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Your TDS return has a new form number — and a much shorter memory for mistakes

Form 24Q, 26Q, 27Q and 27EQ have quietly become Forms 138, 140, 144 and 143. The 31 July filing is the first real test of the new numbers — and correcting a mistake in it now has a two-year expiry, not six.

By CA Ankit Shah19 July 20266 min read
In brief
  • Form 24Q, 26Q, 27Q and 27EQ have been renamed Form 138, 140, 144 and 143 under the Income-tax Rules, 2026 — the Q1 FY 2026-27 statement due 31 July 2026 is the first filed entirely under the new numbers.
  • Due dates and rates are unchanged in substance — except the TCS statement (Form 143), which now shares the 31 July/31 Oct/31 Jan/31 May schedule with TDS returns instead of its old mid-month date.
  • A much bigger change is hiding behind the renumbering: correction statements can now be filed only within two years of the original due date, down from roughly six.
  • Late filing still draws a ₹200/day fee capped at the TDS/TCS amount, and incorrect statements risk a separate penalty — both carried forward under new section numbers.
The same return, four new numbers Quarterly TDS/TCS statements under the Income-tax Act, 2025 — old form on the left, new form on the right OLD (TILL FY 2025-26) NEW (FROM FY 2026-27) Form 24Q Salary TDS · section 392 Form 138 same return, salary TDS Form 26Q Other payments, residents · 393 Form 140 same return, resident payments Form 27Q Payments to non-residents · 393 Form 144 same return, non-resident payments Form 27EQ TCS statement · section 394 Form 143 TCS — now due 31 July, with TDS All four statements for Q1 FY 2026-27 are due 31 July 2026 — the first quarter filed entirely under the Income-tax Act, 2025. The form numbers changed. The due dates and rates, mostly, did not.
The four returns every deductor already knows, under their new numbers. Form 143 (TCS) also gains a new due date, aligned with the TDS returns rather than its old separate schedule.

The phone calls in the third week of July used to be about one thing: the income-tax return deadline. This year a second, quieter question has joined them. A client who has filed the same TDS return every quarter for a decade calls to ask why the software is suddenly asking for "Form 138" — a number nobody recognises, attached to a return everybody has filed a hundred times.

A renaming, not a new law

The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the 1961 Act with effect from 1 April 2026, and with it the TDS and TCS chapter moved from the familiar sections 192–206 to sections 392–394. The procedural detail — including the forms themselves — was notified separately through the Income-tax Rules, 2026 (CBDT Notification No. 22/2026, G.S.R. 198(E), 20 March 2026), which renumbered close to 190 forms. Four of those touch almost every business on this office's client list: Form 24Q, the quarterly salary TDS statement, is now Form 138. Form 26Q, for TDS on other payments to residents, is now Form 140. Form 27Q, for payments to non-residents, is now Form 144. And Form 27EQ, the TCS statement, is now Form 143.

The quarter ended 30 June 2026 is the first quarter falling entirely after this transition, so the statement due on 31 July 2026 is the first time most deductors will file under the new numbers for real, rather than read about them in a circular.

Nothing about what you owe has changed. Everything about how you describe it has.

What actually changed, and what didn't

The due-date calendar is unchanged in substance: 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May for the four quarters, exactly as before. TDS rates are unchanged. What has changed is narrower but still worth getting right the first time — the form name and number, the section references that now belong on the statement and in any covering note to a deductee (392/393/394 in place of the old 192–206 chapter), and the payment and nature-of-payment codes inside the return-preparation utility. One substantive change is folded into the renumbering, and it is easy to miss: the TCS statement, Form 143, now follows the same 31 July / 31 October / 31 January / 31 May schedule as the TDS returns. Its old, separate deadline — the 15th of the month following the quarter — has quietly disappeared. A business that has treated its TCS return as a later, lower-priority filing needs to unlearn that habit this quarter, not next.

None of this changes a deductor's actual liability. But agreements, purchase orders and internal notes that still cite "194C" or "194J", or instruct staff to "file the 26Q", are not wrong in substance — they simply describe a law that no longer uses those labels. The practical risk is narrower and more mundane: software validating against the new form and section codes will not accept an entry built from a template that still assumes the old ones.

