Due Date Of TDS Return: 2026 Deadlines Every Founder Must Hit

Key Takeaways

• Q1 (April–June): TDS return due 31 July
• Q2 (July–September): TDS return due 31 October
• Q3 (October–December): TDS return due 31 January
• Q4 (January–March): TDS return due 31 May (not 31 March, not 30 April)
• TDS must be deposited by the 7th of the following month, March TDS is the exception, due by 30 April
• Forms: 24Q / Form 138 (salary), 26Q / Form 140 (non-salary domestic), 27Q / Form 144 (non-resident), 27EQ / Form 143 (TCS)
• Late filing fee: ₹200 per day under Section 234E (Section 427 under the new Act), capped at the total TDS for that quarter
• Prosecution penalty under Section 271H: ₹10,000 to ₹1,00,000 for returns filed more than one year late or with incorrect data
• Expense disallowance: 30% of the underlying payment under Section 40(a)(ia) if TDS was not deducted or deposited

TDS Return Due Dates For Every Quarter At A Glance

The due date of TDS return is the same across all four quarterly forms, regardless of whether you are an employer, a company paying contractor fees, or a business collecting TCS. Here are the exact deadlines, governed by Rule 31A of the Income Tax Rules, 1962:

These deadlines apply equally to Form 24Q (salary), Form 26Q (non-salary domestic), Form 27Q (non-resident payments), and Form 27EQ (TCS). incometaxindia.gov.in

One critical clarification: these are filing due dates, not deposit due dates. Depositing TDS with the government and filing the quarterly return are two separate compliance actions with two entirely different timelines. More on deposit deadlines in the next section.

The due date for TDS return also shifts to the next working day if it falls on a public holiday or Sunday. So if 31 July lands on a Sunday, you have until 1 August without penalty.

If you search “due date for tds return” expecting a single universal answer, this table is it. Memorise the pattern: 31 July, 31 October, 31 January, 31 May. Four dates, every financial year, predictable and unchanging.

Which TDS Return Form Do You Need To File?

The form you use depends on who you are paying and whether they are a resident or non-resident. Here is a clean breakdown:

Form 24Q (now Form 138 under the Income Tax Act, 2025) covers TDS on salary payments under Section 192. Every employer, from a Bengaluru SaaS startup with three employees to a Delhi manufacturing company with 300, files this. Q4 of Form 24Q (Form 138) is the heaviest because it must include the full-year salary computation with all Chapter VI-A deductions, HRA exemptions, and perquisite valuations.

Form 26Q (now Form 140) covers TDS on all non-salary payments made to Indian residents. This includes contractor fees (Section 194C), rent (Section 194I), professional or technical fees (Section 194J), interest payments, commission, and dozens of other categories. A Mumbai D2C brand paying a logistics partner or a consulting firm in Gurugram paying its freelance consultants, both file Form 26Q.

Form 27Q (now Form 144) is for TDS on payments made to non-residents and foreign companies under Section 195 and related provisions. If your business has a software vendor in Singapore or pays royalties to a US entity, this is your form.

Form 27EQ (now Form 143) covers TCS, Tax Collected at Source. Sellers of scrap, liquor, forest produce, and certain other specified goods collect TCS at point of sale and report it quarterly in this form.

A few forms that are NOT quarterly deserve a callout because they often create confusion:

• Form 26QB: TDS on property purchase above ₹50 lakh (Section 194IA). Filed by the buyer within 30 days from the end of the month of payment. It is a transaction-based challan-cum-statement, not a quarterly return.
• Form 26QC: TDS on rent above ₹50,000 per month paid by an individual or HUF (Section 194IB). Same 30-day transaction-based window.
• Form 26QD: TDS on payment to resident contractors by certain individuals and HUFs (Section 194M).

Do not mix these up with your quarterly filing obligation. The Q1 to Q4 deadlines above do not apply to 26QB, 26QC, or 26QD.

Who must file? Any entity holding a valid TAN, Tax Deduction Account Number, that has made payments subject to TDS during the quarter. This includes companies, LLPs, partnership firms with audit liability, proprietors above the audit threshold, government departments, and DDOs, Drawing and Disbursing Officers. Government deductors follow the same quarterly deadlines. caclubindia.com

TDS Deposit Due Dates — Separate From The Return Filing Date

Before you can file a clean quarterly return, the TDS must already be sitting in the government’s account. You cannot report a challan that does not exist. So the deposit deadline is your first obligation, and the filing deadline is your second.

