TDS Return Filing
TDS has two deadlines every month and one every quarter. The late fee runs per day and no officer has the power to waive it.
A change worth knowing about for 2026-27
The TDS return forms have been renumbered from tax year 2026-27 under the Income-tax Act, 2025, which consolidates the TDS provisions. The rates and thresholds have not changed — the form numbers have.
| Purpose | Old form | Now |
|---|---|---|
| Salary TDS | 24Q | 138 |
| Non-salary TDS, residents | 26Q | 140 |
| Payments to non-residents | 27Q | 139 |
| TCS | 27EQ | 27EQ |
Plenty of guidance online still refers to the old numbers. If your accountant is working from a printout, it is worth a check.
Dates, fees and form numbers on this page were checked on 5 September 2026. Government timelines change; if you are reading this much later, confirm with us before you rely on it.
The deadlines
| What | When |
|---|---|
| Monthly deposit of TDS deducted | By the 7th of the following month |
| TDS deducted in March | By 30 April |
| Q1 return (April to June) | 31 July |
| Q2 return (July to September) | 31 October |
| Q3 return (October to December) | 31 January |
| Q4 return (January to March) | 31 May |
Depositing and filing are separate obligations with separate consequences. Depositing on time but filing the return late still attracts the late fee; filing on time without depositing is worse.
Why the late fee hurts more than people expect
Section 234E charges Rs 200 for every day the return is late, capped at the amount of TDS in that return. It is computed automatically and no officer has the discretion to waive it — there is no appeal to make, no request that helps. A quarter filed two months late on a small TDS amount can see the fee reach the full TDS figure itself.
Separately, if you deducted tax and did not deposit it, interest runs at 1.5% per month from the date of deduction, and the underlying expense can be disallowed in your own assessment. Withholding someone else's money and not passing it on is treated far more seriously than being late with your own.
The part that affects your vendors
Every quarter you file feeds the Form 26AS of the people you paid. File late or file with a wrong PAN and their credit does not appear — so they cannot claim it, and they come back to you. Correcting it means a revised return, which is more work than filing correctly the first time.
Use our TDS calculator to check the rate before you make a payment, and collect the PAN first: without one, Section 206AA forces deduction at 20% regardless of the normal rate.
Common questions
Send us your case
Tell us your TAN and which quarters are outstanding. We will tell you what is due, what the exposure is, and what it takes to get current.
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