Form No. 145: Payments to Non-Residents/Foreign Company

1. Purpose:

Form No. 145 is a mandatory declaration filed by any person or entity responsible for making a payment to a non-resident (not being a company) or a foreign company, before remitting funds outside India. It:

i. Provides details of foreign remittances chargeable to tax in India.

ii. Enables the Income-tax Department to track potentially taxable payments overseas and serves as a core compliance measure under the Income-tax Act, 2025.

iii. Assists with proper tax deduction at source (TDS) under section 393(2)(Table: Sl.No.17) and cross-verification with other forms such as Form No. 144 and Form No. 146 & Form No. 147.

iv. Is integrated with ITBA system of the Department to enable risk profiling, analytics, and backend verification.

2. Who should file?

As per Rule 220, every person responsible for paying to a non-resident (not being a company) or to a foreign company shall furnish such information in Form No. 145, before remitting the payment except in respect of the following payments:

i. Remittance is made by an individual and it does not require prior approval of RBI, i.e. payments by an individual under Liberalised Remittance Scheme.

ii. Remittance is made by a Unit of an International Financial Services Centre

iii. Remittance is of the nature specified under relevant purpose code as per RBI.

3. Frequency & Due Dates:

4. Structure of Form:

Form No. 145 has four parts. Depending upon the case, the remitter (sender) needs to fill the relevant part.

PART A: To be filled up if remittance or the aggregate of such remittances is chargeable to tax and does not exceed ₹ 5 lakh during the tax year. It has:

i. Particulars of the remitter (sender): Name, address, PAN, TAN, contact details, status, residential status

ii. Particulars of the remittee (recipient): Name, address, PAN, TIN, contact details

iii. Particulars of the remittance (fund transfer): Amount, bank details, proposed date, nature, purpose code as per RBI, TDS details, ITDREIN, aggregate remittances.

iv. Declaration: by the remitter (sender)

PART B: - To be filled up if remittance is chargeable to tax and the remittance or the aggregate of such remittances, exceeds ₹ 5 lakh during the tax year and a certificate u/s 395(1)/395(2) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 has been obtained from the Assessing Officer. It has details of remitter (sender), remittee (recipient), remittance (fund transfer) and declaration as in Part A and also details of AO certificate (Certificate No., date, section, amount, rate of TDS).

PART C: To be filled up if remittance is chargeable to tax and the remittance or the aggregate of such remittances, exceeds ₹ 5 lakh during the tax year and a certificate in Form No. 146 from an accountant has been obtained. It has details of remitter (sender), remittee (recipient), remittance (fund transfer) and declaration as in Part A and also details of the accountant (name, membership no., name of firm, date of certificate, Form No. 146 UDIN). In remittance details, it further has details of its taxability under Income-tax Act and relief under DTAA.

PART D: To be filled up if the remittance is not chargeable to tax. It contains details of remitter (sender), remittee (recipient), remittance (fund transfer) and declaration as in part A.

5. Documents required:

i. Invoice(s) /Agreement or contract between remitter (sender) and remittee (recipient), in respect of foreign remittance.

ii. Certificate u/s 395(1)/395(2) of the Assessing Officer- Required, if filing Part B of Form No. 145.

iii. Chartered Accountant's certificate in Form No. 146 - Required, if filing Part C of Form No. 145.

iv. Form No. 41 and Tax Residency Certificate (TRC) of remittee (recipient)- Required for claiming DTAA benefits.

v. Details of remitter (sender), remittee (recipient), remittance (fund transfer) and bank details of the remitter (sender).

6. Filing Count:

On an average, about 44-45 lakhs Form No. 15CA (now Form No. 145) were filed each year over the past five years.

7. Step-by-step process of filing Form:

Form No. 145 can be filed through the following methods:

• Online Mode - through e-Filing portal
• Offline Mode - through Income Tax Department's Offline Utility Service. The "offline" process refers to preparing the data using the utility while not connected to the internet, and then uploading the generated file to the online portal for final submission.

Online Mode: The remitter to follow the below steps to fill and submit Form No. 145 through online mode:

Step 1: Log in to the e-Filing portal using your user ID and password.

Step 2: Once logged in, navigate to your Dashboard, then click on e-File > Income Tax Forms > File Income Tax Forms.

Step 3: On the File Income Tax Forms page, select Form No. 145. Alternatively, enter Form No. 145 in the search box to file the form.

Step 4: On the Instructions page, click Let's Get Started.