The general rule for non-government deductors: TDS deducted in any month must be deposited by the 7th of the following month.

• TDS deducted in April → deposit by 7 May
• TDS deducted in July → deposit by 7 August
• TDS deducted in December → deposit by 7 January

The March exception is the one everyone forgets. TDS deducted in March does not need to be deposited by 7 April. The deadline is 30 April. This gives businesses time to reconcile the full year’s deductions before remitting. Miss this date and you are already in default territory before you have even thought about the Q4 return.

Government deductors who pay via Book Entry, without challan, must remit the TDS on the same day as deduction. Government deductors paying via challan follow the standard 7th of the month rule.

For property transactions under Section 194IA, Form 26QB, the deposit must happen within 30 days from the end of the month in which the deduction was made.

Interest for late deposit:

• TDS deducted but deposited late: 1% per month under Section 201(1A), calculated from the date of deduction to the actual deposit date, not from the 7th.
• TDS not deducted at all: 1.5% per month, also from the date on which it should have been deducted.

The practical sequence for any business: deposit the TDS first, then file the quarterly return. The BSR code, challan serial number, and deposit amount are mandatory inputs into the return form. Without valid challan details, your return will show mismatches or defaults.

While the due date for filing TDS return is quarterly, four times a year, the deposit deadline is monthly. These are two separate compliance rhythms you need to run in parallel.

Q4 TDS Return Due Date — The Deadline Most Businesses Miss

The due date for Q4 TDS return is 31 May, covering the period 1 January to 31 March.

This is the single most-missed TDS deadline in India, and the confusion is understandable. The financial year ends on 31 March. People assume the Q4 return is due at the end of March or perhaps end of April. Both are wrong.

The government deliberately sets the Q4 deadline at 31 May for a practical reason: the TDS for March itself is only due by 30 April. Once you deposit March TDS on 30 April, you then need time to reconcile all challans from January, February, and March before preparing the return. 31 May is the window for that.

For employers specifically, Q4 of Form 24Q (Form 138) is the heaviest return of the year by a significant margin. Unlike Q1 through Q3 which capture only periodic salary deductions, Q4 requires:

• Full-year salary computation for every employee
• All Chapter VI-A deduction claims, 80C, 80D, 80G, etc.
• HRA exemption calculations
• Perquisite valuations
• Any corrections to earlier quarters
• Employees who joined or left mid-year

This is not a form you fill in an hour on the evening of 31 May.

There is also a downstream deadline that depends entirely on Q4 being filed on time: Form 16 must be issued to employees by 15 June. Form 16 Part A can only be generated from the TRACES portal after the Q4 return is accepted and processed. If you file Q4 late, Form 16 goes out late, your employees cannot file their ITRs on time, and you are now responsible for their compliance friction.

The chain looks like this:

March TDS deposited by 30 April → Q4 return filed by 31 May → Form 16 issued by 15 June

Miss the first step and every step after it shifts. A Delhi consulting firm that delays March TDS deposit to 5 May has already started a cascading problem that will land at the feet of every employee trying to file their tax return in July.

Penalties For Missing The Due Date For TDS Return Filing

Missing the due date of filing TDS return is expensive and in some cases, criminally prosecutable. Here is the full penalty structure:

Section 234E is not a discretionary penalty. It is a mandatory fee, auto-calculated by the system, and it must be paid before you are allowed to file the belated return. At ₹200 per day, a return filed 60 days late carries a ₹12,000 fee before you have even submitted the form. The fee is capped at the total TDS amount for that quarter, so it cannot exceed what was actually deducted, but in most cases, that cap is never reached because the accrual period is months, not years.

Section 271H is the prosecution angle. The Assessing Officer can levy an additional penalty of ₹10,000 to ₹1,00,000 when the return is filed more than one year after the due date, or when it contains materially incorrect information. The good news: this penalty does not apply if you deposit the TDS with interest, pay the Section 234E late fee, and file the return within one year of the due date.

Section 40(a)(ia) is the one that hurts most on paper. If you paid a contractor ₹10 lakh and did not deduct TDS, 30% of that payment, ₹3 lakh, gets disallowed as a business expense. That ₹3 lakh gets added back to your taxable income and taxed at your business rate. For a company in the 30% bracket, that is ₹90,000 in additional tax on a compliance failure that would have cost far less to get right in the first place.

