TDS Forms Under the Income-tax Rules, 2026: Which Form, and By When

Quick answer

For a deduction on or after 1 April 2026 the Income-tax Rules, 2026 renumbered every TDS form. The quarterly statements are Form No. 138 for salary, 140 for most other resident payments, 144 for non-resident deductees and 143 for collection at source, due 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May. Certificates are Forms 130 to 133; the challan-cum-statement is Form No. 141.

Who this page is for

Anyone who has opened a TDS utility and found a form number they have never seen. It is a lookup page: which form, under which rule, by which date. Why a TDS statement exists is in our guide to filing TDS returns; the rate tables are in the section 393 crosswalk.

Everything below is read from the gazette text of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, notified as G.S.R. 198(E) dated 20 March 2026 in the Gazette of India Extraordinary, Part II section 3 sub-section (i), made by CBDT under section 533 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.

The boundary: which rulebook your filing sits under

Get this wrong and every form number below is the wrong one.

The Income-tax Act, 2025 was published in the Gazette on 21 August 2025 but did not commence then. Section 1(3) commenced it on 1 April 2026 — section 1(2) is the extent clause and says nothing about dates. It governs tax year 2026-27, which is financial year 2026-27. The Rules came into force the same day; Rule 1 says they

shall come into force on the 1st April, 2026.

So assessment year 2026-27 is the income of FY 2025-26, governed by the Income-tax Act, 1961 and reported on the old forms under the Income-tax Rules, 1962. Nothing here applies to it. Tax year 2026-27 is FY 2026-27, and its deductions are reported on the forms below.

The test for a single deduction has not changed: whichever came first, the credit to the payee's account or the payment. Before 1 April 2026, old rules; on or after, new rules. Two consequences landed in the same twelve months. The statement for the quarter ended 31 March 2026 is a Q4 FY 2025-26 filing — old Act, old rules, old form, the last filing under the old regime rather than the first under the new one. The statement for the quarter ended 30 June 2026 is Q1 of tax year 2026-27: new Act, new rules, new form, due 31 July 2026.

For the wider transition, start with our guide to the Income-tax Act, 2025.

The quarterly statements — Rule 219(1)

Rule 219 is made under section 397(3)(b), the obligation to deliver a statement after paying the tax over. Its opening table splits the work four ways.

Three things in the middle column are easy to miss.

Section 392(7) does not sit in Form No. 138. Row 1 expressly carves it out. It is the deduction on an accumulated provident fund balance, and it lands in Form No. 144 if the recipient is a non-resident, a foreign company or a resident but not ordinarily resident, and in Form No. 140 for anyone else.

Rows 2 and 3 are split by the deductee, not the payment. Both carry sections 392(7) and 393(3); what separates them is who was paid. Your deductee master decides.

Section 393(1) Table Sl. No. 8(iii) — the specified senior citizen row — is pulled out of Form No. 140 and put into Form No. 138 alongside salary. It is what makes "138 equals salary" not quite true.

Two more statement forms most deductors will never file

• Form No. 142. Under Rule 219(2), where guidance under section 400(2) has been issued and an exchange has agreed to pay the tax itself on a transfer of a virtual digital asset it owns — instead of the buyer deducting under section 393(1) Table Sl. No. 8(vi) — the exchange files its quarterly statement in Form No. 142. An exchange's form, not a trader's.
• Form No. 139. Under Rule 219(6), a deductor claiming refund of a sum paid to the credit of the Central Government under Chapter XIX-B claims it in Form No. 139.

When the statements are due — Rule 219(4)

The rhythm is the familiar one; what changed is its status. Until the Rules were notified, 31 July / 31 October / 31 January / 31 May was an established practice that no primary text in force for tax year 2026-27 confirmed. It is now enacted, and for tax year 2026-27 it gives 31 July 2026, 31 October 2026, 31 January 2027 and 31 May 2027. Note the drafting on the last row: not "31 May following the quarter", but the financial year immediately following the tax year in which the deduction was required to be made.

Depositing the tax — Rule 218

The statement is the second step; Rule 218 governs the first.