Step 5: On click of Let's Get Started, Form No. 145 is displayed. Select the applicable part and fill all the required details. Click Proceed. Upload of Form No. 146 is mandatory prior to filling Part C of Form No. 145. To prefill the details in Part C of Form No. 145, the Acknowledgment number of e-Filed Form No. 146 should be provided.

Step 6: On the Preview page, verify the details and click Proceed to e-verify.

Step 7: Click Yes to submit.

Step 8: On clicking Yes, you will be taken to the e-verify page, where you can complete the verification process. For TAN users DSC is mandatory to file Form No. 145.

After successful e-Verification, a success message is displayed along with a Transaction ID and Acknowledgement Number. Please keep a note of the Transaction ID and Acknowledgement Number for future reference. Download a copy for your records. You will also receive a confirmation message on your email ID and mobile number registered with the e-Filing portal.

Offline mode: The remitter to follow the below steps for offline or bulk filing of Form No. 145:

Step 1: Download the Offline Utility: Without logging in to the e-Filing portal, you can download the Offline Utility for Statutory Forms from Home > Downloads. Install it on your computer and proceed to Step 2. Alternately, you can download the offline utility after logging in to the e-Filing portal by clicking e-File > Income Tax Forms > File Income Tax Forms > Select the Form,

Filing Type, FY / AY and Mode of Filing (Offline). Then, click Download under the Offline Utility option. Unzip the folder and extract all files.

Step 2: Prepare the Form: Open the utility and select Form No. 145. Select the appropriate Part (A, B, C, or D) based on your remittance (fund transfer) details. Fill in all the required information, such as remitter (sender) and remittee (recipient) details, nature of payment, and tax deduction details. Use the "Validate" button to check for errors

Step 3: Generate XML File: Once the form is validated successfully, use the "Generate XML" option. For bulk uploads, you can generate multiple XMLs and zip them into a single folder. For Part C, you must first import the Form No. 146 XML/JSON file submitted by your Chartered Accountant (accessible from View e-Filed Forms).

Step 4: Upload the Form on the Portal: Log in to the e-Filing portal using your user ID and password. Navigate to "e-File" > "Income Tax Forms" > "File Income Tax Forms". Select Form No. 145 and choose "Offline" as the submission mode. Upload the generated XML or zipped file and submit.

Step 5: E-Verify: Verify the submission using a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC) or an Electronic Verification Code (EVC). DSC is mandatory for TAN users.

Upon successful submission and verification, an acknowledgement number and transaction ID will be generated. You will also receive a confirmation message via email and SMS.

Submit to Bank/Authorized dealer (AD): A copy of printed form and acknowledgment to be provided to your bank (Authorised Dealer) before the remittance is processed.

Consequences of non-compliance: If any person fails to submit Form No. 145, or provides inaccurate information in Form No. 145, he is liable for a penalty of upto of ₹1 lakh under section 462 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.

8. Withdrawal/Modification of Form No. 145:

Once submitted Form No. 145 can't be modified; however, it can be withdrawn within 7 days from submission date.

9. Outcome of Form No. 145:

Form No. 145 is integrated with ITBA portal of the Department to enable risk profiling, analytics, and backend verification. As per risk parameters identified, cases are selected for verification. Thereafter, the Assessing Officer examines and verifies the transactions in these Form No. 145 forms as per SOP. If provisions of the Income-tax Act have been complied with, then the case is closed with the approval of the Competent Authority. In other cases, appropriate action as per the provisions of the Income-tax Act is taken.

10. Brief note on broad or qualitative changes in Form No. 145:

Part-A:

i. Remittee (recipient)details-

A new row has been added for the "Tax Identification Number (TIN) in the remittee (recipient)'s country of residence". This is mandatory field if the remittee (recipient) does not have a PAN. As per Rule No. 217, if a payee/deductee wants to claim the DTAA rate without having a PAN, they must provide the remitter (sender) with their TIN or a unique identification number issued by their government along with other details, such as their name, email ID, contact number, address in their country of residence and TRC. Further, TIN field is already part of Form No. 144.

ii. Remittance details- Following rows have been added:

a) A new checkbox has been added to confirm "if the bank making the remittance is also the authorised dealer". If they are the same, the applicant won't need to enter the details twice. This field will be automatically filled using the RBI's list of Category-1 authorised dealers based on the bank's name. If the bank and authorised dealer are different, a dropdown menu of Category-1 authorised dealers from the RBI list will appear in next row, so the correct authorised dealer can be selected.

b) One row for "ITDREIN" has been added. Income Tax Department Reporting Entity Identification Number is a unique ID issued by the Income Tax Department to the authorised dealer/reporting entity after it registers on the portal and it will help in cross verification with Form No. 147. This is an optional field.

c) One row for "BSR Code of the bank branch (7 digit)" has been added to Part A of Form No. 145, as it was already present in Parts B, C, and D. This code is included in all TDS forms because it is linked to the Challan Identification Number (CIN).

