What Is Form 16? Password, Parts A & B, and Download

Two things trip up almost everyone who opens a Form 16 for the first time. The PDF asks for a password nobody told them, and half the internet tells them to "download it from TRACES," which as an employee you simply cannot do. Both have clean answers, and this guide leads with them before working through what the document actually is, the difference between its two parts, when it's due, and how to file your return even if it never arrives.

Form 16 is the paper that anchors the salaried Indian's tax year, and it's roughly India's version of the US W-2: the employer's record of what you were paid and what tax was taken out. This is a definitional explainer, not tax-filing advice. Reconciling figures, choosing the right ITR form, and handling a discrepancy all depend on your specific situation, so consult a Chartered Accountant before you file.

What is Form 16?

Form 16 is the TDS certificate an Indian employer issues to a salaried employee under Section 203 of the Income Tax Act, showing the salary paid and the tax deducted from it across the financial year. The employer deducts tax at source on your salary under Section 192, deposits it with the government, and then certifies the whole thing to you on Form 16.

The certificate records three things: the gross salary paid, the exemptions and deductions the employer allowed while computing tax (HRA exemption, the standard deduction, the Section 80C investments you declared), and the total tax deducted and deposited on your behalf. It comes in two parts from two different sources, which is the single most misunderstood thing about it.

One clarification worth making up front: Form 16 is not your income tax return. It's the employer's certificate that feeds into your return. You still file the ITR yourself with the Income Tax Department, using Form 16 as the main input. The full filing walkthrough lives in our Indian income tax guide for salaried employees; this post is about the document itself.

What is the password to open Form 16?

The Form 16 PDF password is the first five characters of your PAN in capital letters, followed by your date of birth as DDMMYYYY, run together with no space. So a PAN of ABCDE1234F and a date of birth of 1 January 1990 give the password ABCDE01011990.

That's the format most employers use, per ClearTax and other tax platforms. Some payroll teams set a different rule, so if the standard version is rejected, try these common variants in order:

Variant	Example (PAN ABCDE1234F, DOB 01-01-1990)
First 5 of PAN (caps) + DDMMYYYY	ABCDE01011990
First 5 of PAN (lowercase) + DDMMYYYY	abcde01011990
Full 10-character PAN + DDMMYYYY	ABCDE1234F01011990
Last name + DOB, or name + PAN	(whatever the covering email specifies)

The covering email from your payroll team usually states the exact rule. To keep an unprotected copy, open the file in Chrome, enter the password once, then print it back to a PDF, which saves it without the password.

What is the difference between Part A and Part B of Form 16?

Part A is the system-generated proof that your tax was deposited with the government, and Part B is the employer's salary-and-tax calculation showing how that tax figure was reached. They come from different places and serve different jobs, and together they make one complete Form 16.

	Part A	Part B
Generated by	The Income Tax Department's TRACES portal	The employer's payroll team
Contents	Employer TAN, employee PAN, period of employment, quarter-by-quarter TDS deducted and deposited	Gross salary breakup, Section 10 exemptions, Chapter VI-A deductions, taxable income, tax computed
Key markers	A unique 7-character certificate number, a TDS-CPC logo, and a national-emblem watermark	The regime declared, standard deduction, and any Section 89 relief
Editable?	No, tamper-resistant once generated	Yes, prepared by the employer

Part A carries the security features most people never notice: a unique 7-character certificate number plus the TDS-CPC logo and the national emblem, which is how you tell a genuine TRACES-issued Part A from a fabricated one, a detail almost no explainer mentions (SAG Infotech). If the employer filed the TDS return with an error, Part A can only be corrected by filing a revised return, after which TRACES regenerates it.

Part B is the employer's worksheet. It shows your basic pay, HRA and other allowances, the exemptions claimed such as HRA exemption, the Section 80C deductions you declared, the taxable income, and the tax due. Your EPF contribution is usually the largest single 80C entry in Part B, and it appears automatically because it's a payroll deduction.

A common mix-up worth killing here: Part A and Part B are not "Form 16A" and "Form 16B." Several popular sites label them that way, and it's wrong. Form 16A and Form 16B are entirely separate certificates, covered below.

How do you download or get Form 16?

You cannot download Form 16 from TRACES yourself; only your employer can, because the law requires the employer to furnish it to you. This is the honest answer to the most-searched Form 16 question, and nearly every ranking page buries it deep in an FAQ, well below the fold.

As an employee, you get Form 16 in one of two ways: your employer emails it to you, or you download it from your company's payroll or HR self-service portal (Greytip, Zoho, Darwinbox, and similar). There's no employee login on TRACES that hands you your own Form 16, per Quicko and the official TRACES FAQ.

On the employer side, the deductor logs in to TRACES using their PAN, requests Form 16 for the financial year, and downloads Part A once the quarterly TDS returns are processed, then attaches the employer-prepared Part B. If a previous employer hasn't given you Form 16, the only lawful source is that employer, so request it in writing from their HR or payroll team. If they won't cooperate, you're not stuck, because you can still file without it, as the last section explains.