How To File A TDS Return — Step-By-Step Process

What you need before you start:

• Active TAN
• Challan details for each TDS deposit: BSR code of the bank branch, challan serial number, date of deposit, and amount
• PAN and payment details of every deductee, vendor, employee, landlord, etc.

Step 1: Download the RPU, Return Preparation Utility from the TIN-NSDL portal. It is free and Java-based. There is a version for each form, 24Q, 26Q, etc.

Step 2: Open the RPU and fill in the deductor section, your TAN, PAN, company name, address, then the challan annex, one row per deposit challan made during the quarter, and then the deductee annex, one row per payment where TDS was deducted, with PAN, section code, amount paid, and TDS deducted.

Step 3: Run the FVU, File Validation Utility on the completed data. The FVU checks for structural errors, missing PAN, invalid challan entries, section code mismatches. If it passes, it generates a .fvu file. If it throws errors, fix them and run again.

Step 4: Generate Form 27A, the summary control sheet that accompanies your .fvu file. It contains the total deductee count, total TDS amount, and other summary figures.

Step 5: File online at the TIN-NSDL portal or through TRACES. Corporate deductors must file online. Authenticate with a DSC, Digital Signature Certificate, or EVC.

Step 6: Save the Provisional Receipt Number, PRN that the system issues on successful upload. This is your proof of filing. Do not lose it.

The process is straightforward if your challan data is clean and all deductee PANs are valid. It becomes complicated fast when there are mismatches, which is why businesses managing payroll for multiple employees or TDS on 30+ vendor payments often find the quarterly cycle takes significant staff time. If you prefer to have a CA team manage the entire quarterly TDS filing, challan deposits, and TRACES compliance end-to-end, Virtual Accounting by AI Accountant covers TDS as part of its CA-as-a-Service plans starting at ₹4,000/month.

Corrections And Revised TDS Returns — What To Do If You Filed Wrong

In TDS terminology, a revised return is called a Correction Statement. You file it on TRACES after your original return has been processed. There is no limit on how many correction statements you can file for any quarter.

The most common triggers are TRACES showing “Short Payment”, your return reports more TDS than the challan covers, or “PAN Not Available”, deductee PAN is invalid or missing. Both generate defaults that sit against your TAN and eventually attract notices.

One important point: filing a correction statement does not erase the Section 234E fee that accrued during the default period. If you filed Q2 late and then corrected an error in January, the late filing fee for Q2 still stands. Corrections fix data accuracy, not timing defaults.

Best practice: check your return status on TRACES within two to three weeks of filing every quarter. Do not wait until the next quarter begins to discover there are open defaults from the previous one.

Common TDS Filing Mistakes That Trigger Defaults And Notices

Wrong or invalid deductee PAN is the single most common cause of defaults. When the PAN you quote does not match the Income Tax database, TDS gets deposited but cannot be credited to the deductee’s Form 26AS. This also triggers Section 206AA, if you have deducted at a rate lower than 20% and the PAN is invalid, you are deemed to have under-deducted.

Challan mismatch happens when you enter the BSR code or challan serial number incorrectly. The deposit exists in the bank, but your return cannot reconcile to it. The system raises a “Short Payment” default even though the money was actually paid.

Wrong section code is more common than most people realise. Using Section 194C, contractor, codes for what is actually a 194J, professional fee, payment means the deductee cannot claim the right credit, and the rates may have been applied incorrectly.

Entering data under the wrong quarter, filing Q1 data in Q2, for instance, creates duplicates or gaps that require correction statements and can trigger scrutiny.

Missing the 30 April deadline for March TDS is probably the most expensive single-day miss in the TDS calendar. Many businesses treat March TDS as something to sort in May along with the Q4 return. It is not. The deposit must hit the government account by 30 April, or Section 201(1A) interest starts clocking from 1 April.

NIL returns: if you hold a TAN but made no TDS-applicable payments during a quarter, you are not required to file a NIL return under current rules. However, if your TAN is permanently inactive and you are not going to use it, the advisable action is to surrender it through the NSDL portal rather than leaving it dormant.

