Forms 145 and 146 (formerly Forms 15CA and 15CB)

What Are Forms 145 and 146?

Form 145 (formerly Form 15CA) and Form 146 (formerly Form 15CB) are mandatory compliance documents required before any person makes a foreign remittance from India. They serve as a checkpoint to ensure that the correct withholding tax has been deducted and deposited before money leaves the country.

Renumbered with effect from 1 April 2026. The forms known until 31 March 2026 as Form 15CA and Form 15CB are now Form 145 and Form 146. The renumbering was made by the Income-tax Rules 2026, notified by the CBDT (Notification No. 22/2026) and in force from 1 April 2026; the substance of the forms, their Part A/B/C/D structure and the underlying obligations are unchanged. The rest of this page uses the current numbers.

Form 145 is an online declaration filed by the person making the payment (the remitter) on the Income Tax e-filing portal. Form 146 is a certificate issued by a Chartered Accountant confirming the nature of the payment, the applicable tax rate (domestic or DTAA), and the tax deducted.

Banks in India will not process foreign remittances without these forms. The authorized dealer (bank) collects the Form 145 acknowledgment before executing the wire transfer.

Legal Framework

• Section 397(3)(d) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (section 195(6) of the Income-tax Act, 1961) — the obligation to furnish prescribed information on payments to non-residents, under which Forms 145 and 146 are required. One drafting point is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing: the 2025 provision speaks of a person paying "to a non-resident, not being a company or a foreign company". Read literally, that phrase would put remittances to foreign companies outside the reporting net — which cannot be the intent of a provision sitting alongside the withholding charge in section 393(2). Do not treat a remittance to a foreign company as exempt from Forms 145 and 146 on the strength of that wording; continue to file.
• Rule 37BB of the Income Tax Rules — Prescribes Forms 145 and 146, along with the list of payments exempted from this requirement
• CBDT Notification No. 93/2020 — Revised Form 15CA format and expanded the list of exempted payments

When Are Forms 145 and 146 Required?

The requirement depends on the nature and amount of the payment:

Form 145 retains the four-part structure — Parts A, B, C and D — and the part you file depends on the row above. Form 146, the Chartered Accountant's certificate, is required for one part only: Part C, where the remittance is chargeable to tax, exceeds INR 5 lakhs in the financial year, and no lower or nil withholding certificate has been obtained from the Assessing Officer.

Part C — which requires both Forms 145 and 146 — is the most common scenario for foreign-owned companies making payments to their parent entities.

Payments Exempted from Forms 145 and 146 (Rule 37BB)

The following payments do not require Form 145 or Form 146:

• Imports of goods (payment for physical goods — covered by customs declarations)
• Remittances by Indian embassies and diplomatic missions
• Payments under OIFC (Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre) schemes
• Certain personal remittances under the LRS (Liberalized Remittance Scheme) where specific purpose codes apply — such as travel, medical treatment, education (up to the RBI limit of USD 250,000/year)

Payments for services, royalties, interest, dividends, management fees, and other business payments are NOT exempted — they require Forms 145 and 146.

Form 146 — The CA Certificate

Form 146 is signed by a Chartered Accountant and contains:

• Name and address of the remitter (the Indian company)
• Name, address, and country of the remittee (the foreign recipient)
• Nature of the remittance (royalty, FTS, interest, dividend, etc.)
• Amount of remittance in foreign currency and INR equivalent
• Whether a DTAA applies and the specific article and rate
• Whether a Tax Residency Certificate and Form 41 (formerly Form 10F) have been obtained
• Rate of TDS applied (domestic or DTAA)
• Amount of TDS deducted and deposited
• Challan details (BSR code, date, serial number)
• Whether a lower or nil withholding certificate under section 395(2) or 395(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 exists

The CA must examine the underlying agreement, the nature of the service, and the applicable treaty before signing. This is not a rubber-stamp exercise — the CA takes professional responsibility for the certification.

Two points on Form 41, which the CA has to confirm. First, the treaty rate cannot be applied at source unless Form 41 has actually been filed on the e-filing portal — a Tax Residency Certificate on its own does not secure treaty relief at the time of remittance. Second, the non-resident recipient does not need an Indian PAN to e-file Form 41: the portal has a non-PAN registration category for non-residents, available since October 2023, which supersedes the earlier position that a PAN was required before the form could be filed online.

