TDS Quarterly Form 26Q Deadlines FY 2025-26: Q1 Jul 31, Q2 Oct 31, Q3 Jan 31, Q4 May 31

The week ending 15 May 2026 carries the first major Tax Deducted at Source (TDS) deadline of the new financial year — Form 27EQ for tax collected at source (TCS) during Q4 FY 2025-26 falls due on Friday, 15 May 2026. Sixteen days later, the heavier statutory bell rings: Form 26Q and Form 24Q for the January-March 2026 quarter must be filed by Sunday, 31 May 2026, which automatically extends to Monday, 1 June 2026 under Section 10 of the General Clauses Act, 1897. Saturday, 9 May 2026, is a non-trading day for the National Stock Exchange and BSE cash segments — the watchlist this weekend belongs to deductors, accountants and treasurers preparing the FY 2025-26 Q4 returns.

Statutory Deadlines

The compliance window opening tomorrow stretches across three statutes — the Income-tax Act, 1961, the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act, 2017 and the Employees' Provident Funds and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952. Quarterly TDS filings dominate the calendar.

Form 26Q FY 2025-26 due dates

Form 26Q reports TDS on payments other than salary — interest under Section 194A, contractor payments under Section 194C, professional fees under Section 194J, rent under Section 194-I, commission under Section 194H and dividend distributions under Section 194. Quarterly due dates are notified under Rule 31A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962.

Form 24Q (salary TDS under Section 192) follows identical quarterly due dates. The Q4 24Q return additionally requires Annexure-II carrying employee-wise annual salary breakdowns — the source data feeding Form 16 Part B, due to employees by 15 June 2026 under Rule 31.

TCS — Form 27EQ Q4 FY 2025-26

Tax collected at source under Section 206C — covering scrap sales, motor vehicles above Rs 10 lakh and Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS) outward transfers above Rs 7 lakh — must be reported on Form 27EQ within 15 days of quarter-end. Q4 FY 2025-26 (January-March 2026) is therefore due on Friday, 15 May 2026 — six trading sessions from now. The collectee certificate Form 27D follows on 30 May 2026 under Rule 37D of the Income-tax Rules.

GST and EPF deadlines that fall in the window

Late-filing fees and penalties

Section 234E of the Income-tax Act levies a flat late-filing fee of Rs 200 per day of default, capped at the TDS amount of the return itself. Section 271H adds a discretionary penalty of Rs 10,000 to Rs 1,00,000 where the return remains unfiled for more than one year from the original due date — though sub-section (3) of Section 271H waives this penalty if the deductor has, before the one-year mark, paid the TDS, the applicable interest and the Section 234E fee, and filed the return. Late deposit of the tax itself attracts interest under Section 201(1A): 1 per cent per month from the date deductible to the date deducted, and 1.5 per cent per month from the deduction date to the actual challan deposit date.

Market Events

Saturday, 9 May 2026, is a non-trading day for both the National Stock Exchange and BSE cash segments. The currency-derivatives segment, the commodity-derivatives segment on MCX and NCDEX, and the interest-rate-futures market are all closed for the weekend. The next trading session opens at 09:15 IST on Monday, 11 May 2026, with the pre-open call-auction window from 09:00 to 09:08 IST under SEBI's market-microstructure framework.

The Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) operates under Section 45ZB of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, and is required by Section 45ZI to meet at least four times each financial year. The bi-monthly rate-setting calendar and prior MPC resolutions are published on rbi.org.in. The Securities and Exchange Board of India board, constituted under Section 4 of the SEBI Act, 1992, releases its meeting outcomes via media release on sebi.gov.in. No regulator board meeting has been pre-announced for the weekend of 9-10 May 2026.

Weekend cash-flow planning runs in parallel with deadline preparation. Three Oquilia calculators help map the impact on monthly investment commitments after Q4 TDS reconciliation: the SIP calculator projects systematic-investment-plan corpus growth through the equity-mutual-fund route, the lumpsum calculator prices one-time deployments such as performance bonus or salary arrears that often arrive after Form 24Q Annexure-II submission, and the step-up SIP calculator models annual contribution increments tied to inflation or appraisal hikes captured in the same Annexure-II.

