Form 16 due to employees 15-Jun-2026: what to verify and how to flag missing TDS to your employer

Tomorrow, 15-May-2026, opens a roughly one-month statutory window that ends with every employer in the country mailing or uploading Form 16 by 15-Jun-2026 under Rule 31(1)(a) of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. The clock starts ticking immediately because Friday 15-May-2026 is itself a TCS filing deadline under Rule 31AA, and Form 24Q (the quarterly salary-TDS statement that feeds Part A of your Form 16) is due 31-May-2026. Salaried readers who treat Form 16 as a passive PDF often discover only at ITR filing in July that the quarterly TDS rows in 26AS and AIS do not add up to the gross TDS in Form 16. This watchlist sets out what to scan tomorrow, what to expect in the run-up to 15-Jun-2026, and the escalation playbook if a TDS entry is missing.

Statutory Deadlines

A compact table of dates that fall within the window opened on 15-May-2026:

Two things stand out for salaried readers. First, Form 24Q on 31-May-2026 is the upstream filing — if your employer files late or with wrong PAN-quarter splits, your Form 16 Part A on 15-Jun-2026 will reflect the same gaps. Second, the first advance tax instalment is also 15-Jun-2026, so consultants and moonlighters who took salary for part of FY 2025-26 will be reconciling two regimes on the same day.

Penalty for the employer is set in Section 272A(2)(g) of the Income-tax Act, 1961: Rs 100 per day per certificate, capped at the TDS amount for which the certificate should have been issued. The cap means a low-TDS employee may not see the deductor feel the pinch — escalation through the deductor's TAN-assessing officer is then the only practical lever before the 31-Jul-2026 ITR filing date.

Market Events

Outside the TDS calendar, Friday 15-May-2026 is a routine release day for the Reserve Bank's Weekly Statistical Supplement and the foreign exchange reserves figure, both published after market hours. SEBI's daily filings page records mutual fund disclosure updates through the day; investors who hold flexi-cap or multi-cap schemes should glance at the AUM split following the 25-25-25 rule and the 2020 carve-out. AMFI's half-yearly large/mid/small classification list released this month also continues to drive rebalancing inside actively managed schemes — the bucket-change implications were spelt out in our AMFI cut-offs note.

For systematic investors, the May SIP debit typically settles by mid-month. Use the SIP calculator to confirm the projected corpus at your current contribution; the step-up SIP calculator is more accurate if you raise the instalment each April. Lump-sum allocators reviewing salary arrears or a bonus should compare deployment paths using the lumpsum calculator.

No central-bank meeting and no SEBI board meeting are on the public calendar for 15-May-2026 itself.

Earnings

Q4 FY 2025-26 earnings season is in its tail end on 15-May-2026, with the bulk of large-cap results already disclosed in April and early May and mid-cap industrials, NBFCs and pharma trickling in through the third week of May. Without a specific schedule confirmed in tonight's briefing, treat tomorrow as a tail-risk day rather than a marquee one — newsflow from late filers, AGM intimations and dividend record dates tends to move stock-specific rather than index-level.

Two reading checks for any result that drops on 15-May-2026:

What to verify on your Form 16 — and how to flag a mismatch

The certificate has two parts and they fail in different ways.

Part A is auto-generated from TRACES and shows the employer's TAN, your PAN, employer-employee details, quarter-wise TDS deducted and deposited, and the BSR codes of the challans through which the TDS was paid. Part A is the part that must match Form 26AS and AIS line-for-line, because credit in your ITR flows from 26AS, not from the certificate. Common reasons Part A goes wrong:

• PAN was supplied incorrectly to payroll — the TDS shows up under a different PAN in 26AS and you get zero credit.
• One quarter was filed late and the employer used a different challan structure — credit lands in the wrong quarter row.
• Employer changed TAN mid-year — common after mergers or registered-office shifts.

Part B is an annexure built by the employer. It carries the salary breakup, Section 10 exemptions (HRA, LTA, gratuity, leave encashment), Chapter VI-A deductions (Section 80C, 80D, 80CCD), and the resulting tax computation. Errors here do not affect 26AS but they do affect the prefilled ITR and your refund cheque. Common reasons Part B goes wrong:

• Investment proofs submitted in March were not posted by payroll before the Form 16 lock cycle in May.
• Regime declaration (old vs new) for FY 2025-26 was changed by the employee after April but payroll continued on the original choice.
• Gratuity exemption was applied at the wrong cap. The exemption ceiling under Section 10(10) for non-government employees is Rs 20 lakh — this is the figure you should see, not anything higher.
• Section 87A rebate under the new regime for FY 2025-26 is Rs 60,000 after the Finance Act 2025 change, with a Rs 12 lakh taxable-income threshold — check that Part B uses this figure if your taxable income is below the ceiling.

