Commission or brokerage [Section 194H] under Deduction of Tax at Source :
(1) Any person, not being an individual or a Hindu undivided family not subject to tax audit under section 44AB in the immediately preceding financial year, who is responsible for paying any income by way of commission (other than insurance commission) or brokerage to a resident shall deduct income tax at the rate of 10%[ wef from 1st June 2016 – rate has been decreased to 5% (FY 2016-2017 / AY 2017-2018 )].
(2) The deduction shall be made at the time such income is credited to the account of the payee or at the time of payment in cash or by issue of cheque or draft or by any other mode, whichever is earlier.
(3) Even where income is credited to some other account, whether called “Suspense account” or by any other name, in the books of account of the person liable to pay such income, such crediting shall be deemed to be credit to the account of the payee for the purposes of this section.
(4) No deduction is required if the amount of such income or the aggregate of such amount does not exceed ` 5,000 during the financial year.
(5)”Commission or brokerage” includes any payment received or receivable, directly or indirectly, by a person acting on behalf of another person for services rendered, or for any services in the course of buying or selling of goods, or in relation to any transaction relating to any asset, valuable article or thing, other than securities.
(6) However, this section is not applicable to professional services. “Professional Services” means services rendered by a person in the course of carrying on legal, medical, engineering or architectural profession or the profession of accountancy or technical consultancy or interior decoration or such other profession as notified by the CBDT for the purpose of compulsory maintenance of books of account under section 44AA.
(7) Further, there would be no requirement to deduct tax at source on commission or brokerage payments by BSNL or MTNL to their public call office (PCO) franchisees.