Quick answer: Form 24Q, the quarterly TDS return on salary, is now Form No. 138 under the Income-tax Act, 2025, for salary paid from 1 April 2026. It is due on 31 July, 31 October and 31 January for the first three quarters and 31 May after the year for the fourth. You prepare it in Protean's utility, validate it, and upload it on the e-filing portal with your TAN. Filing late costs ₹200 a day, up to the tax deductible for the quarter.
Every employer that deducts tax from salaries has to report it to the Income Tax Department four times a year. Until March 2026 that report was Form 24Q; for tax year 2026-27 it is Form No. 138, with the same quarterly rhythm, the same due dates and a new legal basis. This guide covers what the form is, who must file it, the due dates for 2026-27, what goes into each part, how to file it step by step, corrections, and the fee, interest and penalties for getting it wrong. How the monthly TDS itself is worked out is covered in our guide to TDS on salary.
What is Form 24Q, and what is Form 138?
Form 24Q was the quarterly statement of tax deducted at source from salary under section 200(3) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 and rule 31A of the 1962 Rules. When the Income-tax Act, 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026, it was replaced by Form No. 138, filed under section 397(3)(b) of the 2025 Act and rule 219 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 (Income Tax Department FAQ on Form 138).
Form 138 reports tax deducted from salary under section 392 of the new Act, the section that replaced old section 192. Specified banks also use it for tax deducted from the pension and interest of specified senior citizens. For an employer, it is simply "the salary TDS return".
Which form replaces 24Q, and what about 26Q?
All the TDS forms were renumbered under the Income-tax Rules, 2026. The ones an employer meets most often:
| Purpose | Up to 31 March 2026 | From tax year 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| Quarterly TDS statement on salary | Form 24Q | Form 138 |
| Quarterly TDS statement on other payments to residents | Form 26Q | Form 140 |
| Quarterly TDS statement on payments to non-residents | Form 27Q | Form 144 |
| Quarterly TCS statement | Form 27EQ | Form 143 |
| Annual salary TDS certificate to employees | Form 16 | Form 130 |
| Employee's declaration of claims to employer | Form 12BB | Form 124 |
The difference between 24Q and 26Q carries over: Form 138 is only for salary, and Form 140 is for tax deducted on other payments to residents, such as contractors, professionals and rent. An employer that deducts both files both.
Is Form 24Q still used?
Yes, for periods up to 31 March 2026. The fourth-quarter statement for 2025-26 (January to March 2026) was filed in Form 24Q by 31 May 2026, and any correction of a 2025-26 or earlier statement is still filed in Form 24Q. Everything from April 2026 onwards goes in Form 138.
Who must file Form 138?
Any employer that deducts tax from employees' salaries: a company, firm, government office, LLP or individual employer. The Department's FAQ says the form must be filed for each quarter in which tax was deducted under section 392. You need a valid TAN (tax deduction account number), registered on the e-filing portal, to file it. An employer whose branches or divisions hold separate TANs files a separate Form 138 for each TAN, covering the employees whose tax was deducted under it; the statement is per TAN and per quarter, not per company.
Is Form 24Q (Form 138) mandatory?
Yes, for any quarter in which you deducted tax from salary. A business whose employees all earn below the taxable limit deducts no TDS on salary and so has nothing to report for that quarter, but it still has to check every quarter, because one revision or bonus can create a TDS liability.
Form 138 due dates for tax year 2026-27
| Quarter | Salary months | TDS deposit due | Form 138 due |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 | April – June 2026 | 7th of the following month | 31 July 2026 |
| Q2 | July – September 2026 | 7th of the following month | 31 October 2026 |
| Q3 | October – December 2026 | 7th of the following month | 31 January 2027 |
| Q4 | January – March 2027 | 7th of the following month; March TDS by 30 April 2027 | 31 May 2027 |
The due dates are from the Department's Form 138 FAQ, and the deposit dates are those for non-government employers. After the fourth-quarter statement is processed, the employer downloads and issues Form 130 (formerly Form 16) to each employee by 15 June 2027; our Form 16 and Form 130 guide explains it. When a due date is extended, the Department announces it by circular, so check the e-filing portal close to each deadline.
Format of Form 138: what goes into each part
The official Form 138 is published by the Income Tax Department; in practice you never fill it by hand, because the utility produces the file in the prescribed format. Its parts:
| Part | What it contains | Quarters |
|---|---|---|
| Deductor details | Employer's TAN, PAN, name, address, type of deductor and the person responsible | All |
| Challan details | Each TDS payment: amount of tax, interest and fee, date of deposit and challan identification | All |
| Annexure I | Employee-wise details: PAN, name, amount paid, tax deducted and deposited, dates, and reasons for any lower or no deduction | All |
| Annexure II | Each employee's full-year salary computation: gross salary, exemptions, deductions, taxable income, tax, rebate and relief | Q4 only |
| Annexure III | Pension and interest of specified senior citizens (banks only) | Q4 only |
Annexure II is the heavy one. It needs each employee's final salary figures and the claims accepted from their declaration in Form 124, and it is what pre-fills the employee's tax return and drives Form 130. Getting it right is easiest if the payroll's year-end tax computation is final before the fourth quarter is prepared; the TDS on salary calculator helps check individual cases.
