TDS Deposit Deadlines: The 7th-of-Month Rule and the March-to-30-April Exception

Tomorrow, 1 September 2026, opens the most-missed compliance window in the salaried and business calendar: the seven-day countdown to deposit the tax deducted at source during August 2026. Under the rule published on the Income Tax Department's TDS Compliance page, tax deducted in a month must reach the credit of the Central Government by the 7th of the following month. So every rupee of TDS withheld in August 2026 -- on salaries, professional fees, rent, interest and contractor bills -- is due by 7 September 2026.

Miss it, and the meter starts at 1.5% per month. This watchlist sets out the exact dates a deductor must track for the day, the one calendar exception that trips people up every April, and the four challan-cum-statement forms that carry their own separate clock.

Statutory Deadlines

The headline for 1 September 2026 is not a single filing but the start of a window. Deductors have from 1 September to 7 September 2026 to deposit August's TDS. There is no grace period beyond the 7th; the date is fixed regardless of weekends, so a deductor whose bank cut-off falls on a Sunday must plan to remit earlier. The same 7th-of-month logic governs tax deducted at source for every month of the year, with a single documented exception.

That exception is March. Tax deducted during March -- the closing month of the financial year -- is due not on 7 April but on 30 April. The extra window aligns the final deposit with year-end book closures. For the current cycle, that means tax deducted in March 2027 will be due by 30 April 2027, while every intervening month keeps the 7th-of-following-month deadline. The table below maps the run of deadlines a deductor should pin to the wall for the second half of financial year 2026-27.

A second point for 1 September 2026: the changeover to the Income Tax Act, 2025 is now in force. Income events on or after 1 April 2026 fall under the new Act, which replaced the Income Tax Act, 1961. The deposit mechanics that a deductor actually operates -- the 7th-of-month rule, the March-to-30 April exception and the interest for delay -- carry the same operational logic across the transition, but section references have been renumbered. Deductors should confirm the exact citation on incometax.gov.in before quoting a section in correspondence.

The 1.5% interest clock

Delay is expensive and the arithmetic is unforgiving. Late deposit of TDS attracts simple interest at 1.5% per month, or part of a month, from the date the tax was deducted to the date it is actually paid. The phrase \"part of a month\" is the trap: a delay of a single day that crosses a calendar-month boundary is treated as two months. Deduct on 20 August 2026, pay on 8 September 2026 instead of by the 7th, and the interest is charged for two months -- August and September -- not for the eighteen days that actually elapsed.

The worked example below shows why the 7 September 2026 deadline is worth a diary alert. Assume TDS of Rs 1,00,000 was deducted on salary and fees during August 2026.

On a modest Rs 1,00,000 liability, a one-week overrun past 7 September 2026 costs Rs 3,000 -- and the interest is not deductible as a business expense. You can model the deduction and net-of-tax figures on the Oquilia TDS calculator before you remit, and cross-check any shortfall you plan to square off through the advance-tax route using the advance tax calculator.

The four challan-cum-statement forms

Beyond the monthly employer and business remittances, four transaction-specific forms carry their own filing window. These challan-cum-statement forms, listed on the Income Tax Department's TDS Compliance page, combine the payment challan and the return in a single filing, and each is generally due within 30 days from the end of the month in which tax was deducted.

For anyone who completed one of these transactions in August 2026 -- a home purchase, a high-value rent arrangement, a large contractor bill or a crypto disposal -- the 30-day window means the relevant form falls due by 30 September 2026. A buyer who registered a property in August 2026, for instance, must file Form 26QB and pay the 1% deducted under Section 194-IA by 30 September 2026, well before the salaried deductor's 7 October cycle. Miss it and the same 1.5%-per-month interest applies, alongside a late-filing fee.

Market Events

There is no scheduled central-bank action on 1 September 2026, and this watchlist will not manufacture one. The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee last met on 3-5 August 2026 and held the repo rate at 5.25% -- a unanimous vote and the fourth consecutive pause after the February, April and June 2026 meetings. The next MPC review is scheduled for 5-7 October 2026, per the RBI's monetary policy calendar. Governor Sanjay Malhotra flagged that the committee wanted greater clarity on the inflation outlook before acting, with the standing deposit facility at 5.00% and the marginal standing facility at 5.50%.

