What goes into a turnover certificate, a certificate for a bank loan, and a Form 15CB certificate?

Turnover certificate

• Used for: tenders and government e-procurement (which often ask for average turnover over three years), vendor registration, subsidy claims.
• Basis: audited financial statements, reconciled with GST returns (GSTR-1, GSTR-3B and GSTR-9). Differences, such as stock transfers to branches or other income, are explained.
• States: turnover for each year asked for, whether it includes or excludes GST, and the source.

Bring the tender's prescribed format; many authorities reject certificates in any other wording.

Certificates for banks

Form 15CB (now Form 146)

Before a payment to a non-resident that is chargeable to tax in India and is above the threshold in the rules, the payer files Form 15CA (now Form 145) online. For many payments, it needs a CA's certificate in Form 15CB (now Form 146). The CA examines:

1. the nature of the payment (royalty, fees for technical services, interest, dividend, business income and so on);
2. whether it is taxable under the Act;
3. the tax treaty: the rate, and whether the payee has a tax residency certificate and Form 10F (now Form 41) and no permanent establishment in India;
4. the rate of TDS, and whether tax has been deducted and paid; and
5. any lower-deduction certificate the payee holds.

Remittances that are not taxable, or appear in the exempt list in the rules, need no 15CB, though some need Part D of Form 15CA.

Common to all

Every certificate is issued only after the underlying records are checked, follows the ICAI Guidance Note, and carries a UDIN.