Statutory Guides
Form 130 is the annual certificate of tax deducted from salary under the Income Tax Act, 2025. It replaces Form 16 from tax year 2026-27. The employer downloads it from the TRACES portal after the fourth quarter Form 138 is processed, and gives it to each employee by 15 June. The first Form 130 certificates, for 2026-27, are due by 15 June 2027.
Last updated: . General explainer, not legal or tax advice.
| What it is | Annual certificate of tax deducted at source from salary |
| Law | Section 395(4)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 2025 |
| Rule | Rule 215(1) of the Income Tax Rules, 2026 |
| Replaces | Form 16 under the Income Tax Rules, 1962 |
| First used for | Tax year 2026-27, salary paid from 1 April 2026 |
| Built from | The quarterly Form 138 statements the employer files |
| How it is produced | Generated and downloaded from the TRACES portal |
| Due date | 15 June after the end of the tax year |
It does the same job. Form 130 tells the employee how much salary was paid and how much tax was deducted and deposited against their PAN, so they can claim the credit. The Income Tax Department lists it as the form that replaces Form 16. What changed is the law behind it, the layout, and where the certificate comes from.
| Form 16 | Form 130 | |
|---|---|---|
| Law | Section 203, Income Tax Act, 1961 | Section 395(4)(b), Income Tax Act, 2025 |
| Rule | Rule 31, Income Tax Rules, 1962 | Rule 215, Income Tax Rules, 2026 |
| Covers | Salary up to March 2026 | Salary from April 2026 |
| Parts | Part A and Part B | Part A, Part B and Part C |
| Quarterly statement behind it | Form 24Q | Form 138 |
| Due date | 15 June | 15 June |
If you are an employee, you read it the same way. If you run payroll, the change that matters is the next section.
Rule 215(1) says the certificate is furnished after generating and downloading it from the web portal specified by the Director General of Income Tax (Systems). That portal is TRACES. The department's Form 130 FAQ is blunt about it: the employer must download the certificate from TRACES, and a certificate prepared any other way is not a legal or valid Form 130.
With Form 16, many small employers prepared Part B themselves and merged it with Part A from TRACES. That route is closed for Form 130. The salary detail now comes from what your CA reports in Form 138. If a figure on an employee's certificate is wrong, the fix is a correction to Form 138, followed by a fresh download. Editing the PDF does not count.
| Part | What it contains |
|---|---|
| Part A | Certificate details, the employer's details and the employee's details. |
| Part B | A summary reconciliation of the amount paid or credited and the tax deducted at source. |
| Part C, Annexure I | Applies where tax is deducted from an employee's salary under Section 392. |
| Part C, Annexure II | Applies to specified senior citizens whose bank deducts tax on pension and interest. Employers do not issue this one. |
Note that the letters do not line up with Form 16. In Form 16, Part A carried the TDS deposit record and Part B carried the salary computation. In Form 130, the salary detail for employees sits in Part C, Annexure I.
By 15 June of the financial year immediately after the tax year in which the salary was paid and the tax deducted.
| Salary paid in | Certificate | Due by |
|---|---|---|
| April 2025 to March 2026 | Form 16, under the 1961 Act | 15 June 2026 |
| Tax year 2026-27 | Form 130 | 15 June 2027 |
| Tax year 2027-28 | Form 130 | 15 June 2028 |
Because the certificate can only be generated after the fourth quarter Form 138 is processed, the real deadline for your team is the 31 May filing date for that quarter. A late or rejected Form 138 pushes the certificate back with it.
Deduct tax from salary each month under Section 392 and deposit it with the government.
Report the salary paid and tax deducted for each employee. The department's FAQ says the quarterly statement must be filed for the certificate to be generated.
Once the fourth quarter statement is processed, download the certificate for each employee from the TRACES portal.
The certificate can be signed digitally or by hand. Rule 215 lets the employer choose a digital signature.
That includes anyone who left during the year, for the months they worked with you.
Each employer issues its own Form 130 for the period the person worked there. Rule 215(2) says each employer issues Parts A and B. Part C can come from each employer or only from the last one, at the employee's option.
File a correction statement for the Form 138 that carried the error. Once it is processed, download the corrected Form 130 from TRACES and issue it. If an employee loses the certificate, you can issue a duplicate, marked as a duplicate.
No. The FAQ says it does not need to be attached to the return of income. The employee keeps it for their records and uses it to fill in the return.
Offrd does not generate Form 130 and does not file Form 138. Both stay with TRACES and your CA. What Offrd does is keep the monthly salary, TDS, PAN and regime choice for each employee clean, so the Form 138 your CA files is right the first time.
When the certificates are ready, download Form 130 from TRACES and upload the file to Offrd. Offrd emails each employee their own certificate, so each one goes only to the person it belongs to, and you do not have to send forty emails by hand.
For salary up to March 2026, the Form 16 module still builds Part B and combines it with Part A. The employee's view of the old form is in what is Form 16, and the full list of changes is in the new Income Tax Act guide.
Form 130 is the annual certificate of tax deducted at source from salary under Section 395(4)(b) of the Income Tax Act, 2025. It replaces Form 16 from tax year 2026-27.
For salary paid from 1 April 2026, yes. The certificate for that salary is Form 130. Salary for 2025-26 and earlier years falls under the 1961 Act and its Form 16.
By 15 June 2027, for salary paid in tax year 2026-27, from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027.
No. Under Rule 215 the certificate has to be generated and downloaded from the TRACES portal. The department's FAQ says a certificate prepared any other way is not a valid Form 130.
Yes. The employer can sign it digitally or by hand. Rule 215 gives the option of a digital signature.
File a correction statement for the Form 138 that carried the error. After it is processed, download the corrected Form 130 from TRACES and issue it.
No. Form 130 comes only from TRACES. You download it there and upload the file to Offrd, and Offrd emails each employee their own certificate.
The rules and dates on this page come from the official sources below. Forms and dates can change, so check the current version on the source before you act on it.
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