Compliance: Returns, Withholding and the New Form Numbers
The compliance calendar did not change much. The vocabulary changed entirely. Return forms for the year being filed now were notified expressly under the 1961 Act, withholding from 1 April 2026 runs on new section codes, and almost every form has a new number.
- Return due dates for assessment year 2026-27, and the extension question
- The updated return window, now four years
- The 2025 withholding rationalisation and two provisions that were removed
- Form renumbering
The year being filed now
Return forms for assessment year 2026-27 were notified through Notification Nos. 45/2026 to 51/2026, all dated 30 March 2026, corresponding to G.S.R. 226(E) to G.S.R. 232(E). Each was issued under section 139 read with section 295 of the 1961 Act and amended the 1962 Rules, taking effect on 31 March 2026 and applying expressly to returns for assessment year 2026-27. That settles an argument that comes up repeatedly: FY 2025-26 income and its return remain governed by the 1961 Act, notwithstanding that the return is filed after 1 April 2026.
| Filing | Due date for assessment year 2026-27 |
|---|---|
| Individuals and Hindu undivided families, non-audit | 31 July 2026 |
| Business and professional returns, non-audit | 31 August 2026. A statutory date, not an extension: the Finance Act 2026 amended Explanation 2 to section 139(1) with effect from 1 March 2026 to create this separate category |
| Tax audit report | 30 September 2026 |
| Audit cases | 31 October 2026 |
| Report on international transactions | 31 October 2026 |
| Transfer pricing cases | 30 November 2026 |
| Belated or revised return | 31 December 2026 |
| Updated return | Up to 31 March 2031 |
No extension of any assessment year 2026-27 return or audit report deadline had been notified as at 16 September 2026. The dates above are therefore the operative ones. Assessment year 2025-26 saw the non-audit date extended to mid-September 2025, the audit report date to 31 October 2025 and the audit-case return date to 10 December 2025, and extension orders are sometimes issued very late, so this is a position as at a date rather than a settled one. If you are reading this close to a deadline, check the Board announcements rather than relying on the date above.
The updated return window was extended from twenty-four to forty-eight months by the Finance Act 2025, with additional income-tax graded by how late the return is. The percentages are charged on the aggregate of tax and interest payable, not on income: 25 per cent if filed within twelve months from the end of the relevant assessment year, 50 per cent after twelve but within twenty-four, 60 per cent after twenty-four but within thirty-six, and 70 per cent after thirty-six but within forty-eight. The practical effect is that a disclosure decision now has a four-year runway, which changes how a voluntary correction is weighed against the risk of reassessment.
There is a further uplift that is often quoted as a fifth tier and is not one. Where the updated return is filed pursuant to a notice under section 148 and within the period that notice specifies, the additional income-tax rises by a further 10 per cent of the same tax-and-interest base. The effective percentages for the four periods therefore become 35, 60, 70 and 80. The 80 per cent figure that circulates is the top of that uplifted scale rather than a separate deadline tier.
Late filing costs a fee of ₹1,000 where income does not exceed ₹5 lakh and ₹5,000 otherwise, interest at one per cent a month, and the loss of the right to carry forward business and capital losses. Unabsorbed depreciation and house property loss survive a late return; the others do not.
What 2025 removed, and what 2026 renamed
Two changes with effect from 1 April 2025 are still missing from a lot of compliance processes, and both of them reduce work, which is why nobody notices they have not been implemented.
The non-filer check is gone
Sections 206AB and 206CCA, which imposed a higher rate of deduction and of collection respectively for a specified person who had not filed returns, were omitted by the Finance Act 2025 with effect from 1 April 2025. From that date neither deductors nor collectors need to test a payee return-filing status for these provisions. Two things survive. The provisions still applied to deductions and collections made up to 31 March 2025, so a FY 2024-25 default is not retrospectively cured. And the separate higher-rate rule for failure to furnish a permanent account number, section 206AA, is untouched and still runs at twenty per cent, so this is the end of one compliance check rather than of all of them.
