As per media reports, Byju’s has reportedly delayed submitting the deducted taxes or failed to make necessary filings with the income tax department for employees earning Rs 30 lakh or more since April 2023. The edtech platform has been struggling financially since last year.
In June, Byju’s cut jobs for about 1,000 workers in different parts of the company, including mentoring, logistics, training, sales, post-sales and finance. The company said it was a strategic decision to make the company more profitable.
Byju’s, with approximately 15,000 employees, has not disclosed how many of them fall into the salary bracket of Rs 30 lakh and above.
Several employees of the edtech company claim that the tax deducted at source (TDS), which is mentioned on their payslips, has not appeared in Form 26AS since April of the previous year.
Furthermore, previous media reports also suggest that since July, employee paychecks don’t show the expected deductions. The company has not submitted the TDS amounts for several months now.
Not paying the deducted TDS from employees’ salaries is an offence. If an employer deducts TDS but does not remit it to the government, they may incur interest charges at a rate of 1.5 per cent per month or part thereof, calculated from the date of deduction to the date of deposit with the Government of India.
In the case of delayed TDS return filing, a penalty of Rs 200 per day is applicable under Section 234E of the Income Tax Act for delays beyond the specified due date. This penalty is capped at the total TDS amount.