How to file Form 138: step by step
The official route, as set out in the e-filing portal's Form 138 user manual:
- Check prerequisites: a valid TAN registered on the e-filing portal, and a digital signature certificate registered on the portal if you will verify with one.
- Collect the data: employee PANs, salary paid and TDS for each month of the quarter, and the challan details of every deposit. Match challan amounts with your bank and the payroll before you start.
- Download the utility: from the Protean (NSDL) TIN website, under Downloads, e-TDS/TCS, Quarterly return, download the latest Return Preparation Utility (RPU) for tax year 2026-27 onwards (corrections to Form 24Q for 2025-26 and earlier use Protean's older utility for those years).
- Prepare the statement: select Form 138, enter or import deductor, challan and employee details, and, in the fourth quarter, Annexure II.
- Validate: run the file through the File Validation Utility (FVU). Fix every error it reports; when clean, it produces a .fvu file. Put it in a .zip file.
- Upload: log in to the e-filing portal with your TAN, go to e-File, Income Tax Forms, File Income Tax Forms, choose "Deduction and Collection at source (Form TDS/TCS)" under the forms for the Income Tax Act, 2025, select Form 138, the tax year, quarter and Regular, and upload the .zip.
- E-verify: verify by the method offered, such as a digital signature. An acknowledgement receipt number (ARN) confirms submission.
- Track processing: check acceptance under View Filed Forms, then watch for defaults on the TRACES portal once CPC-TDS processes the statement.
The FVU version must match the version shown on the portal's upload screen, and Protean updates the utilities from time to time, so download fresh copies each quarter. Many payroll software packages generate the RPU-compatible file directly.
How to fill Form 138: the fields that cause most errors
- Section: salary TDS is reported under section 392 of the 2025 Act, not section 192.
- Dates: the date of payment or credit of salary, the date tax was deducted, and the date it was deposited are separate fields; they drive the interest checks, so enter them as they happened.
- Challan identification: each deposit's BSR code, date and challan serial number must match what the bank and the e-filing portal show. Download the challan status file from the e-filing portal and import it rather than typing it.
- Amount paid: report the salary paid or credited in the quarter for every employee from whom tax was deducted, and the amount of tax deducted and deposited for each.
- Reasons for lower or no deduction: where tax was not deducted or deducted at a lower rate, choose the reason code, for example a lower-deduction certificate.
Worked example: a third-quarter statement
An employer has one employee, C, from whom ₹2,500 of TDS is deducted every month (the same employee as in our payroll accounting example). For October to December 2026:
| Salary month | Salary paid | TDS deducted | Deposited by | Challan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | 60,000 | 2,500 | 7 November 2026 | Challan 1 |
| November 2026 | 60,000 | 2,500 | 7 December 2026 | Challan 2 |
| December 2026 | 60,000 | 2,500 | 7 January 2027 | Challan 3 |
| Quarter | 1,80,000 | 7,500 |
The Q3 Form 138 lists the three challans and maps each to C's monthly deduction in Annexure I, and must be filed by 31 January 2027. If it is filed on 10 February 2027, the fee is 10 days × ₹200 = ₹2,000, which is below the cap of ₹7,500 of tax deductible for the quarter. If the December TDS was deposited after 7 January, interest at 1.5% a month or part of a month would also be due, counted from the date the tax was deducted, not from the due date; on ₹2,500 that is about ₹38 for each month or part month.
Fourth-quarter checklist
- Close the year's payroll, including March salary, arrears and bonus.
- Finalise each employee's tax computation with their accepted Form 124 claims and proofs, and any previous-employer income they declared.
- Complete Annexure II for every employee paid salary during the year, not just those with TDS in the last quarter.
- Deposit March TDS by 30 April and file by 31 May.
- After processing, download Form 130 from TRACES and issue it by 15 June.
As of November 2026, Protean has published the Form 138 file format for the first three quarters (version 1.2); the fourth-quarter format, which includes Annexure II, is due to be released later, so check the utility version before preparing Q4.
After filing: processing, defaults and corrections
CPC-TDS processes each statement and reports defaults on the TRACES portal: short deduction, late deposit, interest not paid, challan mismatches or invalid PANs. The tax credited to each employee appears in their annual tax statement on the e-filing portal, which is why wrong PANs cause complaints at return time.
