Statutory returns and Form 16

Generate the PF ECR file, ESI contribution sheet, professional tax list, TDS due dates, 24Q quarterly data and Form 16 Part B from finalized payroll — ready for you to upload and file.

Once a payroll run is finalized, People prepares the files you need for your monthly and quarterly statutory work: the PF ECR, the ESI contribution sheet, the professional tax list, the TDS to deposit, the 24Q quarterly data and each employee's Form 16 Part B.

Important: AxisIQ prepares the files; it does not file anything for you. You (or your CA) upload them on the EPFO, ESIC, state and income-tax portals and pay the challans there.

Before you start: you need Full control on People (HR). Everything is built only from finalized payslips, so the files always match what people were paid. Fill in Rules & settings › Pay › Employer details: Legal name, TAN, PAN, PF establishment code, ESI employer code and Registered address. On each employee, fill in PAN / tax id, UAN / PF number and, for ESI, ESI IP number.

Monthly returns

  1. Open Payroll › Statutory.
  2. Under Monthly returns, pick the Month.
  3. Read the totals: PF challan, ESI, Professional tax and TDS to deposit (with the due date — the 7th of the next month, or 30 April for March).
  4. Check Fix before filing. It lists anything missing — an employee with no UAN or ESI IP number, or an employer code not set. Those people are left out of the file, never silently; fix them and download again.
  5. Under Provident fund, see the EPF and EPS/EDLI wages and the challan split (A/c 1 employee + employer, A/c 10 pension, A/c 21 EDLI, A/c 2 admin).
  6. Download what you need:
Button What you get Where it goes
ECR file (EPFO) The monthly electronic challan-cum-return as a text file, one line per member. Upload on the EPFO employer portal.
ESI contribution sheet An Excel file in the ESIC monthly contribution upload layout: IP number, name, days paid and wages. Leavers carry their last working day. Upload on the ESIC portal.
Professional tax A CSV of employees, gross and PT deducted, with the total. Your state's PT return. One state's slabs per workspace.

TDS return (24Q)

  1. Under TDS return (24Q), enter the Financial year and pick the Quarter (Q1 · Apr–Jun to Q4 · Jan–Mar).
  2. Click Download 24Q data.

You get an Excel file laid out like the return preparation utility's import sheets: deductee rows (Annexure I), the monthly challans with their due dates, and in the fourth quarter every employee's annual salary details (Annexure II). Fill in the challan BSR code and serial number, then validate and generate the upload file in the utility. An employee without a PAN shows as PANNOTAVBL — TDS without a PAN is due at a higher rate, so collect it early.

Form 16

  1. Under Form 16, enter the Financial year. The table lists each Employee with PAN, Regime, Taxable income, Tax and TDS. A missing PAN is flagged Missing.
  2. Click PDF for one employee, or All (zip) for everyone.
  3. When the year's proofs are closed, click Release to employees and confirm. Each employee can then download their own Form 16 under Payroll › My payslips and is told it is ready.

This is Part B — salary, exemptions, deductions and tax, from the year's finalized payslips and verified declarations, worked out the same way as monthly TDS. Part A (TDS deposited) comes from the income-tax department's TRACES portal; download it there and give both parts to your employees.

Note: Form 16 is drawn up when it is downloaded. If a declaration changes after you release it, the next download reflects the change — so release after proofs close.

Every download and release is recorded in the audit log.