Form 10F is required to be filed by non-residents for claiming benefit of Double Taxable Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) so that they can get income without deduction of TDS in India. Recently, Non-residents were facing a major dilemma of obtaining PAN for filing of Form 10F on Income Tax Portal.

Income tax department has made a major modification on the Income Tax Portal to facilitate ease of filing of Form 10F for non-residents.

1. Issue: Mandatory holding for PAN by non-resident for filing for Form 10F

• Income Tax Department mandated e-filing of Form 10F in 2022. However, Income tax department provided exemption from mandatory e-filing of Form 10F to non-residents till 30th September, 2023 vide Notification No. F. No. DGIT(S)-ADG(S)-3/ e-Filing Notification/Forms/2023/ 13420 dated March 28, 2023. 
• That means, w.e.f. 1st October, all non-residents are required to file Form 10F online through login on Income tax portal.
• A person may login on Income Tax portal through PAN and Password.
• Therefore, so far, a non-resident entity is mandatorily required to apply for PAN for Form 10F compliance purpose even though such person is not legally required to hold PAN as per Income tax Act.

2. Filing of Form 10F without holding PAN

• To overcome the hardship faced by non-residents of holding PAN for mere procedural compliance of Form 10F, income tax has made suitable amendments on Income Tax portal.
• Income tax portal has provided a new option to register on Income Tax Portal under “Non-Residents not holding and not required to have pan”. This option will allow a non-resident to register on Income tax portal without PAN.

2.1 Procedure of registering on Income Tax portal without PAN

Following is the procedure with relevant screenshots to register on without PAN:

1. On https://eportal.incometax.gov.in, a non-resident is required to “Register” under “Other” option.

2. Under “Other” tab, select “Non-residents not holding and not required to have PAN”

3. Both Individual and Other than individual can register under this category.

4. Individual Non-residents are required to provide following information for registering on Income tax portal:
   1. Name
   2. Date of Birth
   3. Tax Identification Number (of the resident country)
   4. Country of residence
   5. Mobile Number and email id
   6. Address

5. Other than individual non-residents are required to provide following information:
   1. Name
   2. Date of Incorporation
   3. Tax Identification Number (of the resident country)
   4. Country of residence
   5. Name, Date of Birth, Tax Indentification number and country of resident of Key Person
   6. Mobile Number and email address
   7. Address

6. Mobile number and email address will be verified through OTP.

 Please note that , While registering on the income tax portal, OTPs might not be delivered to your foreign mobile number. In this case, you need to provide an Indian mobile number to get registered.

7. Upload the relevant documents like
   1. Tax residency Certificate, 
   2. ID Proof
   3. Address Proof
   4. Option Attachement

8. Post completion of registration process, Income tax portal will generate a User ID for login on income tax portal which can be used instead of PAN. Following screen will appear post completion of registration process:

2.2 Filing of Form 10F post Login on Income Tax Portal

• Non-residents may login on income tax portal with user ID provided while registering and password set at the time of creating profile.
• Form 10F can be filed on following path:

e-file>Income Tax Forms> File Income Tax forms

• Non-resident is required to provide following information while filing Form 10F:
  • Assessment Year
  • Status of Non-resident, i.e., Individual, Company etc. It will auto-populate based on information furnished at the time registering
  • Country of Incorporation or registration;
  • Assessee’s tax identification number in the country or specified territory of residence. If no such number is available, unique number used for identification in such country
  • Period 
  • Address of the assessee in the country or territory outside India
  • Tax residency Certificate is required to be attached with Form 10F

3. Our Comments

This is a welcome move as this has sorted for various non-residents who were required to hold PAN merely for procedural compliance without having any taxable Income in India.