Form 145 — Online Declaration

Form 145 is filed electronically on the Income Tax e-filing portal (incometax.gov.in). The process:

1. Log in to the portal using the company's PAN and password
2. Navigate to e-File > Income Tax Forms > File Form 145
3. Select the part (A, B, C, or D) based on the payment characteristics
4. Enter details — remittee information, amount, purpose code (as per RBI), tax details
5. Upload Form 146 (for Part C) — the CA uploads Form 146 on the portal first, and the system generates a reference number
6. Enter the Form 146 reference number in the Form 145 form
7. Submit and verify using DSC or EVC
8. Download acknowledgment — this acknowledgment number is provided to the bank

How This Applies to Foreign-Owned Companies

If you run a foreign-owned company in India, you will file Forms 145 and 146 every time you make a payment to:

Beyond the remittance forms themselves, a foreign company with a taxable presence in India can face additional withholding and filing obligations — see our guide on permanent establishment tax obligations for US companies for how this interacts with Forms 145 and 146.

• Your foreign parent company (management fees, royalties, service charges)
• Foreign vendors (software licenses, consulting, marketing)
• Foreign lenders (interest on ECBs or inter-company loans)
• Foreign shareholders (dividends)
• Foreign employees (salary for work done in India by non-resident employees)

A typical subsidiary making quarterly payments to its parent will file Forms 145 and 146 four times a year for that single payment stream. Add other foreign vendors, and the frequency increases.

Deadlines

There is no separate deadline — Forms 145 and 146 must be filed before the remittance is made. The bank will not process the payment without the Form 145 acknowledgment. In practice:

• Form 146 should be prepared and uploaded by the CA 2-3 days before the planned remittance
• Form 145 should be filed on the same day or one day before the remittance
• The bank typically asks for the acknowledgment along with the payment instruction

Penalties

• Failure to furnish Form 145 — Penalty of INR 1,00,000 under section 462 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (section 271-I of the Income-tax Act, 1961)
• Furnishing incorrect information in Form 145 — Same penalty: INR 1,00,000 per form
• Bank processing remittance without Form 145 — The bank (authorized dealer) faces action from RBI for non-compliance

The INR 1 lakh penalty applies per form, not per transaction. A company that makes 12 foreign remittances in a year without filing Form 145 could face INR 12 lakhs in penalties.

Common Mistakes

• Filing Form 145 after the remittance — The form must be filed before the payment. Filing it retroactively (to satisfy a bank audit or tax audit) does not cure the deficiency. The penalty still applies.
• Using incorrect purpose codes — The RBI purpose code in Form 145 must match the nature of the payment. Using the wrong code (e.g., coding management fees as "other business services" instead of the specific code) creates reconciliation issues between RBI and Income Tax databases.
• Not updating the TDS challan details in Form 146 — If TDS was deposited after the CA prepared Form 146, the challan details are missing. The form must be regenerated with the correct challan BSR code, date, and serial number.
• Filing Part D when Part C is required — Part D is for payments not chargeable to tax. If a company incorrectly determines that a payment is not taxable and files Part D, but the payment is actually taxable, the company is treated as having failed to deduct TDS — triggering the failure-to-deduct consequences in section 398 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (section 201 of the Income-tax Act, 1961), including interest under section 398(3)(a).
• Not obtaining TRC before filing Form 146 — The CA certifying Form 146 must confirm whether a TRC exists. If the CA certifies a DTAA rate without verifying the TRC, and the TRC is later found to be invalid or expired, the CA faces professional liability.

Practical Example

An Indian subsidiary in Mumbai pays its US parent company USD 50,000 quarterly for IT support services (Fees for Technical Services under the India-US DTAA). The applicable treaty rate is 15%. The Indian company deducts TDS of USD 7,500 (15%) on each quarterly payment and deposits the INR equivalent with the government by the 7th of the following month. Before making each quarterly remittance of USD 42,500 (net of TDS), the process unfolds: (1) The company's CA examines the services agreement, confirms it qualifies as FTS under Article 12 of the India-US DTAA, verifies the US parent's TRC (IRS Form 6166 for 2026) and Form 41, and uploads Form 146 on the e-filing portal. (2) The company's accountant files Form 145 Part C on the portal, enters the Form 146 reference number, and submits. (3) The acknowledgment is sent to the bank along with the wire transfer instruction. (4) The bank processes the USD 42,500 remittance to the US parent's account.

Related Terms

• Withholding Tax — The tax that Forms 145 and 146 tracks
• Tax Residency Certificate — Referenced in Form 146
• TDS — Must be deposited before Form 145 is filed
• TAN — Required on Form 145

Making foreign payments from your Indian company? Beacon Filing handles Forms 145 and 146 filing — from CA certification to bank coordination.