The change that matters more than the renumbering

The detail most deductors have not registered is not the new form number but a much shorter fuse for fixing mistakes in it. Under section 397(3)(f) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, a correction statement can now be filed only within two years from the end of the tax year in which the original statement was due — down from the roughly six-year window deductors had grown used to. As a one-time transition, corrections for specific older statements (from FY 2018-19's fourth quarter through FY 2023-24's third quarter) had to be filed by 31 March 2026; that date has already passed, and those particular corrections are now permanently out of reach.

That transition deadline is history. What matters going forward is that the two-year limit is now the standing rule, not a one-off tightening. A Q1 FY 2026-27 statement filed by 31 July 2026 can be corrected only until two years from the end of FY 2026-27 — 31 March 2029. That sounds generous until you recall how correction needs actually surface: rarely from the deductor's own review, usually from a deductee querying a mismatch in Form 26AS or the Annual Information Statement, sometimes years after the original filing. A stray PAN typed wrong, or a challan quoted against the wrong section, is a far less forgiving problem under a two-year clock than it was under a six-year one.

What a delayed Q1 statement costs, day by day Illustrative example: ₹14,000 TDS deducted in the quarter — the fee stops climbing once it reaches that amount Cap: ₹14,000 (the TDS amount) 10 days 20 days 30 days 40 days 50 days 60 days 70 days 80 days 90 days ₹2,000 ₹4,000 ₹6,000 ₹8,000 ₹10,000 ₹12,000 Days 70 onward: the fee is capped at ₹14,000, but the statement still cannot be filed until it is paid.
The fee under section 427 (the renumbered section 234E) grows by ₹200 a day and stops only at the tax amount reported — it is paid before the delayed statement is even accepted, not after.

What a missed or wrong statement costs

Delay carries a fee, not a discretionary penalty, under section 427 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (the renumbered section 234E): ₹200 for every day the statement remains unfiled, capped at the TDS or TCS amount reported in that statement, and payable before the belated statement will even be accepted. Filing an incorrect statement — a wrong PAN, an unmatched challan, an unexplained shortfall in deduction — is a separate exposure, this time to a discretionary penalty under section 461 (the renumbered section 271H), layered on top of any fee already paid for lateness.

What to check before 31 July

Confirm that the return-preparation utility and any third-party TDS software your office uses validates against Forms 138, 140, 143 and 144 — an outdated utility will still build a statement around 24Q or 26Q, and the portal will not accept it. Update agreements, board resolutions and internal notes still citing sections 192–206 to their 392–394 equivalents; this changes nothing about your tax liability but becomes a real question at a query or audit. Reconcile PANs and challans against the return before filing rather than after — with two years to fix an error instead of six, a Q1 mistake a deductee surfaces down the line is a materially harder conversation to have quietly. And if any part of your business collects tax at source — on scrap sales, liquor, overseas tour packages, or LRS remittances — remember the Form 143 due date has moved to align with the TDS calendar; the old mid-month cushion is gone.

Key takeaways

  • Forms 24Q, 26Q, 27Q and 27EQ are now Forms 138, 140, 144 and 143 — the Q1 FY 2026-27 statement due 31 July 2026 is the first filed entirely under the new numbers.
  • Form 143 (TCS) now shares the 31 July/31 Oct/31 Jan/31 May schedule with TDS returns — its earlier mid-month due date is gone.
  • Correction statements can now be filed only within two years of the end of the relevant tax year (section 397(3)(f)) — reconcile PANs and challans before filing, not after.
  • Late filing still draws ₹200/day capped at the TDS/TCS amount under section 427, and incorrect statements risk a separate penalty under section 461.

Sources

  1. Central Board of Direct Taxes, Notification No. 22/2026 [F. No. 370142/41/2025-TPL] / G.S.R. 198(E) — Income-tax Rules, 2026, 20 March 2026.
  2. Income Tax Department, Form No. 138 (earlier Form No. 24Q), incometaxindia.gov.in.
  3. Income Tax Department, Section 397 — Income-tax Act, 2025 (statements of tax deducted/collected and correction statements).
  4. Income Tax Department, Section 427 — Income-tax Act, 2025 (fee for default in furnishing statements).

This article is general information, not professional advice. Rules change; verify current provisions or contact the office for advice on your situation.

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