TDS Ready Reckoner By Taxmann’s Editorial Board

TDS Ready Reckoner is the definitive reference on the law of Tax Deduction at Source and Tax Collection at Source as it now stands under the Income-tax Act 2025, read with the Income-tax Rules 2026, and as amended by the Finance Act 2026. This Edition is the first edition of the work to be fully rewritten around the architecture of Chapter XIX of ITA 2025, in which the earlier 50-plus stand-alone TDS/TCS sections of ITA 1961 have been consolidated into a compact, table-driven framework built around sections 392 to 401. Every chapter has been redrafted to track the new section numbering, the new Schedules, the new Rules, and the renumbered Forms (121 to 150), with a running bridge to the corresponding provisions of the ITA 1961 so that readers transitioning from the old regime are never left without a precise cross-reference.

The book is designed as a one-stop compliance manual: for each payment type it sets out who must deduct, at what rate, on what threshold, at what point of time, and with what consequences in case of default—followed by the corresponding certificate, return, self-declaration and correction-statement obligations. Practical decisions that routinely arise in tax departments—whether a particular payment is ‘rent’, whether a payee is a ‘specified person’, whether a JDA transaction falls under Sl. No. 3(i) or 3(ii) of section 393(1), whether a buyback now attracts Sl. No. 8(ii) instead of Sl. No. 7, whether advertising services are ‘professional services’ under section 402(28)—are addressed head-on, with specific paragraph references for downstream use.

The Reckoner is authored for professionals and in-house teams who deduct, collect, report or advise on TDS/TCS in day-to-day practice:

• Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, Cost Accountants and Advocates handling direct-tax compliance and litigation
• Tax, Finance and Payroll Heads of corporate entities, LLPs, partnership firms and e-commerce operators
• Banks, Post Offices, Depositories (CDSL/NSDL), Mutual Funds, Business Trusts, Investment Funds and Securitisation Trusts in their capacity as deductors and reporting entities
• Public-Sector Undertakings, Government Drawing and Disbursing Officers, and Autonomous Bodies
• Assessing Officers, Departmental Officers and Revenue-Side Litigators working on TDS/TCS defaults, interest and prosecution matters
• Students Preparing for CA, CS, CMA and Advanced Direct-Tax Papers who require an authoritative treatment of the new Chapter XIX regime

The Present Publication is the 32^nd Edition | 2026, amended by the Finance Act 2026. This book is authored by Taxmann’s Editorial Board with the following noteworthy features:

• [First Full-Act Rewrite on ITA 2025] Every chapter is mapped to sections 392–401 and to the Tables in section 393(1)/(2)/(3)/(4), with ITA 1961 correspondences retained for continuity
• [Seven Reference Matrices at the Front of the Book] Comparative Study of the following to enable a single-page lookup from any old-regime reference to its new-regime equivalent:
  • ITA 2025 vs. ITA 1961
  • TDS Map
  • TDS Rate Reckoner
  • TCS Rate Reckoner
  • ITA 1961 vs. ITA 2025 Section Table
  • Rules 1962 vs. Rules 2026 Table
  • Forms 2026 vs. Forms 1962 Table
• [Categorised Analysis of Every Change Made by ITA 2025] They are grouped as follows:
  • Provisions that reduce the compliance burden for deductors
  • Provisions that reduce the burden for deductees/collectees
  • Changes in TCS provisions
  • Pain points introduced by ITA 2025
  • New avenues for litigation
  • Other changes
• [Treatment of Landmark Structural Reforms] This comprises the following:
  • The bar on retrospective creation of TDS liability under section 391(1)(a)
  • The consolidation of lower/Nil TDS certificate provisions into section 395
  • The single-declaration facility for depositories under section 393(6)(b)
  • The omission of the ITR-track-record test under erstwhile section 194N
  • The uniform 2% TCS rate across most transactions
• [Payment-Wise Chapters] It covers commission and brokerage, rent, immovable-property consideration (including JDAs and compulsory acquisition), capital-market income, interest, dividends, contractor payments, professional fees, FTS, royalty, non-compete fees, purchase of goods, senior-citizen pension, benefits and perquisites, e-commerce operator payments, VDAs, lottery and online-game winnings, partner remuneration, salary, PF accumulated balance, and the full suite of non-resident TDS provisions
• [Dedicated Compliance Division] TAN, PAN validity, lower/Nil TDS certificates under section 395, self-declarations (new Forms 121 and 124 in place of 15G/15H/27C), credit of TDS/TCS, deposit with Government, filing of returns, issuance of certificates, quarterly reporting by banks and consequences of default (disallowance under section 35(b), interest, penalty, prosecution)
• [Full Statutory Appendices] Chapter XIX of ITA 2025 (reproduced), the corresponding Rules of ITR 2026, all relevant Forms, and CBDT’s official Guidance Notes & FAQs on Form Nos. 121 to 150
• [Illustrations, Computational Notes and Cross-References] throughout, with specific paragraph-level indexing to allow precise citation in opinions, assessment responses and appellate submissions

The Reckoner is built around six Divisions, 76 chapters and 4 Appendices, covering the entirety of Chapter XIX of ITA 2025 along with consequential provisions of Chapters V, VII, VIII and XVIII.

