Form No. 144 (Earlier Form No. 27Q)

Form No. 144 – Quarterly statement of deduction of tax under section 397(3)(b) of the Act in respect of payments other than salary made to Non-Residents for the quarter ended…(Tax Year)

Purpose:

Form No. 144 is a quarterly statement filed by deductors to report Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) on payments (other than salary) made to non-resident Indians (NRIs), foreign companies, and other non-resident persons. It covers income such as interest, royalty, technical fees, dividends, and other payments subject to TDS under Chapter XIX-B of the Income-tax Act, 2025. Form No. 144 is filed under 219 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026.

Who Should File:

Any deductor making payments to a non-resident or foreign company on account of interest, dividend, royalty, technical fee, etc. on which TDS is applicable under the Act.

Frequency & Due Dates:

Structure of Form No. 144:

⮚ Part A:

Particulars of the Deductor: Type of Deductor, Name, Address, PAN, TAN, and contact information of Deductor.

Particulars of the person Responsible for Deduction of Tax: Name, Address, PAN, and contact information.

⮚ Part B: Details of Tax Deducted and Paid to Central Govt. (i.e. Total Tax, Interest,

Fee, Mode of Payment, BSR Code, Date of Deposit, Challan Serial No. and Minor Head, etc.).

⮚ Annexure: Deductee wise break up of TDS: PAN (if available), Name, TIN, Address, Contact Information, Status, Country to which remittance is made, Amount paid or credited, Date of payment or credit, Tax Deducted, Tax Deposited, Date of Deduction, Rate, Rate of TDS is as per IT Act or DTAA, Reason for non/lower/higher Deduction, Certificate Number u/s 395, etc.

Form No. 144 has a single annexure, filed for all four quarters, capturing deductee-level TDS information across multiple sections.

Documents/details required to file the Form No. 144:

1. Copies of challans paid to the credit of central government.
2. PAN details of all deductees.
3. Form 10F / Tax Residency Certificate (TRC) where DTAA benefits are claimed.

Filing Count:

On average, around 1.5 lakh original forms have been filed annually over the last five years.

Process flow of filing Form No. 144:

The process flow includes following steps

1. Deduction of tax at source on payments to non-residents.
2. Payment of deducted tax to the credit of the Central Government within the time limits prescribed under Rule 218 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026.
3. Preparation of the quarterly TDS statement (Form No. 144) using RPU (Return Preparation Utility) from TIN-NSDL.
4. Validation of the file using the File Validation Utility (FVU). In case of no errors, the utility will provide a .fvu file as result.
5. The resultant .fvu file is to be uploaded online at e-filing website or physically at TIN FC centre.
6. After successful submission of the statement at either e-filing website or physically at TIN FC centre, the data is inwarded at CPC-TDS and the statement is processed as per the provisions of the Income-tax Act, 2025.

Outcome of Processed Form No. 144:

For Deductor

The resultant of processing of TDS statement can be without default or with defaults. In case of statements processed with default, the deductors are required to file correction statements after making payment of default (if required).

For Deductees

⮚ Based on Form No. 144 data, TRACES generates Form No. 131 (TDS Certificate for non-salary income, earlier Form 16A under Income-tax Act, 1961).

⮚ Deductor must issue Form No. 131 to each non-resident deductees within 15 days from the due date of filing Form No. 144.

⮚ Once processed, the deducted TDS amount reflects in the deductee’s Form No. 168 / AIS as “TDS by deductor”.

⮚ Non-residents can claim credit in their Indian tax returns, or in their home country under DTAA.

Brief note on qualitative changes made:

1. Key updates include the following

• replacement of outdated fields (e.g., Token No. replaced with Return Receipt Number, and deletion of TAN Registration No.),
• streamlining of entries (removal of surcharge and cess details now consolidated under challan/Book Adjustment), and
• redundant references removed to simplify interpretation.
• explanatory notes have been provided to guide users in completing the form accurately.

2. The revised Form No. 144 will be a smart one to enhance user experience and providing ease of filing through-

a. auto-population/pre-filling of relevant details using information available from the Deductor’s TRACES profile.

b. real time validations & error handling

c. drop downs & date pickers

d. integration with APIs & Databases

e. Check box based smart verification

f. Standardization of name & address fields etc.

Common Changes made across Forms:

1. To make Forms system-friendly and enable e-filing and uploading, certain anomalies found due to grouping of Name, Designation, Address and PAN have been separated into different boxes.

2. Assessment / Financial / Previous year or years have been replaced with Tax year or years, wherever appearing in the Form/Annexure.

3. Changes in Sections, Clauses and Schedules have been aligned as per the Income-tax Act, 2025.

4. Currency symbol “Rs.” has been replaced with “₹”.