Nothing there is new in substance: the deposit calendar you already run is the one Rule 218 prescribes. Deduct in July, deposit by 7 August. Deduct in March, deposit by 30 April.

The quarterly deposit concession — Rule 218(4)

In special cases the Assessing Officer may, with the prior approval of the Joint Commissioner, permit tax to be paid quarterly rather than monthly, for deductions under section 392(1) or section 393(1) Table Sl. Nos. 1(i), 1(ii), 5(ii) and 5(iii) — broadly salary, insurance commission, commission or brokerage, and interest other than on securities. Where granted, the dates are 7 July, 7 October, 7 January and 30 April. It is a permission, not an election, and it moves the deposit date only — Rule 219(4) still sets the statement date.

Form No. 141: four challan-cum-statements collapsed into one — Rules 218(3) and 219(5)

This is the change most individuals will meet: the route for people who deduct tax without running a TDS operation at all.

Rule 218(3) provides that for a deduction under section 393(1) Table Sl. Nos.:

• 2(i) — rent paid by a person who is not a specified person
• 3(i) — consideration for the transfer of immovable property
• 6(ii) — contract, professional or commission payments by a small individual or HUF
• 8(vi) — virtual digital assets

the tax is paid within thirty days from the end of the month in which the deduction is made, accompanied by a challan-cum-statement in Form No. 141. Rule 219(5) applies the same thirty-day limit to furnishing it.

One form now does what four used to. Where you would have had to work out whether your transaction needed the property, rent, contractor or virtual digital asset form — 26QB, 26QC, 26QD or 26QE on the old labels — Rule 218(3) names a single Form No. 141 for all four. That collapse is stated in the rule, not derived by us. What the rule does not say is how Form No. 141 is organised internally, and we have not read the form itself.

The certificates — Rule 215

Rule 215 is made under section 395(4). Four certificates, four due dates.

The dates chain off ones you have already met. File the quarterly statement by 31 October and Forms 131 and 133 are due 15 November; file Form No. 141 by 30 September and Form No. 132 is due 15 October. Only Form No. 130 runs on its own annual clock.

Rules that travel with the certificate

• You do not type these. Rule 215(1), and Rule 215(7) read with Rule 332, provide that certificates are generated and downloaded from the portal specified by the Director General of Income-tax (Systems).
• More than one employer in a year — Rule 215(2). Each employer issues Parts A and B of Form No. 130 for its own period. Part C may be issued by each employer or by the last employer, at the employee's option — if you changed jobs mid-year, that option is yours, not payroll's.
• Lost certificate — Rule 215(3). A duplicate may be issued on request, certified as a duplicate.
• Digital signatures — Rule 215(4) and (5). A certificate may be digitally signed, provided the content cannot be changed after signing and the deductor keeps a control number and a log.

Applying for a TAN — Rule 216

For an application under section 397(1)(a), Rule 216(1) splits the form by applicant: Form No. 134 where the applicant is a Government entity, Form No. 135 for everyone else. If you are working out whether you need a TAN at all, our TAN registration guide covers the test, and we handle the application if you would rather not.

Lower or nil deduction — Rule 213

An application for a certificate under section 395(1) for lower or nil deduction, or under section 395(3) for lower collection, is made in Form No. 128 under Rule 213.

Rule 213(3) sets out the four things the Assessing Officer weighs — effectively what your application has to answer:

1. Tax payable on your estimated income for the year.
2. Tax paid or payable on the returned, assessed or estimated income of the last four tax years.
3. Existing liability under the Income-tax Act, 2025 and under the Income-tax Act, 1961 as it existed prior to repeal.
4. Advance tax paid, and tax already deducted or collected to your credit.

The third catches applicants out: an old-Act demand you are contesting is still an existing liability the officer weighs.

Rule 213(4) adds a test for a specified entity under section 263(9)(c) or a registered non-profit: approval for exemption at both the application and the grant date, and returns furnished for the last four tax years that fell due on or before the application date.

The old-label lookup, and why we will not call it a concordance

This mapping is MyFinancialAdvisory's derivation from the section coverage set out in each rule. The Central Board of Direct Taxes has published no concordance between the old forms and the new ones. The rules identify a form by the sections whose deductions it carries, never by the form it replaces. Any page showing an old-to-new table and calling it official is telling you something we could not verify.

