Form 131 Replaces Form 16A: The New TDS Certificate Under the Income-tax Act, 2025

A landlord calls you in November: “My bank deducted TDS on my rent, but where is my certificate? My CA is asking for it.” You open your old template, type up a Form 16A as you always have — and hand over a document the new system does not recognise. That is the trap of tax year 2026-27 in miniature: the old form names still feel familiar, but the system behind them has been renumbered. Form 16A is now Form 131, Form 16 is now Form 130, and the quarterly statements behind them are Forms 138 (salary) and 140 (non-salary).

This is the TDS companion to our TDS hub and to our guide to TDS missing from 26AS/AIS — because a certificate that does not match the credit statement is the next problem after a missing credit.

Form 131 vs Form 130: which one are you?

The split is simple, and getting it wrong is the commonest error:

So: you run a business and deduct TDS on a consultant’s fees — Form 131, every quarter. You employ staff and deduct TDS on salary — Form 130, once a year. A bank deducting TDS on a senior citizen’s interest issues Form 131 for the non-salary stream. If you are a deductee, the certificate you should demand depends entirely on which stream your income came through.

The 5-step issue process (and where it breaks)

Step 1 — Deposit the tax. TDS deducted in a month is deposited by the 7th of the next month through the challan-cum-statement system. A challan that does not match the statement later is the root of most “certificate wrong” complaints.

Step 2 — File Form 140. The quarterly TDS statement for non-salary payments is now Form 140 (it replaces Form 26Q). Salary deductors file Form 138 instead. File it on time — the certificate cannot exist until this step is done.

Step 3 — Wait for processing. Here is the catch people miss: Form 131 can only be generated after Form 140 is processed on TRACES. Filing the statement is not enough; processing is the gate. If TRACES shows the statement as still processing, the Download option will not give you a valid certificate, and chasing the deductee with a manual letter only creates confusion.

Step 4 — Download from TRACES. On TRACES, go to Downloads and request the TDS/TCS certificate. The file arrives as a password-protected ZIP: the password is the deductor’s TAN (for provisional certificates, the PAN). Note the expiry — the downloaded request file is time-limited (seven days in the current TRACES workflow), so download, authenticate and issue promptly rather than letting it sit in a mailbox.

Step 5 — Authenticate and issue. Sign the certificate with a digital signature, or authenticate it through the PDF Generation Utility for each PAN, and issue it to the deductee within 15 days of the quarterly statement being furnished. Keep proof of issue: if the deductee later says “never received”, your sent-mail record is your defence.

Three mistakes that void the whole exercise

1. Issuing an offline certificate. A self-typed certificate, however accurate its numbers, is not a Form 131. The deductee’s CA cannot rely on it, and in a scrutiny the department will ask for the TRACES original. If you already issued manual certificates this year, replace them with TRACES downloads and tell the deductees in writing.

2. One certificate for several deductees, or one deductee’s quarters clubbed together. Form 131 is per deductee, per quarter. Multiple deductors must each issue their own certificate to the same deductee — the deductee then aggregates them at return time. Clubbing quarters into one annual sheet looks helpful and is wrong.

3. Correcting the certificate instead of the statement. If a PAN, amount or challan is wrong in the certificate, do not edit the PDF. File a correction statement (Form 140 correction, or Form 144 where applicable), wait for processing, and download a fresh Form 131. The certificate is an output of the statement; fix the input, not the output.

What deductees should check on receipt

If you receive a Form 131, check four things before filing your return: (a) your PAN is correct — a single wrong digit sends the credit to someone else’s statement; (b) the quarter and the TDS section match the payment (rent, interest or fees); (c) the TDS amount matches your Form 168 tax credit statement and AIS; and (d) the certificate carries the deductor’s TAN and signature. A mismatch on any of these is a deductor-side correction, and the time to raise it is now — not after you have filed with a credit the system cannot see. Our rent TDS guide under section 393 explains which rent payments attract TDS in the first place, so you can check whether a certificate should even exist.

A realistic timeline for the September quarter

For the July–September 2026 quarter, the statement (Form 140) was due 31 October 2026. Once processed, deductors download Form 131 from TRACES and issue it within 15 days of furnishing. If you are a deductee still waiting in mid-November, the polite-but-firm message is: “Please confirm your Form 140 is processed and share the TRACES Form 131.” That sentence names the exact bottleneck, and it gets answered faster than “where is my certificate?”

FAQs

Is Form 16A still valid for tax year 2026-27?
No. Form 131 replaces Form 16A from tax year 2026-27 under the Income-tax Rules, 2026. Form 16A certificates relate to the earlier regime.

Can I download Form 131 myself as a deductee?
No. Only the deductor downloads it from TRACES and issues it to you. You verify it against Form 168/AIS; you cannot generate it.

What is the ZIP password for the downloaded certificate?
The deductor’s TAN (PAN for provisional certificates) in the TRACES workflow.

What if my Form 131 amount does not match Form 168?
Ask the deductor to file a correction statement first; a corrected Form 131 follows processing. Do not file your return hoping the mismatch resolves itself.

Do I attach Form 131 to my ITR?
No — it is not attached to the return. Retain it with your records; it substantiates the TDS credit you claim.

Sources

Income-tax Rules, 2026 — Form 131, certificate under section 395(4) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 for tax deducted at source other than salary (Rule 215(1), Table Sl. No. 2), replacing Form 16A under the earlier rules; Income Tax Department TRACES FAQs on Form 131 (certificate under section 395(4)). Mapping corroborated by the Income Tax Department’s form matrix under the Income-tax Act, 2025: Form 138 replaces Form 24Q, Form 140 replaces Form 26Q, Form 130 replaces Form 16, Form 168 replaces Form 26AS.