From the quarter ending September 30, the Income-Tax Department would not accept TDS returns for salaries with less than 90 per cent of Permanent Account Number (PAN) data and TDS returns for payments other than salaries with less than 70 per cent of PAN data. It would also not accept tax collection at source (TCS) returns if the PAN data is less than 70 per cent.

It has been observed that in most of the TDS/TCS returns, the PAN of the deductee is either missing or incorrect. As the requirement of filing TDS/TCS certificates along with the return has been done away with, the absence of PAN of deductees is creating difficulties in giving credit for the tax deducted and collected, a statement issued by the revenue department said.

The Finance Ministry has therefore advised tax deductors and tax collectors to obtain PAN details of all deductees and quote them in the TDS/TCS returns, failing which the TDS/TCS returns would not be accepted and all penal consequences under the income-tax law would follow.

From end-September this year, filing of TDS/TCS returns in electronic form is mandatory for tax audit cases and where the number of deductee/collectee records in a quarterly statement for any quarter of the immediately preceding financial year was more than fifty.