required across all the Financial years

Click on Submit Request.

After placing a request successfully, Excel File can be downloaded from the “Requested Downloads” link under the ‘Downloads’ menu.

Request Status check on TRACES

The possible results of a request status check made on TDS TRACES website are as follows: 

Submitted: It means the user has submitted the request.

Available: It means the request is processed and you can download the report.

Not Available: This means that processing of the request is already done but the file is not available as the data requested is not currently available.

Failed: The request fails to process due to technical reasons and the system will automatically try reprocessing the request after some time.

Request for resolution on TDS Traces

Only registered users or entities are liable to avail the facility of “request for resolution’’ under the online grievances module of the TDS traces website. The Taxpayer can do uploading of relevant documents along with the query. Steps to do the same are as follows:

• Log in on TRACES as a taxpayer with registered user id and password.
• Click on the ‘Request for Resolution’ tab.
• Select the category for which the resolution request is required to be raised.
• Select the assessment year to which the query pertains.
• Fill the required details.
• Submit the request.
• On successful submission, a ticket number will be generated.
• Status of the request raised can be checked in “Resolution tracking” under the “Request for Resolution” tab.
  

Results of Ticket Status check on TDS Traces

• Open: Ticket is with a deductor/ Assessing Officer and will be acted on within the prescribed time limit.
• In Progress: Clarification has been given by the Assessing Officer/ requester.
• Clarification Requested: Clarification needed by the tax authorities about the request. If clarification is not being given within 30 days, the ticket will be automatically closed.
• Request for Closure: It means clarification has been provided by the deductor and sent to the assessee for closure. If no action is taken on such a request within 30 days, the ticket will be automatically closed.
• Closed: The ticket has been closed by the requester/assessing officer or auto-closed by the system due to no action been taken within the stipulated time frame.