Earnings

The Q4 FY 2025-26 results season runs from mid-April through end-May 2026. Saturday, 9 May 2026, has no listed-company board meetings on the corporate calendar — Regulation 33 of the SEBI Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements (LODR) Regulations, 2015 requires audited annual results within 60 days of financial-year end, i.e. by 30 May 2026, which means the heaviest cluster of results board meetings falls in the working days from 11 May to 29 May 2026. Companies that have already filed Q4 results before the weekend are off tomorrow's calendar; specific earnings calls scheduled for 11-15 May 2026 are released by stock exchanges through the BSE corporate-announcement portal and the NSE NEAPS system at least two working days in advance under Regulation 29 of the LODR.

Resident shareholders should remember that the 31 May 2026 Form 26Q deadline relates to the deductor side. Listed companies that have declared and paid dividend during the January-March 2026 quarter must report the deduction at 10 per cent under Section 194 (where the per-shareholder annual payout exceeds Rs 5,000) on Form 26Q. The deduction is captured in the Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Form 26AS once the Centralised Processing Cell - TDS in Vaishali, Ghaziabad processes the return. AIS reconciliation typically completes by mid-July 2026, ahead of the 31 July 2026 ITR-1 and ITR-2 deadline for non-audit cases.

In between the deadlines, our prior coverage on NSE circuit-breaker rules explains the 10 / 15 / 20 per cent index-trigger framework that governs intraday halts when results-driven volatility spikes; the SEBI T+1 settlement primer walks through how dividend record dates interact with the T+1 cycle for Section 194 TDS attribution.

FAQ

What is the due date for Form 26Q for Q4 FY 2025-26?

The statutory due date for Form 26Q covering January-March 2026 is 31 May 2026 under Rule 31A of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. Because 31 May 2026 falls on a Sunday, the deadline rolls to Monday, 1 June 2026 under Section 10 of the General Clauses Act, 1897. Late filing attracts a Section 234E fee of Rs 200 per day, capped at the TDS amount of the return.

What is the difference between Form 24Q and Form 26Q?

Form 24Q reports TDS on salaries deducted under Section 192. Form 26Q reports TDS on all other payments — interest under Section 194A, contractor payments under Section 194C, commission under Section 194H, rent under Section 194-I, professional fees under Section 194J and dividend under Section 194. Both follow identical quarterly due dates of 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May. The Form 24Q Q4 return uniquely includes Annexure-II carrying the annual salary computation that feeds Form 16 Part B.

When are TDS certificates Form 16 and Form 16A due?

Form 16 (annual salary TDS certificate) is due by 15 June following the financial year — for FY 2025-26, employers must issue Form 16 by 15 June 2026 under Rule 31 of the Income-tax Rules. Form 16A (non-salary TDS certificate, quarterly) is due 15 days after the Form 26Q filing deadline — so the Q4 FY 2025-26 certificate is due 15 June 2026. Form 27D (TCS certificate) follows 15 days after the Form 27EQ deadline, i.e. 30 May 2026 for Q4 FY 2025-26.

What penalty applies if Form 26Q is not filed within one year?

Section 271H of the Income-tax Act levies a discretionary penalty of Rs 10,000 to Rs 1,00,000 for failing to file Form 26Q, Form 24Q or Form 27EQ within one year of the original due date. Sub-section (3) of Section 271H waives this penalty if the deductor has, before the one-year mark, paid the TDS, applicable interest under Section 201(1A) and the Section 234E late-filing fee, and filed the return.

Can a Form 26Q return be revised after filing?

Yes. The Income-tax Department permits unlimited revisions to a TDS return through correction statements filed via the TIN-Facilitation Centre or the Protean (formerly NSDL) e-Gov TDS-CPC portal. Common corrections include PAN updates, challan-detail rectification, deductee-row additions and Section-code changes. Revisions do not attract a fresh Section 234E fee provided the original return was filed within the statutory due date.

Do salaried employees need to file Form 26Q?

No. Salaried employees are deductees, not deductors. Form 26Q is filed by the entity making the payment — the bank for fixed-deposit interest under Section 194A, the payer for professional fees under Section 194J, the buyer of immovable property above Rs 50 lakh on Form 26QB under Section 194-IA, or the individual tenant on Form 26QC under Section 194-IB. Employees track their TDS through the Annual Information Statement and Form 26AS at the Income-tax e-filing portal.

What is the threshold for filing Form 26Q?

There is no de minimis threshold for filing Form 26Q itself — once a deductor has obtained a Tax Deduction Account Number (TAN) and made any payment subject to TDS during the quarter, the return becomes mandatory. Individual transaction codes carry their own payment thresholds below which no TDS is deducted; deductors should refer to the official TDS rate chart on the Income-tax e-filing portal for the threshold and rate applicable to each Section under Chapter XVII-B.