Form 61A – Statement of Financial Transactions
Form 61A - A complete guide
In this post, we’ll talk about including its application, deadline, penalty, and other points. Where we will take a close look at each section in detail:
What is Form 61A?
The Form 61A of income tax, Statement of Specified Financial Transactions, must be submitted by the notified Reporting entity for the applicable financial year and is generated under Section 285 BA of Income Tax Act, 1961 read with Rule 114E of Income Tax Rules, 1962.
According to the Income Tax Rules 1962, Rule 144E, details like the type and value of transactions must be reported on Form 61A. On the 31st of May of each year, reporting entity must submit Form 61A, If applicable, which helps to maintain a proper record of filing taxes and claiming returns.
Who has to file Form 61A?
The below-mentioned entities must submit a Specified Financial Transaction every year.
- A banking organisation
- A cooperative bank
- A non-bank financial institution (NBFC)
- Any organisation that issues credit cards
- Post offices
- A Nidhi as defined in Section 406 of the 2013 Companies Act
- A firm that issues bonds or debentures
- A firm that issues shares
- A mutual fund company
- A company that is publicly traded on a recognised stock exchange and buys its own securities.
- A mutual fund trustee or another person that the trustee has authorised
- Money changer, offshore banking unit, authorised dealer, or any other individual as defined by FEMA
- A person who is liable for audit under section 44AB of the Act
- Under the 1908 Registration Act, an inspector general or sub-registrar was appointed.
Applicability of Form 61A
The SFTs, or reportable accounts, are submitted on form 61A. Therefore, the following institutions are required to submit form 61A by the due date:
Organisation Type | Transaction Type and Limit |
A banking firm or a cooperative bank | Cash payments for the purchase of pay instruments like PO/DD/RBI Bonds etc worth more than INR 10 lakhs |
Deposits or withdrawals of amounts over INR 50 lakhs from the current account of a person | |
A banking firm or a cooperative bank, all post offices, Nidhi | Depositing amounts above INR 10 lakhs in a bank account, other than current and time account |
Any organisation that issues credit cards | A cash payment of more than INR 1 lakh or any other payment that amounts to more than INR 10 lakh against any credit card bill. |
The organisation that issues bonds or debentures | Receipt of transactions worth more than 10 lakh rupees |
A company that issues shares | Receipt of amount worth more than INR 10 lakh for acquiring share including share application money |
Any mutual fund organisation | Receipt of amount worth more than INR 10 lakh for acquiring units of Mutual funds |
A company issuing debentures or bonds | Receipt of amount worth more than INR 10 lakh for acquiring debentures/bonds |
Listed companies | Share buyback for an amount more than INR 10 lakh |
Any business listed on a reputable stock exchange | Receipt of more than 10 lakh rupees worth of share buybacks |
A mutual fund trustee or another person that the trustee has authorised | Receipt of transactions worth more than 10 lakh rupees |
Money changer, offshore banking unit, authorised dealer, or any other individual as defined by FEMA | Receipt of amount for sales for foreign currency or expenses incurred for foreign currency sale via debit/credit card or issue of draft or travellers cheque/financial instrument for an amount greater than INR 10 lakhs |
An Inspector General or sub-registrar appointed under the Registration Act, 1908 | Sale/purchase of immovable property of above INR 30 lakhs of salve value or sale stamp value |
Anyone who is subject to an audit under section 44AB of the Income Tax Act of 1961. | A person who receives more than Rs 2 lakh in cash through the sale of products or services (other than the ones specified above) |
Note: All the above transactions are performed by a person and the limit is to be considered annually.
Specified Financial Transactions (SFT) What are they?
The following varieties of SFTs are mentioned in Form 61A:
- A work agreement
- Any expenditures or investments made
- Purchase, sale, or exchange of things
- Any right, interest in the property, or any dealings involving the property
- Offering services
Different Parts of Form 61A
Form 61A income tax is of two parts:
- Part A, which contains statement-level information, is common to all transactions.
- The report level information will be reported as below depending on the type of the transaction
- In Part B, individuals report their financial transactions
- Part C is for reporting on bank accounts transactions
- Part D is for reporting on immovable property transactions
The following are the key sections of this form:
- Full name
- Folio number
- Address
- PAN
- Financial year / Year of transactions
- Transaction details
- Amount and number of specific financial transactions
Due Date to Fill Form 61A
For every previous financial year where the transaction occurs, a Statement of Financial Transactions must be provided by May 31 of the next year.
If the assessee fails to submit within the due date, a notice would be issued by the authorities to such an assessee, requiring the assessee to submit the form within 30 days of the notice.
By not responding to the notice, the assessee will be levied a penalty. The calculation of such a fine would begin on the date mentioned in the notice.
Penalty for not filing Form 61A
Persons are required to submit a statement of financial transaction under section 285BA, provided:
- Under Section 271FA, if the assessee fails to file by the deadline, they will be subject to a penalty of Rs 500 per day.
- Anyone who does not submit SFT within the deadline will receive a 30-day warning. The same needs to be submitted within that time frame. It is important to note that if they still don’t file form 61A, then they will have to pay Rs. 1000 per day of delay. Such a penalty would be calculated as of the date specified in the notice.
If the information is inaccurate, the correct information must be provided to authorities within 10 days of such identification.
The following scenarios may also entail a penalty of INR 50,000, if an institute provided inaccurate information;
- Inaccurate details due to non-compliance to the prescribed format
- Knowledge of inaccuracy during the time of filing and not reporting the same
- Identification of the inaccuracy but failure to furnish accurate information
How to file Form 61A online?
- Register on the Reporting Portal under “My Account”
- Download the Generic Submission Utility from the reporting portal under “Resources.”
- Generate both general and transaction-specific SFTs in XML format according to the specified schema.
- Digitally sign and encrypt the XML through the submission utility and prepare a package for upload.
- Upload the package to the reporting portal.
- On successful submission, an “Acknowledgment Number” will be received via an email to the registered mail id.
Form 61A format
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