What you are asking the officer for
The certificate, if the officer issues it, authorises the buyer to deduct at the rate and for the period written on it. Filing the form does not itself change what the buyer deducts. The note says you may file any time in the tax year. It does not say a certificate rewrites a deduction the buyer has already made. Apply before that payment.
The rate on the certificate is the officer's. This page does not state a rate you will be given. The buyer's duty to deduct, where you are non-resident, is Section 195 (old Act). A successor section number is not stated here. The buyer-side change from 1 October 2026, including who no longer needs a TAN, is on the Form 141 page.
If the screen will not take the buyer's PAN
Annexure I of the published form has a column headed TAN/PAN of the payer. The department's note of 7 March 2026 also lists the payer's details, including a TAN, for Annexure I and Annexure III. Both documents are official. They do not say the same thing in the same words.
Annexure II is the route where the people who will deduct are likely to exceed 100 and you do not know who they are when you apply. A sale to one buyer, whose name you know, is not that route. Do not use it to avoid a TAN field.
If the live screen rejects the buyer's PAN and insists on a TAN the buyer does not have, the published next step is a grievance on the e-filing portal. The e-filing helpdesk is 1800 103 0025 or 1800 419 0025, and +91-80-46122000 or +91-80-61464700, Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 20:00. This page does not describe a temporary TAN, a paper filing, or any other bypass.
The note's own steps are: log in to TRACES, open e-file and view, file forms, Form 128, upload the support, e-verify, and wait for the officer. The certificate, if issued, is downloaded and given to the buyer.
Send the buyer's name and whether they have a TAN, and we will say what can be filed before the next payment.
If the tax is already deducted
A certificate for a later payment does not, on the note, undo tax already taken. The credit sits in Form 26AS or the AIS once the buyer's statement is processed, and the return is where the excess is claimed. That path is the excess TDS page.
If the buyer used the 1% resident-seller challan by mistake, the fix is the 1% page. That is a different error from a missing TAN on Form 128.