Use it to find your bearings, then check the section coverage before you file. The section 392(7) split above is the row a memory-based mapping gets wrong.

One adjacent pair, because the question always follows: Rule 220 prescribes Form No. 145 for the information furnished before remitting a sum to a non-resident, and Form No. 146 for the accountant's certificate where one is required — handled by our remittance certificate service.

Worked example 1: one quarter, four statements

Assumptions: a private limited company, therefore a specified person and a designated person; it holds a TAN; the quarter ends 30 September 2026, Q2 of tax year 2026-27; every amount below was credited within that quarter, so the 2025 Act and the 2026 Rules govern all of them; every deductee has furnished a PAN; no lower or nil deduction certificate is in force; no Rule 218(4) permission has been granted.

Four statements for one quarter, all due 31 October 2026 under Rule 219(4).

Two rows decide whether the quarter is filed correctly. The provident fund payout is a section 392 deduction but not a Form No. 138 one, because Rule 219(1) Sl. No. 1 excludes section 392(7); the leaver is resident, so Form No. 140. The licence fee goes to Form No. 144 because the deductee is a foreign company, not because of what was bought.

Deposits ran on Rule 218(2): July deductions by 7 August, August by 7 September, September by 7 October. Forms 131 — for the provident fund payout, the contractor, the consultant, the prize winner and the foreign company — and 133 for the scrap collection then fall due on 15 November 2026. The salary certificate is the odd one out: Form No. 130 by 15 June 2027.

Worked example 2: buying a flat, and the version of it that has no answer

Assumptions: a resident individual buyer with no TAN and no need for one; a resident individual seller; one buyer and one seller, so no aggregation question; consideration ₹85,00,000 and stamp duty value also ₹85,00,000; the full consideration paid on 12 August 2026, the earlier of credit and payment; deduction under section 393(1) Table Sl. No. 3(i) at 1%; the seller has furnished a PAN.

Tax deducted is ₹85,000, and the seller is paid ₹84,15,000.

• Deposit and Form No. 141. The deduction was made in August 2026. Rule 218(3) gives thirty days from the end of that month, so the tax is paid with the challan-cum-statement in Form No. 141 by 30 September 2026. Rule 219(5) gives the same date for furnishing it.
• Certificate. Form No. 132 is due within fifteen days of that — 15 October 2026 — under Rule 215(1) Sl. No. 3.
• Not required. No TAN, no quarterly statement, no Form No. 140 — one deposit, one Form No. 141, one Form No. 132.

Same flat, non-resident seller

Change one fact and almost none of that survives. The deduction falls not under section 393(1) Table Sl. No. 3(i) but under section 393(2), Table serial number 17 — the residual row for any other sum chargeable under the Act paid to a non-resident.

If the purchase completes before 1 October 2026, the existing TAN requirement stands and the deduction is reported in Form No. 144 under Rule 219(1) Sl. No. 2, by the Rule 219(4) date for that quarter. The certificate is Form No. 131 under Rule 215(1) Sl. No. 2, within fifteen days of that date.

If it completes on or after 1 October 2026, section 397(1)(c) as substituted by section 87 of the Finance Act, 2026 takes effect and the TAN requirement for that buyer goes. But Rules 218(3) and 219(5) list only section 393(1) rows. A section 393(2) deduction is not among them, so the Form No. 141 route does not on its face reach it, and no other reporting form has been prescribed for a TAN-less deductor in that position in the rules we read.

We are not going to guess one. Confirm the position with the Assessing Officer before you complete rather than after, and treat any article that names a form for this case as inventing it.

What the Rules do not settle

A form number stated confidently and wrongly costs more than an admitted gap.