A filed statement cannot be edited. Once the original has been processed, you file a correction statement to fix PANs, amounts or challan mapping, within two years from the end of the tax year in which the original was due; the Department's own example is that the third-quarter statement for 2026-27 can be corrected up to 31 March 2029.
Late fee, interest and penalty
| Default | Consequence (Income-tax Act, 2025) | Earlier section |
|---|---|---|
| Form 138 filed late | Fee of ₹200 for every day of delay, not more than the TDS in the statement, payable before filing (section 427) | 234E |
| Form 138 not filed, or filed with incorrect information | Penalty of ₹10,000 to ₹1,00,000 (section 461); none if the tax, fee and interest are paid and the statement is filed within one month of the due date. The Department's FAQ also refers to section 465(2). | 271H |
| TDS not deducted | Interest of 1% a month or part of a month, from the date tax was deductible until it is deducted (section 398) | 201(1A) |
| TDS deducted but deposited late | Interest of 1.5% a month or part of a month, from the date of deduction until it is deposited (section 398) | 201(1A) |
The Department has confirmed that the interest rates did not change with the new Act (tax payments FAQ), and the ₹200-a-day fee under section 427 mirrors old section 234E. Example: a second-quarter statement with ₹80,000 of TDS filed 20 days late attracts a fee of ₹4,000; filed 500 days late (₹1,00,000 at ₹200 a day), the fee is capped at ₹80,000. The law requires the fee to be paid before the statement is filed; pay any interest due with it, or CPC-TDS will raise a demand when it processes the statement.
Common Form 138 mistakes
- Wrong form or tax year: filing April 2026 onwards in Form 24Q, or tagging challans to "AY" instead of tax year 2026-27.
- Old section codes: quoting section 192 instead of section 392 for salary.
- PAN errors: missing or invalid employee PANs, so the tax does not reach the employee's account.
- Challan mismatches: a challan amount that does not match the employee-wise total mapped to it.
- Annexure II gaps: exemptions or deductions that do not match the employee's Form 124 claims and proofs.
- Exits and joiners: employees who left mid-quarter missing from Annexure I, or previous-employer income not reflected in the fourth quarter.
Form 138 sits in the payroll calendar alongside PF, ESI and professional tax; our payroll compliance guide shows the full routine, and the payroll accounting guide covers the TDS payable account that each deposit clears.
Related reading: TDS on salary · TDS rate chart 2026-27 · Income tax calculator · Form 16 and Form 130
Get salary TDS and every quarterly return right. The Practical Payroll Management e-Book covers TDS on salary, declarations, quarterly statements and year-end certificates with worked examples.
Frequently asked questions
Is it mandatory to file Form 24Q (now Form 138)?
Yes, for every quarter in which you deducted tax from any employee's salary. The Income Tax Department's Form 138 FAQ says the form must be filed for each quarter in which tax was deducted under section 392. Filing late attracts a fee of ₹200 a day, and not filing at all can lead to a penalty.
Which form replaces Form 24Q?
Form No. 138 under the Income-tax Rules, 2026, for salary paid from 1 April 2026 (tax year 2026-27). Form 24Q is still used for periods up to 31 March 2026, such as the fourth-quarter statement for 2025-26 or a correction of an older statement.
What is the due date of Form 24Q and 26Q?
Both salary (Form 138, formerly 24Q) and non-salary (Form 140, formerly 26Q) quarterly statements are due on 31 July, 31 October and 31 January for the first three quarters, and 31 May after the year ends for the fourth quarter.
What is Form 138 used for?
Employers use it to report, every quarter, the tax deducted from employees' salaries and deposited with the government. The data credits each employee's PAN with the tax deducted and, after the fourth quarter, is used to generate the annual salary certificate in Form 130 (formerly Form 16).
How do I download the Form 24Q or Form 138 format?
The official form is on the Income Tax Department website, but you do not fill it by hand. You prepare the statement in the Return Preparation Utility (RPU) downloaded from the Protean (NSDL) TIN website, validate it with the File Validation Utility (FVU), and upload the result on the e-filing portal.
Can I revise Form 138 after filing?
You cannot edit a statement once submitted, but you can file a correction statement after the original has been processed by CPC-TDS, within two years from the end of the tax year in which the statement was due. For example, the third-quarter statement for tax year 2026-27 can be corrected up to 31 March 2029.
Position as of 14 November 2026. Based on the Income-tax Act, 2025, the Income-tax Rules, 2026, the Income Tax Department's Form 138 FAQ and e-filing user manual, and Protean's TDS utilities. Due dates can be extended by CBDT circular. General information, not legal or tax advice.