Form 143 to Govern Quarterly TCS Reporting Under Income-tax Act, 2025

What changes for TCS collectors

The tax administration has introduced Form 143 as the quarterly tax-collected-at-source statement under the Income-tax Act, 2025, recasting the reporting function currently performed through Form 27EQ. The change affects businesses, government bodies and other persons responsible for collecting tax at source on specified transactions.

The transition does not require collectors to replace Form 27EQ for FY 2025–26. That form will continue to be used for the current financial year, while Form 143 belongs to the compliance framework under the 2025 Act. This distinction will be important for tax teams configuring return utilities, mapping transaction data and deciding which form applies to a reporting period.

The Income Tax Department has also published a Form 143 User Manual, setting out the form’s purpose, filing prerequisites and electronic submission process. Although the numbering and presentation have changed, the essential compliance obligation remains a quarterly statement reporting tax collected from customers or other collectees.

Coverage of Form 143

According to the official manual, Form 143 is to be filed by collectors responsible for TCS on specified goods and transactions. The examples listed include scrap, tendu leaves, liquor, forest produce, parking lots, toll plazas, mining and quarrying, overseas remittances and foreign-tour packages.

The form is therefore relevant across a wide range of sectors. Its users may include traders in specified goods, operators holding contracts or licences for covered activities, authorised dealers handling remittances and sellers of overseas-tour programme packages. Applicability will continue to depend on the underlying statutory provision governing the relevant transaction, rather than merely on the form’s new number.

Collectors should accordingly avoid treating Form 143 as a new levy or a standalone charging provision. It is a reporting mechanism through which details of tax already required to be collected are furnished to the department. The operative question for each transaction remains whether TCS applies under the relevant provision and, if so, whether the collection, deposit and reporting have been completed correctly.

Quarterly reporting continues

Form 143 is a quarterly statement. The official manual says collectors must file it every quarter to report the tax collected on covered payments or transactions. It also identifies 31 May of the following financial year as the due date for the final quarterly statement.

The quarterly design means that businesses will need period-wise reconciliation rather than a single year-end exercise. The sales or transaction ledger, TCS liability, tax deposits, challan information and collectee-level particulars should be matched before the statement is generated. Any discrepancy can affect the credit ultimately reflected for the collectee and may require a correction statement.

For FY 2025–26, however, reporting will continue through Form 27EQ. Compliance teams should preserve the existing return calendar and form mapping for that year instead of prematurely moving current-year data to Form 143. The new form should be built into transition plans for reporting under the Income-tax Act, 2025.

Why accurate collectee data matters

The department’s manual emphasises that timely and accurate filing allows complete tax credit to pass to collectees and reduces collectee-related grievances. That makes master-data quality a central part of TCS compliance, not merely an administrative concern.

Incorrect identification particulars, transaction values or collection amounts may prevent the reported tax from matching the collectee’s records. Businesses should therefore validate collectee details at the point of onboarding or transaction processing, rather than waiting until the quarterly statement is prepared.

The manual also points to consequences under the Income-tax Act, 2025 for delayed or deficient compliance. It refers to a late-filing fee under section 427 and penal proceedings under sections 461 and 465(2)(g). Tax teams should separately monitor the obligation to collect and deposit tax, the obligation to furnish the statement, and the accuracy of information reported in it, as these are distinct compliance controls.

Requirements before filing

A collector must have a valid tax deduction and collection account number, or TAN, registered on the e-Filing portal. Filing also requires the updated Return Preparation Utility downloaded from the NSDL or Protean platform and a valid file generated through the File Validation Utility process.

Where the statement is uploaded using a digital signature certificate, the DSC must be registered on the e-Filing portal. These prerequisites mean that entities should verify portal access, authorised-user details and signature validity before the filing deadline. Leaving those checks until the return is ready can turn a correct statement into a delayed filing because of an expired certificate or inaccessible TAN account.

The manual directs users to the e-TDS/e-TCS quarterly-return area on the utility provider’s website and to select the regular or correction-return route as applicable. The latest version of the Return Preparation Utility should then be downloaded.

After entering and validating the required details in the utility, the collector must generate the FVU file and convert it into a ZIP file. The filer then logs into the Income Tax e-Filing portal using the TAN, proceeds through ‘e-File’, ‘Income Tax Forms’ and ‘File Income Tax Forms’, and selects the deduction-and-collection-at-source category under forms prescribed by the Income-tax Act, 2025.

Operational implications for businesses

The renumbering from Form 27EQ to Form 143 should be reflected across more than the tax return itself. References may need to be updated in standard operating procedures, maker-checker controls, compliance calendars, enterprise-resource-planning reports and instructions given to branches or shared-service centres.

Organisations should nevertheless keep the two form references distinct during the transition. Removing all references to Form 27EQ immediately could create errors for FY 2025–26, for which that form continues to apply. A period-based approach—retaining the existing process for the current financial year while preparing the Form 143 workflow for the new statutory framework—would reduce that risk.

Tax professionals should also confirm that return utilities used for Form 143 are current. The official instructions expressly call for the updated or latest RPU version. Using an older utility can create validation problems or omit fields required by the applicable schema.

The change is also an opportunity to review how TCS data moves from operational systems into the quarterly statement. Businesses with multiple locations or transaction streams should assign responsibility for classifying covered transactions, verifying rates and amounts, matching challans, checking collectee particulars and approving the final upload. The form may be simplified, but the reliability of the filing will continue to depend on the quality of the source data and review process.

Key takeaway

Form 143 will become the quarterly TCS statement under the Income-tax Act, 2025, while Form 27EQ continues for FY 2025–26. Collectors should preserve current-year filing arrangements, prepare their systems for the new form and strengthen quarterly reconciliation so that tax credit is accurately passed to collectees and avoidable late-filing or penalty exposure is reduced.