For fixed-income savers, the relevant standing data-point is that small-savings rates were left unchanged for the July-September 2026 quarter -- the ninth straight quarter without a change. The Public Provident Fund stays at 7.1%, the Senior Citizen Savings Scheme and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana at 8.2%, and the National Savings Certificate at 7.7%. The next quarterly revision is due around 1 October 2026, so the day itself carries no rate reset. Investors reviewing where recurring contributions sit against these fixed rates can compare a systematic plan on the Oquilia SIP calculator or model a one-time deployment on the lumpsum calculator.

The steadiness of the rate backdrop is the point for 1 September 2026: with the repo rate anchored at 5.25% and small-savings rates flat, the only hard, dated obligation moving on the day is the TDS deposit clock. That is where a deductor's attention belongs.

Earnings

No company results are confirmed on the calendar for 1 September 2026 in this watchlist's verified sources, and none will be invented here. Corporate results cluster in the reporting weeks that follow each quarter-end; the June-quarter season closed months ago and the September-quarter results will not begin until well after 30 September 2026. Readers tracking a specific listed company should confirm its board-meeting date directly on the BSE or NSE corporate-announcements page rather than rely on a generic calendar.

What is dated and certain for 1 September 2026 is the compliance side of the ledger. For deductors, the day marks the opening of the seven-day remittance window that closes on 7 September 2026 -- a fixed statutory event with a measurable 1.5%-per-month cost of failure. In a watchlist built on \"what to watch tomorrow\", the confirmed deadline outranks any speculative earnings entry.

FAQ

What is the TDS deposit due date for tax deducted in August 2026?

Tax deducted at source during August 2026 must be deposited to the credit of the Central Government by 7 September 2026. The general rule, published on the Income Tax Department's TDS Compliance page, is that TDS for any month is due by the 7th of the following month. The only calendar exception is March, for which the deposit deadline is 30 April.

Why is TDS deducted in March due by 30 April and not 7 April?

The Income Tax rules grant an extra window at the financial-year close. Tax deducted during March -- the last month of the financial year -- is due by 30 April instead of the usual 7th, aligning the final deposit with year-end book closures. Every other month follows the 7th-of-following-month rule, so tax deducted in August 2026 is due 7 September 2026.

How much interest applies if I deposit TDS late?

Late deposit of TDS attracts simple interest at 1.5% per month, or part of a month, from the date the tax was deducted to the date it is actually paid. Because a part of a month counts as a full month, a delay of even one day that crosses a calendar-month boundary can attract two months of interest -- 3% on the amount. On Rs 1,00,000 deposited a week late past 7 September 2026, that is Rs 3,000.

What are Forms 26QB, 26QC, 26QD and 26QE?

These are challan-cum-statement forms for specific deductions: Form 26QB for TDS on the purchase of immovable property (Section 194-IA), Form 26QC for TDS on rent paid by individuals or HUF (Section 194-IB), Form 26QD for contractor and professional payments (Section 194M), and Form 26QE for virtual digital assets (Section 194S). Each is generally due within 30 days from the end of the month in which tax was deducted, so an August 2026 transaction falls due by 30 September 2026.

Does the 1 April 2026 changeover to the Income Tax Act, 2025 affect TDS deposit dates?

Income events on or after 1 April 2026 fall under the Income Tax Act, 2025, which replaced the 1961 Act. The deposit mechanics that matter to a deductor -- the 7th-of-month rule, the March-to-30 April exception, the challan-cum-statement forms and the interest for delay -- carry the same operational logic. Confirm the exact section references on incometax.gov.in before relying on any single number.

Is any RBI or market event scheduled for 1 September 2026?

No Monetary Policy Committee meeting falls on 1 September 2026. The RBI last held the repo rate at 5.25% on 5 August 2026, its fourth consecutive pause, and the next MPC review is scheduled for 5-7 October 2026. Small-savings rates were left unchanged for the July-September 2026 quarter, with the next quarterly revision due around 1 October 2026.