New TDS and TCS Return Forms From FY 2026-27: Form 24Q Is Now Form 138 and Your Q1 Return Is Due July 31, 2026
The single biggest operational change to hit every deductor this quarter is not a new rate or a new threshold. It is that the TDS and TCS return you have filed for the last decade has been renumbered. From the quarter ended 30 June 2026, the first quarter under the Income-tax Act 2025 and the Income-tax Rules 2026, Form 24Q becomes Form 138, Form 26Q becomes Form 140, Form 27Q becomes Form 144 and the TCS return Form 27EQ becomes Form 143. The Q1 statements are due by 31 July 2026. This is a plain-English advisory on what changed, who is affected, and exactly what to do before the deadline.
Key Takeaways
- Every quarterly TDS and TCS return form has a new number from FY 2026-27: Form 24Q to Form 138 (salary), Form 26Q to Form 140 (resident non-salary), Form 27Q to Form 144 (non-resident), Form 27EQ to Form 143 (TCS).
- Q1 (April to June 2026) returns are due 31 July 2026. The TCS return has been pulled forward: Form 143 now follows the same 31 July timeline as the TDS returns, instead of the old 15th-of-the-month date for Form 27EQ.
- The legal home of the return has moved to Section 397 of the Income-tax Act 2025, read with the relevant rules of the Income-tax Rules 2026 (Form 140 is prescribed under Rule 219).
- Late filing carries a fee of Rs 200 per day under the Act 2025 framework that replaces Section 234E, capped at the amount of TDS or TCS in the return, plus separate penalty exposure and interest.
- The old forms still apply to transactions up to 31 March 2026. Use the new numbers only from the 1 April 2026 quarter onward. Do not mix the two.
What exactly changed in the TDS and TCS return forms for 2026
The Income-tax Act 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026 and replaces the Income-tax Act 1961 for tax year 2026-27 onward. Alongside the Act, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has notified the Income-tax Rules 2026, which carry an entirely renumbered set of prescribed forms. The content and logic of each TDS and TCS statement remain broadly the same. What has changed is the form number, the form name, and the statutory section reference printed inside each return.
The obligation to file the statement itself now sits in Section 397 of the Income-tax Act 2025. Section 397(3)(b) requires every person responsible for deduction or collection of tax, and every employer, after paying the tax to the credit of the Central Government, to deliver to the prescribed income-tax authority a statement for the relevant period, in the prescribed form, verified in the prescribed manner, within the prescribed time. In other words, the quarterly TDS and TCS return is now a Section 397 statement rather than a Section 200(3) or Section 206C(3) statement.
The old-to-new form mapping table
This is the mapping every deductor, payroll team and tax practitioner needs pinned to the wall for the 31 July filing:
| Purpose | Old form (up to 31 Mar 2026) | New form (from 1 Apr 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Quarterly TDS statement, salary | Form 24Q | Form 138 |
| Quarterly TDS statement, resident non-salary | Form 26Q | Form 140 |
| Quarterly TDS statement, payments to non-residents | Form 27Q | Form 144 |
| Quarterly TCS statement | Form 27EQ | Form 143 |
| TDS certificate, salary | Form 16 | Form 130 |
| TDS certificate, non-salary | Form 16A | Form 131 |
| TCS certificate | Form 27D | Form 133 |
| Employee investment/deduction declaration | Form 12BB | Form 124 |
| Self-declaration for nil or lower TDS | Form 15G / 15H | Form 121 |
Two genuinely new forms sit alongside the renumbered set: Form 141, a challan-cum-statement, and Form 142 for virtual digital asset transfers. The renumbered TDS and TCS provisions themselves run through Sections 392 to 397 of the Act 2025.
The employee declaration change is worth flagging to your payroll function now. The old Form 12BB, on which an employee declares house rent, home loan interest and Chapter VI-A investments to the employer, is now Form 124. We covered the connected allowance and HRA changes in our earlier notes on the HRA 50 percent exemption now covering eight cities and the reset allowance exemption limits under the Income-tax Rules 2026.
When is the Q1 FY 2026-27 TDS return due in July 2026?
The filing calendar for the first quarter under the new Act is as follows:
| Compliance | Form | Due date |
|---|---|---|
| Deposit of June 2026 TDS/TCS | Challan-cum-statement where applicable | 7 July 2026 |
| Q1 TDS return, salary | Form 138 (was 24Q) | 31 July 2026 |
| Q1 TDS return, resident non-salary | Form 140 (was 26Q) | 31 July 2026 |
| Q1 TDS return, non-resident payments | Form 144 (was 27Q) | 31 July 2026 |
| Q1 TCS return | Form 143 (was 27EQ) | 31 July 2026 |
The one date to internalise is the TCS shift. Under the old regime, the TCS return in Form 27EQ for the April to June quarter was due on 15 July. Under the Income-tax Rules 2026, the TCS statement in Form 143 follows the same schedule as the TDS returns and is due on 31 July. This aligns TDS and TCS timelines, which is welcome, but it also means a collector who has diarised 15 July out of habit now has additional room, while a collector who assumes the TCS return is already late on the 16th is mistaken. File both on or before 31 July.
