The TDS Return Just Changed Its Name —First Filing on Form 138/140 Due 31 July 2026

Every employer in Lucknow who deducts tax on salaries, and every business that deducts tax on rent, professional fees, commission, or brokerage paid to a resident, has filed the same two forms every quarter for years: Form 24Q for salary TDS, and Form 26Q for everything else. That familiar paperwork has just been replaced. Under the Income-tax Rules, 2026, framed to give effect to the new Income-tax Act, 2025, Form 24Q has become Form 138 and Form 26Q has become Form 140 — and the very first quarterly statement to be filed in the new format, covering tax deducted between April and June 2026, falls due on 31 July 2026.

What actually changed on 1 April 2026

The Central Board of Direct Taxes notified the Income-tax Rules, 2026 (Notification No. 22/2026 dated 20 March 2026), which took effect from 1 April 2026 alongside the Income-tax Act, 2025 itself. The Act consolidates the old, scattered TDS sections of the 1961 Act into two provisions: Section 392 covers TDS on salary (replacing the earlier Sections 192 and 192A), and Section 393 covers TDS on all other payments to residents and non-residents (replacing the various sections that used to deal separately with interest, rent, professional fees, commission, and similar payments).

With the sections renumbered, the reporting forms have been renumbered too. Form 24Q (salary TDS) is now Form 138. Form 26Q (non-salary TDS to residents — interest, rent, professional or technical fees, commission, brokerage, and the like) is now Form 140. Form 27Q (TDS on payments to non-residents) is now Form 144, and Form 27EQ (the quarterly TCS statement) is now Form 143.

Why this is not just a name change

It is tempting to treat this as cosmetic — same quarterly return, new number. That is only partly true. Because the underlying charging sections have been renumbered and, in places, consolidated, the new forms are built around numeric TDS/TCS payment codes rather than the old section-wise reporting that payroll and accounting software has used for years. A deductor's software — whether an in-house payroll system, a chartered accountant's filing utility, or a TRACES-linked tool — needs to be updated to recognise these codes correctly before the statement is prepared. An entry mapped to the wrong code, or software still referencing the old section numbers, is the kind of error that surfaces only when the statement is processed and a mismatch notice follows.

What has not changed is the quarterly filing rhythm itself. The due dates remain 31 July, 31 October, 31 January, and 31 May for the four quarters of the year, exactly as before — the change is in the form and the reporting logic behind it, not in the calendar.

Who this applies to

Because TDS obligations are so widely spread across ordinary business activity, this affects a large cross-section of Lucknow's employers and enterprises:

• Every employer with a TAN who deducts tax on employee salaries — Form 138.
• Every business or professional firm that pays rent above the applicable threshold, professional or technical fees, commission, or brokerage to a resident — Form 140.
• Any person making specified payments to a non-resident or foreign company — Form 144.
• Any seller or e-commerce operator required to collect tax at source — Form 143.

In practice, almost any registered business, proprietorship, or professional practice that has ever filed a 24Q or 26Q will need to file its Q1 statement in the new format this month.

A payroll or accounts team that treats this as "same form, new number" risks a rejected or defective statement — the codes behind the form have genuinely changed, even where the due date has not.

The cost of getting it wrong

The consequences of a late or defective TDS statement have also been carried forward under new section numbers, not removed. A late filing fee — now under Section 427 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (the successor to the familiar Section 234E) — continues to run at ₹200 for every day of delay, capped at the amount of tax deductible or collectible for that statement. A separate penalty — now under Section 461 (the successor to Section 271H) — of between ₹10,000 and ₹1,00,000 can be levied for failing to file the statement, or for filing one with incorrect particulars. That penalty is not automatic: it is generally not levied where the tax deducted has been deposited to the Government, the late fee and any interest have been paid, and the statement is filed within one month of the due date — a narrow but real cushion for a business that discovers an error soon after 31 July.

What to do before 31 July 2026

Because this is the very first quarter filed under the new forms, some friction is likely — for deductors and, quite possibly, for the systems processing these statements. If an error surfaces after filing, the sensible course is to correct it promptly rather than wait, given the narrow window of relief built into the penalty provision.