24Q, 26Q, 27Q, 27EQ — every TDS return explained

Arthora Guides · Updated August 2026 · 9 min read

If you deduct tax when you pay someone — salary, rent, a contractor's bill, a professional's fee — you owe the government a quarterly statement saying whose money you deducted and where you deposited it. There are four such statements, and businesses regularly file the wrong one. Here is which is which, when each is due, and what happens after you file.

Which return is yours?

A business with staff and vendors files both 24Q and 26Q every quarter. Pay a foreign vendor even once and 27Q joins the list for that quarter.

Due dates — the calendar that runs the TDS year

Separately, the deducted tax itself must be deposited by the 7th of the next month (30 April for March deductions). Depositing late costs interest; filing the return late costs ₹200 per day under Section 234E (capped at the TDS amount), and a long delay can add a penalty under 271H.

What goes inside a return

• Challan details — every deposit you made, with CIN, matched against what the bank reported.
• Deductee rows — each person you deducted from: PAN, amount paid, tax deducted, section, date.
• 24Q Q4 only — Annexure II: the full salary computation for every employee for the whole year (gross, exemptions, deductions, regime, tax). This is the data that becomes their Form 16 — get it wrong and every employee's ITR pre-fill is wrong.

The no-PAN rule (and the non-resident exception)

A deductee who does not give you a valid PAN suffers TDS at the higher of the section rate or 20% (Section 206AA) — the higher-of rule applies once, not twice. For non-residents in a 27Q there is a relief: Rule 37BC lets a foreign payee escape the 20% punishment for royalties, technical fees, interest and asset transfers if they give you their name, address, country tax-ID and a tax residency certificate. Treaty (DTAA) rates need those TRC papers on file too.

How filing actually works

1. Prepare the return in the prescribed electronic format (your software's job).
2. Run it through the department's File Validation Utility (FVU) — the gatekeeper that checks structure, PANs and challan matching.
3. Submit the FVU-passed file on the e-filing portal (or through a TIN-FC), with Form 27A as the signed summary.
4. Track processing on TRACES — short-payment or PAN-error defaults show up there, and so do the corrections you file for them.
5. Issue certificates: Form 16 to employees (by 15 June, after Q4), Form 16A to vendors each quarter — both downloaded from TRACES, not typed by hand.