Who is affected
Every deductor and collector. That is every company, LLP, firm, trust, and proprietor with a TAN who deducts tax on salaries, contractor payments, professional fees, rent, interest, commission, or who collects tax at source. There is no size threshold and no opt-out. If you filed a Form 24Q or Form 26Q for the March 2026 quarter, your July filing is a Form 138 or Form 140.
Payroll and HR teams need to reissue their internal templates. The salary TDS certificate your employees expect in Form 16 will now be issued as Form 130, and the investment declaration you collect at the start of the year is now Form 124 rather than Form 12BB. See our note on the Form 16 employer deadline and TRACES checklist for the certificate side of this.
Tax and accounting software users are largely insulated, provided the software vendor has pushed the FY 2026-27 update. The risk is manual filers, small deductors using the department utility, and anyone reconciling against an internally maintained register that still references the old form names.
What is the penalty for filing the TDS return late in 2026
The late-filing fee that most deductors know as Section 234E, a fee of Rs 200 for every day of delay, continues under the Income-tax Act 2025. The fee runs from the due date to the date the return is filed and cannot exceed the total amount of tax deducted or collected in that return. This fee is in addition to, not instead of, interest on late deposit and any separate penalty for non-filing or incorrect particulars.
Interest on late deposit remains the more expensive exposure for cash-flow purposes: interest at 1.5 percent per month, or part of a month, runs from the date the tax was actually deducted, not from the 7th of the following month. A single day of delay in deposit therefore attracts a full month of interest. The 7 July 2026 deposit deadline for June is the one that quietly costs the most when missed.
Step-by-step compliance checklist for the 31 July 2026 filing
- Confirm your software is on the FY 2026-27 release. Ask your vendor in writing whether the update maps Q1 FY 2026-27 to Form 138, 140, 143 and 144. Do not assume a routine patch has done it.
- Verify all June TDS and TCS was deposited by 7 July 2026. Reconcile challans to your deduction register before you build the return, because a missing challan surfaces as a short-payment default after filing.
- Validate PANs of all deductees. Higher-rate deduction for invalid or missing PAN continues; catch it now, not in a demand notice.
- Build the return under the new form number. Salary in Form 138, resident non-salary in Form 140, non-resident payments in Form 144, TCS in Form 143.
- File on or before 31 July 2026 and preserve the acknowledgement.
- Issue the correct certificates after filing. Salary certificate in Form 130, non-salary in Form 131, TCS in Form 133, within the prescribed timelines.
- Update internal templates and staff references so the next three quarters do not repeat the old form names.
Frequently asked questions
Is Form 26Q discontinued?
For transactions from 1 April 2026, yes. The resident non-salary quarterly TDS statement is now Form 140, prescribed under Rule 219 of the Income-tax Rules 2026 and filed under Section 397 of the Income-tax Act 2025. Form 26Q remains the correct form only for statements relating to transactions up to 31 March 2026, such as a belated or revised Q4 FY 2025-26 return.
Has the TDS return due date changed?
The TDS return due dates are unchanged in substance: 31 July for Q1, 31 October for Q2, 31 January for Q3 and 31 May for Q4. What changed is the TCS return, which now shares the 31 July Q1 date in Form 143 rather than the earlier 15 July date in Form 27EQ.
What replaces Form 16 and Form 12BB?
The salary TDS certificate Form 16 is now Form 130. The employee declaration Form 12BB, used to declare rent, home loan interest and Chapter VI-A deductions to the employer, is now Form 124.
Do I need a new TAN?
No. Your existing TAN continues. Only the return and certificate form numbers have changed, not your registration.
Which Act governs a revised return for an earlier year?
A revised or belated statement for a period up to 31 March 2026 continues under the Income-tax Act 1961 and the old form numbers. The Income-tax Act 2025 and the new forms apply to periods from 1 April 2026. Do not file a FY 2025-26 correction on a Form 138 or Form 140.
The bottom line
This is a renumbering, not a rewrite, but a renumbering has real filing risk. A return prepared on the wrong form number, or a TCS collector who still believes 15 July was the deadline, or a payroll team issuing a Form 16 that no longer exists, all create avoidable defaults. The fix is administrative and cheap if done before 31 July 2026: confirm the software release, reconcile the June challans, and file Q1 on Form 138, 140, 143 and 144. For the connected business-deduction and actual-payment timing that also shifted under the new Act, see our deep-dive on Section 43B and the 43B(h) MSME disallowance under the Income-tax Act 2025.
Sitting on a first-quarter filing under an unfamiliar form set, or unsure how the Income-tax Act 2025 changes your TDS position? Talk to an Expert at Tax Update India and get your Q1 FY 2026-27 compliance reviewed before the 31 July deadline.
Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute tax or legal advice. Form numbers and provisions cited are based on the Income-tax Act 2025, the Income-tax Rules 2026 (including Form 140 under Rule 219 and Section 397), and prescribed departmental forms, corroborated across multiple professional sources and retrieved on 7 July 2026. The Income-tax Rules 2026 form set is new and specific sub-rule and form-annexure numbers may be refined by the department; verify the exact form applicable to your case against incometaxindia.gov.in or with your advisor before filing. Tax Update India accepts no liability for action taken on the basis of this note.
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