If Part A is incomplete or any quarter is missing, raise a written ticket with the payroll deductor first. Section 272A(2)(g) gives the deductor a reason to act: Rs 100 per day, capped at the TDS amount. If unresolved by mid-July, Form 71 read with Rule 134 (inserted by CBDT notification in 2022) lets an employee claim TDS credit despite a deductor mismatch — particularly useful for retired or exited employees who cannot get the former payroll to revise.

For the new tax regime, remember that Section 80CCD(1B) is NOT allowed in the new regime — the additional Rs 50,000 NPS deduction is available only under the old regime. Only Section 80CCD(2), the employer NPS contribution capped at 14 percent of salary for FY 2025-26, flows through under the new regime. If your Form 16 Part B shows 80CCD(1B) used under the new regime, the employer has mis-applied the regime and Part B has to be corrected before you file ITR.

A point on multiple Form 16s. If you switched jobs in FY 2025-26, both employers issue Form 16s by 15-Jun-2026. Both will compute tax as if their salary is your only salary, which underestimates total tax once the slabs stack. Aggregate gross salary across the two certificates, claim each exemption and Chapter VI-A deduction once (not twice — Section 80C cap of Rs 1.5 lakh applies in aggregate), recompute tax on the consolidated income, and pay the differential as self-assessment tax under Section 140A before filing ITR-1 or ITR-2.

FAQ

What happens if my employer issues Form 16 after 15-Jun-2026?

Section 272A(2)(g) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 levies a penalty of Rs 100 per day of delay per Form 16, capped at the amount of TDS for which the certificate should have been issued. The penalty is on the deductor, not on you. The right step is a written request to payroll first, then escalation to the TAN's assessing officer if the certificate is still pending a fortnight later.

My Form 26AS shows less TDS than Form 16 Part A — which one wins?

Form 26AS is the authoritative ledger because credit in your ITR flows from 26AS. If Part A and 26AS diverge, the deductor has either filed Form 24Q with errors or filed it late. Ask payroll to file a correction statement (Form 24Q-Q4 revised). Until 26AS is updated, do not file the ITR — the system will not grant credit for the unreflected TDS and you will have to chase a refund through rectification under Section 154 later.

I changed jobs in FY 2025-26. Do I get two Form 16s?

Yes. Each employer issues Form 16 only for the period of employment with that TAN. The figures will not add up correctly because each Form 16 assumes its salary is your full annual salary. You must combine them yourself: aggregate gross salary, claim exemptions and deductions once (not twice), recompute tax on the consolidated income, and pay any differential as self-assessment tax under Section 140A before filing the return.

Can I file ITR before receiving Form 16?

Technically yes — the income tax e-filing portal lets you file ITR-1 from 1-April using prefilled data sourced from 26AS and AIS. Practically, waiting for Form 16 is sensible because Part B contains the verified Section 10 and Chapter VI-A figures your employer actually used. Filing without Form 16 and then receiving one that contradicts your filing means a revised return under Section 139(5).

What if the employer refuses to issue a corrected Form 16?

File Form 71 under Rule 134, inserted by CBDT notification in 2022. Form 71 allows you to claim TDS credit in the year the income was taxable even if the deductor has not reflected the credit. It is most useful for employees who have exited or retired and cannot get the former deductor to revise the TDS return — the assessing officer adjudicates the claim after verifying the underlying deduction.

Is Form 16 needed if I am taxed under the new regime?

Yes. The new regime under Section 115BAC is the default from FY 2023-24, and Form 16 captures whichever regime your employer ran payroll on. If you wish to switch regimes when filing ITR — switching is permitted once a year for non-business taxpayers — you can override the Form 16 figures in the return. Salaried filers therefore retain regime flexibility right up to the ITR submission date.

Can my employer claim Section 80CCD(1B) in Form 16 Part B if I am on the new regime?

No. Section 80CCD(1B) is NOT allowed in the new regime — the additional Rs 50,000 NPS deduction is available only under the old regime. If your Form 16 Part B reflects 80CCD(1B) while computing tax under the new regime, that is a payroll error and you must ask for a corrected Part B before you file ITR.

What is the Section 87A rebate amount I should see in my Form 16 Part B?

For FY 2025-26 under the new regime, Section 87A rebate is Rs 60,000 with a taxable-income threshold of Rs 12 lakh, after the Finance Act 2025 amendment. Taxable income up to Rs 12 lakh attracts nil tax after the rebate under the new regime. The old-regime rebate remains Rs 12,500 with the income ceiling at Rs 5 lakh. Check that your Form 16 Part B uses the right figure for the regime your payroll applied.