Collection on the sale of goods is gone
Tax collection at source on the sale of goods was withdrawn with effect from 1 April 2025, leaving only the buyer-side deduction. A seller still collecting it is collecting something that is not due.
Thresholds were raised across the board at the same time: non-bank interest to ₹10,000, bank interest for senior citizens to ₹1,00,000 and for others to ₹50,000, dividends to ₹10,000, commission and brokerage to ₹20,000, professional and technical fees to ₹50,000, and rent recast to ₹50,000 per month or part month rather than an annual figure. That last one is a change of basis, not just of amount.
From 1 April 2026 the entire 194-series collapses into section 393, a single table-driven provision organised around numeric payment codes. Salary is section 392 and collection at source is section 394. Substantive rates carried over.
Renumbered, and one caution
The Income-tax Rules 2026 were notified by Notification No. 22/2026, G.S.R. 198(E), of 20 March 2026 and took effect on 1 April 2026. The renumbering below is the operative one, not a draft: the department forms portal now shows dual references such as Form 24Q with Form 138.
| Earlier form | Income-tax Rules 2026 | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Form 16 | Form 130 | Salary withholding certificate |
| Form 16A | Form 131 | Withholding certificate for payments other than salary |
| Forms 16B, 16C, 16D and 16E | Form 132 | Withholding certificates for specified transactions |
| Form 27D | Form 133 | Collection certificate |
| Form 24Q | Form 138 | Quarterly withholding statement, salary |
| Form 26Q | Form 140 | Quarterly withholding statement, resident non-salary payments |
| Forms 26QB, 26QC, 26QD and 26QE | Form 141 | Consolidated challan-cum-statements for specified transactions |
| Form 26QF | Form 142 | Statement for tax deducted on virtual digital asset transactions |
| Form 27EQ | Form 143 | Quarterly collection statement |
| Form 27Q | Form 144 | Withholding statement, payments to non-residents |
| Form 15CA | Form 145 | Information furnished by the remitter on payments to non-residents |
| Form 15CB | Form 146 | Accountant certificate for payments to non-residents |
| Form 26AS | Form 168 | Annual tax statement |
| Forms 3CA, 3CB and 3CD | Form 26 | Consolidated tax audit report and statement of particulars |
| Form 3CEB | Form 48 | Accountant report on international and specified domestic transactions |
| Form 10F | Form 41 | Non-resident treaty-information declaration. Not itself a residence certificate: it supplies the treaty information and operates alongside the foreign tax residence certificate |
Confirmed against the notified Rules and the department forms and guidance by our subject matter expert on 17 September 2026.
For the first quarter of tax year 2026-27, due on 31 July 2026, the quarterly forms actually used were Form 138 for salary, Form 140 for resident non-salary payments, Form 144 for payments to non-residents, Form 143 for tax collected at source, and Form 142 where the virtual digital asset reporting obligation applied. Form 141 was operational from 1 April 2026 but it is a transaction-based challan-cum-statement rather than an ordinary quarterly return, so it does not sit on the 31 July date.
Quarterly statement dates are now uniform at 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May, with the collection statement date pulled forward from 15 July. Deposit remains the seventh of the following month, and 30 April for March.
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If your accounts payable process still runs a non-filer compliance check or collects tax on goods sales, both of those stopped being necessary in April 2025. That is a quick and immediately useful review.
Position as at 16 September 2026. Reviewed every six months.
This page is general information, not professional advice. India is operating two income tax statutes at once. The Income-tax Act 1961 governs FY 2025-26 and everything before it, including assessments, appeals and updated returns for those years, which will run into the 2030s. The Income-tax Act 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026 and governs tax year 2026-27 onward, with every section renumbered and every form renumbered with them. A statement about Indian income tax that carries neither a year label nor an Act label is not a statement anyone can act on. Take professional advice before acting on anything on this page. We are happy to be that adviser, but we do not act on a web page, ours or anyone else's, without one.