Is My Form 16 Fake? Confused About Missing Details and New Job Concerns

Hi folks, This is Archana. I worked as a DB admin for a company under the payroll of another company 'A', which was not a registered company in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. For the last three years, I have been working under that payroll as a permanent employee. Recently, I attended and successfully finished an interview at company 'B', and they have asked me for Form 16. At the time of joining, I provided Form 16 which was given by my payroll company. However, the HR in the new company 'B' told me that the Form 16 I provided was fake. I was shocked because I have genuinely been working for 3 years, and I asked them what was wrong. They replied that in the given Form 16:

- The CERTIFICATE NUMBER field was blank
- The LAST UPDATED field was blank
- The CIT (TDS) field was blank

But according to the Form 16, 1586 rupees have been deducted as tax (my CTC is 3LPA). So, I checked whether the provided Form 16 was correct or not using my PAN number and the company TAN number, and it showed that QUARTERLY TDS WAS FILED (EVERYTHING LOOKS FINE).

I met my payroll company and asked about this issue and what happened in the new company. They told me that it might be a mistake and that the Form 16 was genuine.

Can anybody provide clarity on whether Form 16 is genuine if the CERTIFICATE NUMBER, LAST UPDATED, CIT (TDS) fields were blank?

You can check the deduction and deposition of the amount deducted from your salary with the link placed below:

https://incometaxindiaefiling.gov.in...xtPage=taxCred

Accordingly, take the action if required or justify the Company B...

You need to register with the income tax site for a service called 26AS. That is a ledger of your TDS account. As the employer deposits the money and at the end of each quarter files the TDS statement, the same is reflected in your account. If the 26AS report shows the salary and the TDS, then you don't need to worry about anything else.

Issuance of TDS Certificate

If the employer was a company, then it is also necessary for them to issue a TDS certificate only through the online service of income tax called TRACES. They cannot issue a manual TDS certificate/Form 16. If the employer was not a company but a Partnership firm or Proprietary organization, then they can issue TDS certificates manually till last year.

Give the 26AS report to your current employer, and it should be enough. I am not sure if the TDS certificate can be considered fake due to the above reasoning, so will wait for a response from other seniors.