When is Form 16 issued, and what if it's late?

Employers must issue Form 16 by 15 June of the assessment year, so for FY 2025-26 salary the deadline is 15 June 2026, under Rule 31(3) of the Income-tax Rules. By the time most salaried Indians file their return in July, Form 16 should already be in hand.

The 15 June date follows a chain worth understanding. The employer's Q4 TDS return (Form 24Q) is due by 31 May, TRACES then processes it, and only after that can Part A be generated, which is why the certificate lands in mid-June and not earlier (Tax Update). For a late certificate, the penalty is Rs 100 per day, per certificate, capped at the TDS amount, under Section 272A(2)(g). Be careful here: several high-traffic guides state Rs 500 a day, but the statutory figure under 272A(2)(g) is Rs 100.

One practical timing point the field skips: don't rush to file in early June off the pre-filled data, because Form 26AS and the AIS may not yet reflect your employer's processed Q4 return. Wait until the numbers settle, generally around 10 June onward, before you match them.

Who is eligible for Form 16, and is it mandatory?

Form 16 is mandatory only where your employer actually deducted TDS on your salary; there is no fixed salary limit that triggers it. The obligation under Section 203 attaches to the act of deducting tax, not to a rupee figure of pay.

If your income was below the taxable threshold and no tax was deducted, your employer isn't required to issue Form 16, though many still hand over at least Part B as good practice (ClearTax). This is why "form 16 salary limit" has no clean answer: the trigger is TDS deduction, and salary alone doesn't decide it. And because the rebate under the new tax regime lifts the effective no-tax point, more employees now legitimately receive no Form 16 at all, which is perfectly normal.

Form 16 vs Form 16A vs Form 16B

Form 16 covers salary TDS, Form 16A covers non-salary TDS, and Form 16B covers TDS on the sale of property. They're three separate certificates for three separate situations, which is where a lot of confusion starts.

Certificate	What it covers	Issued by	When
Form 16	TDS on salary (Section 192)	Your employer	Annually, by 15 June
Form 16A	TDS on non-salary income (bank interest, rent, commission, professional fees)	The bank, tenant, client, or company that deducted it	Quarterly, within 15 days of the quarter-end
Form 16B	TDS on the sale of immovable property, at 1% of the sale value	The buyer of the property	Per transaction

A salaried person with fixed-deposit interest above the TDS threshold typically holds one Form 16 from the employer and one or more Form 16As from the bank; all of it shows up against the same PAN. Unlike Form 16, Form 16A has no Part B, because the deductor is only withholding a flat statutory rate without computing your tax.

Form 16 vs Form 26AS vs AIS

Form 16 is what your employer reported, Form 26AS is what's actually deposited against your PAN, and the AIS is everything the Income Tax Department already knows about your finances. All three should tell a consistent story, and cross-checking them before you file is what keeps a return clean (Adwani & Co).

• Form 16 is the employer's TDS-on-salary certificate for the year.
• Form 26AS is the consolidated tax-credit statement showing all TDS, TCS, and taxes paid against your PAN. The TDS total in Form 16 Part A should match your employer's figure in 26AS. For the full breakdown, see what Form 26AS is.
• The AIS (Annual Information Statement) is the wider record of your reported financial transactions, including interest, dividends, securities, and property.

The reconciliation matters because income that shows up in the AIS but is missing from your return can trigger a Section 143 notice. If Part A and Form 26AS disagree, the usual causes are a TDS amount deducted but not correctly deposited, a wrong PAN in the employer's return, or a late or erroneous filing. The fix is to raise it with the employer's payroll team so they file a corrected Form 24Q, after which TRACES updates 26AS. For any meaningful gap, a Chartered Accountant can advise the safest filing approach, since the credit you claim has to line up with 26AS or the return is treated as defective.

Can you file ITR without Form 16?

Yes. Form 16 is supporting documentation, not a filing requirement, so you can reconstruct your salary and TDS from other records and file anyway. The employer's job is to deduct and certify tax; computing and filing your return is ultimately your responsibility (ClearTax).

The reconstruction runs roughly like this:

1. Total your income from your monthly payslips (salary, plus any pension, house-property, or interest income).
2. Pull your TDS from Form 26AS and cross-check it against the AIS.
3. Gather proof for your deductions and exemptions: rent receipts for HRA, investment statements for 80C, premium receipts for 80D.
4. Compute total income, apply your deductions, and run it through the income tax slabs for your regime.
5. Compare the TDS already paid against the tax due, pay any balance as self-assessment tax, then file and e-verify.

One trap to avoid when doing 80C yourself: count only your own EPF contribution, not the employer's matching share, since the employer's part is not your deduction. The deeper TDS mechanics behind all of this are in what TDS is.

What if you have two Form 16s?

Change jobs during the year and you get one Form 16 per employer, and you must combine them, because each employer taxed you as if their salary was your only income. That combining step isn't just tidiness; skipping it usually means you owe more tax.