Closing

The TDS compliance calendar is completely predictable: four filing deadlines, twelve monthly deposit deadlines, and a handful of specific exceptions, March deposit on 30 April, Form 16 by 15 June. The risk from missing these deadlines, Section 234E accumulating daily, Section 40(a)(ia) disallowing 30% of your vendor payments, and Form 16 delays blocking your employees’ ITR filings, is disproportionately large compared to the effort of staying on track.

If you would rather have a CA handle quarterly TDS filing, monthly challan deposits, TRACES compliance, and Form 16 generation end-to-end, Virtual Accounting by AI Accountant covers all of this as part of its CA-as-a-Service plans starting at ₹4,000/month. Learn more here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is The Due Date Of TDS Return For Q4 FY 2026–27?

The due date for the Q4 TDS return, January to March, is 31 May 2027. This applies to all quarterly TDS forms: 24Q / Form 138, 26Q / Form 140, 27Q / Form 144, and 27EQ / Form 143. It is not 31 March and not 30 April, both are common misconceptions.

Is The TDS Deposit Deadline The Same As The TDS Filing Deadline?

No. They are separate obligations. TDS must be deposited by the 7th of the month following deduction, except March TDS, which is due by 30 April. The quarterly return is filed by the deadlines in the Q1 to Q4 table above. You deposit monthly, you file quarterly.

What Happens If I Miss The TDS Return Due Date?

A mandatory late filing fee of ₹200 per day accrues from the due date until actual filing, under Section 234E, Section 427 under the Income Tax Act, 2025. This fee is capped at the total TDS for that quarter and must be paid before filing. Additionally, the Assessing Officer can levy ₹10,000 to ₹1,00,000 under Section 271H if the return is filed more than one year late. If you want a done-for-you route that ensures timely deposits and filings, Virtual Accounting by AI Accountant can manage the entire TDS cycle end-to-end.

What Is Section 40(a)(ia) And How Does It Relate To TDS?

Section 40(a)(ia) of the Income Tax Act disallows 30% of any payment made to a resident where TDS was not deducted or not deposited. This disallowed amount is added back to your taxable income. For example, if you paid ₹5 lakh to a freelancer without deducting TDS, ₹1.5 lakh gets added back to your business income and taxed accordingly.

Which Form Do I Use If I Am Paying A Foreign Vendor?

Use Form 27Q, now Form 144 under the 2025 Act for TDS on payments to non-residents and foreign companies under Section 195 and related provisions. This is separate from Form 26Q, which is only for domestic resident deductees.

Can I File A Correction If I Made A Mistake In My TDS Return?

Yes. File a Correction Statement on the TRACES portal after the original return is processed. Different correction types, C1 through C9, address different kinds of errors, challan details, deductee PAN, omitted records, and so on. There is no cap on the number of corrections you can file. However, any Section 234E late filing fee that accrued before the original filing is not reversed by a correction. If you prefer expert handling, Virtual Accounting by AI Accountant can prepare and submit corrections, reconcile challans, and clear TRACES defaults for you.

When Should The TDS For March Be Deposited?

TDS deducted in March must be deposited by 30 April, not by 7 April. This is a specific exception to the general 7th of the following month rule. Missing 30 April triggers Section 201(1A) interest at 1.5% per month from 1 April if TDS was not deducted, or 1% per month if deducted but deposited late.

Do I Need To File A NIL TDS Return If I Made No Deductions In A Quarter?

Under current rules, filing a NIL return is not mandatory if no TDS-applicable payments were made during the quarter. However, if your TAN is going to remain permanently inactive, it is advisable to surrender it via the NSDL portal to avoid future compliance notices.

What Is Form 16 And How Is It Connected To The Q4 TDS Return?

Form 16 is the TDS certificate that employers must issue to employees each year. Part A of Form 16 is auto-generated by the TRACES portal and can only be downloaded after the Q4 TDS return, Form 24Q / Form 138, is filed and accepted. The deadline for issuing Form 16 to employees is 15 June. So the chain is: March TDS deposited by 30 April → Q4 return filed by 31 May → Form 16 issued by 15 June.

What Is The Penalty For TDS Deducted But Not Deposited?

If TDS is deducted from a payment but not deposited with the government, interest at 1.5% per month accrues under Section 201(1A), calculated from the date of deduction to the date of actual deposit. Additionally, the deductor is treated as an Assessee in Default under Section 201 and can be made personally liable for the underlying tax.