Seven things to verify before issuing Form 16 Part A and Part B. Miss these and you'll hear from the assessing officer — not from your employees.
Form 16 is less about what the employee sees and more about what the tax department reconciles. The seven-item checklist below is what our compliance team walks every customer through in January.
One: reconcile Form 24Q quarterly returns against Form 16 annual figures before issuing. Two: confirm PAN-Aadhaar linkage for every employee (an un-linked PAN triggers TDS at a higher rate and creates a Form 16 mismatch).
Three: verify that Chapter VI-A deductions in Form 16 match the proofs submitted by the employee — a common audit finding is mismatched 80C claims.
Four to seven are in the full PDF checklist, linked at the end of this post. Download it, print it, tape it to the wall.