• Reporting for the post-1-October-2026 property purchase from a non-resident. Rules 218(3) and 219(5) list section 393(1) rows only. Unresolved.
• The internal structure of Form No. 141. The rule names one form for four transaction types and does not say whether it carries separate annexures. We have not read the form.
• The old-to-new mapping. Ours, not CBDT's, and repeated here deliberately. No concordance has been published.
• Numeric payment codes for the new statements. Widely circulated code tables do not agree with each other and we could not verify them against the gazette or any notification. Take the code from the utility or the portal at the time you file.
• Rates in force for a non-resident deductee. Surcharge and cess behave differently there than on resident deductions. No figure for it appears here.

Common mistakes in the first year

• Filing the March 2026 quarter on a new form. The new numbering starts with the quarter ended 30 June 2026.
• Confusing assessment year 2026-27 with tax year 2026-27. AY 2026-27 is the income of FY 2025-26, governed by the 1961 Act throughout. Tax year 2026-27 is FY 2026-27. Different years, different statutes.
• Putting a provident fund payout in Form No. 138. Section 392(7) is carved out of Rule 219(1) Sl. No. 1, and rows 2 and 3 divide by who was paid, not by what was paid.
• Treating Rule 218(4) as an option. Quarterly deposit needs the Assessing Officer's permission with the Joint Commissioner's prior approval, and moves only the deposit date.
• Typing a certificate. Rules 215(1) and 215(7) have them generated and downloaded from the portal the Director General of Income-tax (Systems) specifies.
• Reading the Q4 date as "31 May after the quarter". Rule 219(4) ties it to the financial year immediately following the tax year in which the deduction was required to be made.

Where this leaves your filing calendar

A deductor holding a TAN has four statement dates for tax year 2026-27 — 31 July 2026, 31 October 2026, 31 January 2027 and 31 May 2027 — with Forms 131 and 133 fifteen days after each, and Form No. 130 by 15 June 2027. A one-off deductor has no quarterly cycle at all: thirty days from the end of the month of deduction for the deposit and Form No. 141, then fifteen days for Form No. 132.

Set the calendar off the rule, not off the form name you remember, and where a case is not covered — the non-resident property purchase after 1 October 2026 is the live one — ask rather than assume. If you would rather hand the cycle over, we file quarterly TDS statements.

Sources and currency

Applies to: Deductions and collections where the earlier of credit or payment falls on or after 1 April 2026 — tax year 2026-27 onward, under the Income-tax Act, 2025 and the Income-tax Rules, 2026. An earlier event stays under the Income-tax Act, 1961 and the Income-tax Rules, 1962, on the old forms. Assessment year 2026-27 is the income of FY 2025-26 and is old-Act territory.

Every form number, rule number and due date on this page was read from the gazette text of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 — G.S.R. 198(E) dated 20 March 2026, Gazette of India Extraordinary, Part II section 3 sub-section (i) — on 20 August 2026. The gazette file was hash-checked against the host by ranged request the same day, so the link below is verified rather than assumed. Two things are stated as opinion, not law. First, the old-form-to-new-form lookup is MyFinancialAdvisory's derivation from the section coverage set out in the rules; the Central Board of Direct Taxes has published no concordance, and any page presenting one as official is overstating it. Second, the internal structure of Form No. 141 is not described in the rule and we have not read the form itself. One case is left open on purpose and is set out in full below. Rules change at each notification; confirm the current position before you rely on a date for a filing.

• Income-tax Rules, 2026 — G.S.R. 198(E) dated 20 March 2026, Gazette of India Extraordinary, Part II section 3 sub-section (i), made by CBDT under section 533 of the Income-tax Act, 2025. Rule 213 (Form 128), Rule 215 (Forms 130 to 133), Rule 216 (Forms 134 and 135), Rule 218 (deposit), Rule 219 (Forms 138 to 144) and Rule 220 (Forms 145 and 146)
• Income-tax Act, 2025 (No. 30 of 2025) — Gazette of India Extraordinary, 21 August 2025. Section 1(3) commencement, section 392 (salary), section 393 (other payments), section 394 (collection), section 395 (certificates), section 397 (TAN, no-PAN rate, payment and statements) and section 533 (power to make rules)
• Finance Act, 2026 (No. 4 of 2026) — Gazette of India Extraordinary, 30 March 2026. Section 87 substitutes section 397(1)(c) with effect from 1 October 2026