TDS Certificate on TRACES: How to Download, Issue and Verify Form 16 and Form 16A
A valid TDS certificate comes from one place only: the TRACES portal. You, the
deductor, file the quarterly TDS statement, wait for it to process, request the certificate on
TRACES, sign it, and hand it to the person you deducted from. Salary TDS gets Form 16, and
everything else gets Form 16A. From Tax Year 2026-27, the same two certificates carry new
numbers, Form 130 and Form 131.
Valid Certificate Source
TRACES Portal Only
Form 16 / Form 130 Due
15 June
Form 16A / Form 131 Due
15 Days After Statement Due Date
Key takeaways
Certificates made outside TRACES, in Excel or accounting software, are not legally
valid TDS certificates.
Form 16 is annual and covers salary. Form 16A is quarterly and covers non-salary
payments such as professional fees, contractor payments and interest.
Under the Income-tax Act, 2025, Form 16 is now Form 130, Form 16A is Form 131, and
Form 16B (property) is Form 132.
Form 130 is due by 15 June after the tax year. Form 131 is due 15 days after the
due date of the quarterly statement.
A certificate cannot be generated until the quarterly statement is filed and
processed.
If a certificate is wrong, you file a revised statement and download a fresh one.
You do not edit the PDF.
Form 16 vs Form 16A: which one applies
The easiest test is the type of payment. If it was salary or pension, you issue Form 16. If it
was anything else, you issue Form 16A.
| Point |
Form 16 (Form 130 from Tax Year 2026-27) |
Form 16A (Form 131 from Tax Year 2026-27) |
| Covers |
TDS on salary and certain pensions |
TDS on non-salary payments (fees, rent, commission, interest)
|
| Issued to |
Employee or pensioner |
Vendor, contractor, professional, lender |
| Frequency |
Once a year |
Every quarter, per deductor |
| Based on statement |
Form 24Q (now Form 138) |
Form 26Q (now Form 140) or 27Q (now Form 144) |
| Due date |
15 June after the year |
15 days after the quarterly statement due date |
| Parts |
Part A (TRACES) and Part B (employer) |
Single certificate generated from TRACES |
For tax years that started before 1 April 2026, including FY 2025-26, the old form names still
apply. A Form 16 issued for FY 2025-26 remains a valid certificate. The renumbering follows the
Income-tax Rules, 2026, and the department's FAQ confirms the same structure carries over. The
official reference is the Income Tax Department's note on Forms 130 to 133.
What to sort out before you download
TRACES will not generate a certificate for a statement that has gaps. Before you log in, check
these five things:
The quarterly statement is filed, and TRACES shows it as processed.
Challans in the statement are matched to payments in the tax records. Challans that
don't match leave deductee rows without a certificate.
Each deductee has a valid PAN in the statement. Rows with invalid PANs are where
certificates most often fail to generate.
Your TRACES login for the TAN works. A registered DSC lets you use the faster KYC
route.
You have the token number (PRN) of the statement and, for the other KYC route, the
challan and deduction details.
If any of these fail, fix the statement first. Our page on
TDS correction on TRACES
walks through that process.
Due dates at a glance
Quarterly statements for non-salary TDS are due on 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May.
The certificate follows 15 days later.
| Quarter |
Statement due |
Form 16A / Form 131 due |
| Q1 (April to June) |
31 July |
15 August |
| Q2 (July to September) |
31 October |
15 November |
| Q3 (October to December) |
31 January |
15 February |
| Q4 (January to March) |
31 May |
15 June |
The clock runs from the statement's due date, not from when you actually filed it or deposited
the tax. Filing late does not give you extra time to issue the certificate.
TDS certificate verification for the person who receives it
If you are the deductee and you want to know whether a certificate is genuine and the credit
will show up, check these four things.
It came from TRACES. The certificate is valid only if generated on
the portal. Anything typed up outside it has no legal standing for claiming
credit.
The identifiers are right. Your PAN, the deductor's TAN, the
financial year, and the amount of tax deducted should match your own records.
It appears in your tax statements. Compare the figures with your
Form 26AS or Annual Information Statement (AIS) on the income tax portal. The
certificate shows what the deductor says was deducted. The statements show what the
department actually credited.
The amount agrees with the credit. If the certificate shows more
TDS than your 26AS does, the deductor probably filed or deposited incorrectly, and
the certificate alone won't get you credit.
If there is a mismatch, ask the deductor to correct their statement. You claim TDS credit in
your return based on what is reflected in your records, so the gap matters before you file.
As a deductor,
verify before you issue. Read each certificate against your books once, because errors caught at
that point cost a few minutes and errors caught after issue cost a revised statement.
Fixing a wrong or missing TDS certificate
You do not correct the PDF. The fix is at the statement level:
1
Identify the error (wrong PAN, wrong amount, missing challan).
2
File a correction statement for the quarter, as covered on our
TDS correction
page.
3
Wait for TDS CPC to process it.
4
Download a fresh certificate from TRACES and issue it, withdrawing the old one.
For Form 130, the department's guidance says to file an amended Form 138 and re-download the
updated certificate.
Penalty for not issuing the certificate on time
Late or missing certificates attract a daily penalty under Section 272A of the old Act. The
figure differs by source: older TRACES advisories state ₹100 per day, while more recent guidance
states ₹500 per day. I could not confirm the current amount or the equivalent section in the
Income-tax Act, 2025, so check it against the current provision before you quote it to a client.
How LegalDev can help
If you manage TDS for a business and want certificates out on time, the LegalDev Tax Team can
take the work on. We check that your statements are processed and challans match, request the
certificates on TRACES, prepare Part B for Form 16, sign and deliver them, and fix any statement
errors that block generation. Send us your TAN and the quarter, and we will tell you what stands
in the way and what the next step is. Our team's background is Indian corporate tax compliance
and TRACES portal management.
Frequently asked questions
Form 16 certifies TDS on salary and is issued once a year. Form 16A certifies TDS on
non-salary payments and is issued every quarter. From Tax Year 2026-27 they are Form
130 and Form 131.
Yes. TRACES offers a normal KYC route that asks for the statement's token number and
challan and deduction details. A DSC is still needed to sign the certificate.
Usually because the statement is not processed yet, a challan is not matched to a
payment, or the deductee's PAN is invalid. Fix the statement and request again.
No. Certificates not generated and downloaded from TRACES are not valid TDS
certificates.
Not directly. The employer is responsible for issuing it, so employees get it from
the employer or the payroll portal.
15 June after the end of the year. For Tax Year 2026-27 it is 15 June 2027.
15 days after the due date of the quarterly statement: 15 August, 15 November, 15
February and 15 June.
Yes. A duplicate can be downloaded from TRACES at any time and reissued.
Confirm it was generated on TRACES, match PAN, TAN and amount, and compare it
against your Form 26AS or AIS. The credit in those statements is what counts in your
return.
The deductor must file a correction statement, wait for processing, and download a
fresh certificate.