Here's the trap. Each employer independently gives you the basic exemption and the standard deduction, and may each count your 80C, as though you worked nowhere else that year. So if you earned Rs 6 lakh at each of two jobs, both deducted TDS as if your income were Rs 6 lakh, not the real Rs 12 lakh, and applied the lower slabs and the exemptions twice. When you file on the combined Rs 12 lakh at the correct higher slabs, the total TDS falls short, and the shortfall comes with interest under Sections 234B and 234C (ClearTax). A double-claimed EPF or 80C deduction is disallowed outright.

The clean prevention is to tell your new employer about the old salary using Form 12B when you join, so the new employer deducts TDS on your full year's income and the gap never opens up. If you're already past that, recalculate your exemptions and deductions once across both Form 16s at filing time, and pay any balance before you submit.

What this post deliberately does not cover

To keep the scope honest on a tax topic:

• The full ITR-filing walkthrough, ITR-1 vs ITR-2 selection, and choosing a regime at filing are in the Indian income tax guide for salaried employees.
• How TDS works as a mechanism is in what is TDS.
• The slab structure and the old-vs-new regime economics are in income tax slabs explained.
• The 80C list and limit and the HRA formula, both of which appear inside Part B, are in Section 80C and HRA exemption.
• This is general education, not filing advice. For a mismatch, a missing form, or any unusual income, a Chartered Accountant is the right professional to consult before you file.

Frequently asked questions

What is Form 16 in simple terms? Form 16 is the TDS certificate that an Indian employer issues to a salaried employee whose salary had tax deducted at source during the financial year, under Section 203 of the Income Tax Act. It records the salary paid, the exemptions and deductions the employer allowed while computing tax, and the total TDS deducted and deposited with the government. It comes in two parts: Part A, generated by the Income Tax Department's TRACES portal, and Part B, the salary and deduction breakup prepared by the employer. It is the main supporting document for filing your income tax return, but it is not the return itself.

What is the password to open Form 16? The Form 16 PDF password is the first five characters of your PAN in capital letters, followed by your date of birth in DDMMYYYY format, with no space. For example, if your PAN is ABCDE1234F and your date of birth is 1 January 1990, the password is ABCDE01011990. Some employers use a variant, such as the PAN in lowercase, the full 10-character PAN plus DOB, or your last name plus PAN, so if the standard format fails, check the covering email from your payroll team for the exact rule.

Can I download Form 16 from TRACES myself? No. Only the employer (the deductor) can log in to TRACES and download Form 16, because the law requires the employer to furnish it to you. As an employee you cannot download it from TRACES with your own login. You get Form 16 from your employer directly, or from your company's payroll or HR self-service portal. Note that Part A is generated by TRACES from the employer's quarterly TDS return, while Part B is prepared by the employer.

Is Form 16 mandatory, and is there a salary limit? Form 16 is mandatory only where your employer actually deducted TDS on your salary, under Section 203. There is no fixed salary limit that triggers it. If your income was below the taxable threshold and no TDS was deducted, the employer is not obliged to issue Form 16, though many issue at least Part B as good practice. Because the rebate under the new tax regime raises the effective no-tax threshold, more employees now legitimately receive no Form 16 at all.

Can I file ITR without Form 16? Yes. Form 16 is supporting documentation, not a filing requirement. If your employer has not issued it, you can reconstruct your salary from your monthly payslips, take your TDS from Form 26AS and cross-check it against the Annual Information Statement (AIS), and gather your own proof for deductions like rent receipts and investment statements. One caution: when you claim Section 80C on your own, include only your own EPF contribution, not the employer's share.

In summary

Form 16 is your employer's certificate of the salary it paid you and the tax it deducted, split into a TRACES-generated Part A that proves the tax was deposited and an employer-prepared Part B that shows how the figure was worked out. Open it with your PAN's first five characters and your date of birth, get it from your employer or payroll portal and never from TRACES, and expect it by 15 June.

The most useful thing to remember is what Form 16 is not. It isn't your tax return, it isn't mandatory when no tax was deducted, and it isn't the only way to file, because your payslips, Form 26AS, and the AIS can stand in for it. Cross-check those three before you file, combine every Form 16 if you changed jobs, and bring in a CA for anything that doesn't reconcile. For the return that Form 16 feeds into, start with the Indian income tax guide for salaried employees.

Sources

• Income Tax Department of India, Section 203, Certificate of Tax Deducted at Source, and Rule 31 issuance timelines: incometax.gov.in
• TRACES, Form 16 general FAQ (deductor-generated, employee cannot download): tdscpc.gov.in
• ClearTax, Form 16 password format and worked example: cleartax.in/s/form-16-password
• ClearTax, How to file ITR without Form 16: cleartax.in/s/efile-without-form-16
• Adwani & Co, AIS vs Form 26AS vs Form 16 reconciliation: adwaniandco.com
• Income Tax Department, New tax regime as default under Section 115BAC (FAQ): incometax.gov.in