Part-B:

i. Changes proposed in respect of remittee (recipient) and remittance details in Part A have been applied to Part B, as discussed above.

ii. AO certificate details: One row for Amount as per certificate has been added.

Part-C:

Section A: General Information:

i. Changes proposed in respect of remittee (recipient) in Part A have been applied to Part C, as discussed above.

ii. AO certificate details in have been removed, because if the remitter has obtained a lower deduction certificate from AO, then he is required to file Part B and not Part C.

iii. Accountant details: Following rows have been added:

a) PAN of the Accountant

b) Firm Registration Number

c) Unique Document Identification Number (UDIN): As per the ICAI notification, a UDIN is now mandatory for Form No. 146. The UDIN is generated online by ICAI after the form is filed. UDIN allows the authenticity of the document to be verified, as it can be validated in real time through an API link with ICAI.

Section B: Particulars of remittance and TDS:

i. Changes proposed in respect of remittance details in Part A have been applied to Part C, as discussed above.

Part-D:

i. Changes proposed in respect of remittee (recipient) and remittance details in Part A have been applied to Part D, as discussed above.

ii. In remitter (sender) details- "TAN if available" has been kept as an optional field as in Part D the remitter (sender) does not have to deduct tax before making the payment.

11. Challenges and Solutions:

Challenges: Under Rule 220, a remitter (sender) is presently required to furnish Form No. 145 to the authorised dealer (AD) in physical form before any foreign remittance is processed. The AD, in turn, relies on the particulars contained in Form No. 145 to prepare and file its own statutory quarterly return in Form No. 147. In practice, however, inconsistencies frequently arise between the data reported in these two forms due to:

(i) Clerical errors in manual data entry.

(ii) Exchange-rate fluctuations between the date of Form No. 145 submission and the actual date of remittance as per Form No. 147.

(iii) Duplicate capture of Form No. 145 particulars by the AD.

(iv) Multiple Form No. 145 filings by remitter (sender) to rectify earlier mistakes relating to a single transaction.

The resulting mismatch impairs the integrity of both data, as these are used for risk management by the Department and verification of high-value cross-border payments is also carried out using this data.

Solutions:

(i) A change in Rule 220 has been made to enable the electronic delivery of Form No. 145 to authorized dealers. This will enhance ease of compliance as the remitter need not submit printed copy of Form No. 145 to its AD and AD need not keep such records, thus it shall streamline the remittance process and enhance compliance.

(ii) Addition of field of 'Tax Identification Number (TIN)' for the remittee (recipient) who does not have a PAN, provides for identification of beneficiary. TIN is the unique identification number on the basis of which the remittee (recipient) is identified in his country of residence.

(iii) For ease of compliance Aadhaar details of remitter and remittee have been done away with.

(iv) AO certificate details in part C of Form No. 145 have been removed, because if the remitter has obtained a lower deduction certificate from AO, then he is required to file Part B and not Part C.

(v) Addition of 'UDIN' field in Part C of Form No. 145 allows the authenticity of the document to be verified, as it can be validated in real time through an API link with ICAI resulting in transparency, and authenticity of information

(vi) Addition of field of 'ITDREIN' in Form No. 145 could help in generating a ledger of transactions by the department which can be shared with the reporting entity/authorised dealer and also to have a list of consumed and unutilized Form No. 145. The reporting entity/authorised dealer may use it while filing Form No. 147.

(vii) Field of "BSR Code of the bank branch (7 digit)" has been added to Part A of Form No. 145, which is linked to the Challan Identification Number (CIN).

These measures aim to improve the operational efficiency and accuracy of the form submission process.

12. Common Changes made across Forms:

i. To make forms system-friendly and enable e-filing and uploading, certain anomalies found due to grouping of name, address, PAN have been separated into different boxes.

ii. Assessment/financial/previous year(s) have been replaced with tax year(s).

iii. Sections and clauses have been changed as per the Income-tax Act, 2025.

iv. Currency symbol "Rs." has been replaced with "₹".