• Division A — Nature of TDS/TCS Provisions (Chapters 1–6)
  • It lays the conceptual foundation:
    • Modes of payment or collection of income-tax
    • The distinction between TDS and TCS
    • The scheme of Chapter XIX
    • The interplay between ITA 1961 and ITA 2025 and the transition rules
    • Exemptions from deduction under section 393(4)
• Division B — TDS Provisions Applicable to Resident Payees (Chapters 7–37)
  • It covers each resident-payee payment class. This is the largest Division and includes:
    • Commission and brokerage (including insurance commission under Sl. No. 1(i) and brokerage paid by specified and non-specified persons)
    • Rent under Sl. No. 2(i) and 2(ii)
    • Consideration for transfer of immovable property (including JDAs under Sl. No. 3(ii) and compulsory-acquisition compensation under Sl. No. 3(iii))
    • Capital-market income (mutual fund units, business-trust distributions, investment-fund non-exempt income, securitisation-trust income)
    • Interest income (interest on securities, interest other than on securities, bank/post-office interest)
    • Dividends declared by domestic companies under Sl. No. 7
    • Payments to resident contractors under Sl. No. 6(i), (ii) and (v)
    • Professional fees, FTS, royalty, non-compete fees and non-executive director remuneration under Sl. No. 6(iii)
    • Life-insurance policy payouts under Sl. No. 8(i)
    • Purchase of goods above ₹50 lakh under Sl. No. 8(ii); TDS on the total income of specified senior citizens under section 393(1) [Sl. No. 8(iii)]
    • Benefits and perquisites under Sl. No. 8(iv)
    • Payments by e-commerce operators under Sl. No. 8(v)
    • Consideration for transfer of a Virtual Digital Asset under Sl. No. 8(vi)
• Division C — TDS Provisions Applicable to Payments to Any Person (Chapters 38–47)
  • It deals with payee-neutral provisions:
    • Winnings from lotteries, crossword puzzles, online games and horse races
    • Commission on lottery tickets
    • TDS on large cash withdrawals by banks and post offices (Chapter 43 incorporates the significant change that TDS now applies to the entire cash withdrawal once the threshold is breached, not merely the excess)
    • TDS under the NSS
    • TDS on interest and remuneration paid by firms/LLPs to partners under Sl. No. 7 of section 393(3) (covering the new clarity on ‘partner’ and ‘firm’ and on disallowance consequences under section 35(b))
    • TDS on salary under section 392
    • TDS on accumulated PF balance
• Division D — TDS Provisions Applicable Where Payee is Non-Resident (Chapters 48–64)
  • It consolidates the full non-resident framework:
    • Payments to sportspersons, sports associations and entertainers
    • Interest on foreign borrowings (including pre-1 July 2023 rupee-denominated bonds, IFSC-listed RDBs, and general non-resident interest)
    • Distributed income to non-resident unitholders of business trusts and investment funds
    • Income from mutual-fund units and securitisation-trust investments
    • Long-term capital gains on transfer of units purchased in foreign currency and GDRs
    • Income from securities payable to FIIs and Specified Funds
    • The residual catch-all for any taxable sum payable to a non-resident other than salary
• Division E — TCS Provisions (Chapter 65)
  • It consolidates the entirety of section 394 and the TCS Table, including the new uniform 2% TCS rate for most transactions, the increased rate for alcoholic liquor, scrap, coal, lignite and iron ore, the reduced rate for tendu leaves, LRS-education/medical remittances and overseas tour packages, and the revised timing of collection for motor vehicles and specified goods (earlier of debit or receipt)
• Division F — TDS & TCS Compliance and Reporting (Chapters 66–76)
  • It handles the operational machinery: TAN, valid PAN requirement under section 397, lower/Nil certificate under section 395 (including the new option to file before a prescribed authority), self-declarations for non-deduction and non-collection, credit mechanics, deposit with the Central Government, filing of returns, issuance of certificates, quarterly interest reporting by banks, and the complete default framework—interest, penalty, disallowance under section 35(b), prosecution, and the 2-year curtailed correction-statement window under section 397(3)(f)
• Appendices 1–4 reproduce the relevant sections of ITA 2025, the relevant Rules of ITR 2026, the relevant Forms, and the CBDT Guidance Notes & FAQs on Forms 121 to 150

The book follows a consistent three-layer architecture that makes it usable as both a reference and a learning text:

• Layer 1 | Navigation Matrices — The front matter opens with seven lookup tools: the Comparative Study of ITA 2025 vs. ITA 1961 (39 changes grouped into six categories), the TDS Map, the TDS Rate Reckoner, the TCS Rate Reckoner, the ITA 1961 ↔ ITA 2025 Section Table, the ITR 1962 ↔ ITR 2026 Rules Table, and the Forms 2026 ↔ Forms 1962 Table. These allow a reader arriving from any ITA 1961 reference to reach the corresponding ITA 2025 treatment in a single step
• Layer 2 | Payment-wise Chapters — Within each Division, payments are grouped by economic substance (commission, rent, capital-market income, contractor payments and so on). Where a payment class has multiple Sl. Nos. in the section 393 Tables (for example, rent under 2(i) and 2(ii), or contractor payments across 6(i), 6(ii) and 8(v)), each Sl. No. gets its own chapter preceded by a map chapter that consolidates all applicable Sl. Nos. for that class
• Layer 3 | Compliance and Default Machinery — Division F handles procedural obligations that apply across all payment classes, ensuring that operational questions (certificate issuance, return filing, correction statements, consequences of default) are not scattered through the payment-wise treatment
• Each substantive chapter within Divisions B to E follows the same internal sequence: applicable Sl. No. and section reference, corresponding ITA 1961 section, who must deduct (payer/specified person definition), payee coverage, rate, threshold, time of deduction (credit or payment, whichever is earlier—or payment only, as now applies to partner remuneration under Sl. No. 7), exemptions, illustrations, CBDT circulars and judicial precedents, and cross-references to compliance obligations in Division F