New TDS Forms for Tax Year 2026-27: Form 138 and Form 140 Replace 24Q and 26Q

Current development

India’s TDS reporting system has moved to the new form numbering introduced under the Income-tax Act, 2025 and the Income-tax Rules, 2026. For Tax Year 2026-27, the Income Tax Department has made the new quarterly forms live on the e-Filing portal, including Form 138 for salary-related TDS statements and Form 140 for TDS on non-salary payments to residents.

The change is more than a cosmetic renumbering exercise. Deductors, payroll teams, finance departments and tax professionals now need to ensure that the correct form under the new Act is selected for transactions from 1 April 2026 onwards, while older periods continue to be handled under the Income-tax Act, 1961 framework.

Form 138 replaces Form 24Q

The Income Tax Department’s official user manual describes Form 138 as the form earlier known as Form 24Q. It is the quarterly statement used by employers and specified banks for reporting TDS on salary, pension and specified senior-citizen interest income covered by the new law.

The prescribed quarterly filing cycle continues on familiar dates: 31 July for April-June, 31 October for July-September, 31 January for October-December and 31 May for January-March.

Form 140 replaces Form 26Q

Form 140 is the new quarterly statement corresponding to the earlier Form 26Q. It applies to TDS on non-salary payments made to residents, including categories such as professional fees, commission, brokerage, rent and other payments where tax is required to be deducted.

The official Form 140 user manual states the same quarterly due-date pattern: 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May for the respective quarters.

Other quarterly forms are also live

The e-Filing portal currently states that quarterly Forms 121, 138, 140, 143, 144, 147 and 148 are live under the Income-tax Rules, 2026. This is important because the transition affects salary TDS, non-salary TDS, TCS, payments to non-residents and other recurring compliance streams.

The portal also states that filing of TDS/TCS correction statements pertaining to Tax Year 2026-27 will be enabled shortly. Deductors who identify an error in a statement for the new tax year should therefore check the latest portal availability before assuming that the familiar correction workflow is already active for every new form.

Old periods and new periods must not be mixed

The Income Tax Department has clarified that the Income-tax Act, 1961 stands repealed from 1 April 2026, subject to the transition provisions in the Income-tax Act, 2025. The portal separately continues to support forms and payments relating to periods governed by the old law.

For practical compliance, the key dividing line is the period to which the TDS transaction relates. Teams should avoid selecting a new-law form merely because the filing is being performed after 1 April 2026 if the underlying reporting period belongs to the old regime.

What finance and tax teams should update

- Revise compliance calendars: update references from Form 24Q and Form 26Q to Form 138 and Form 140 for Tax Year 2026-27 onwards.

- Update SOPs and checklists: internal tax manuals, maker-checker templates and reconciliations should use the new form numbers.

- Check software mapping: payroll, ERP and TDS utilities should map transactions to the correct new-law forms and sections.

- Separate old-law corrections: corrections for periods governed by the Income-tax Act, 1961 should continue through the applicable old-form workflow.

- Watch correction-statement enablement: the Income Tax Department currently says correction statements for Tax Year 2026-27 will be enabled shortly.

Key takeaway

For Tax Year 2026-27, Form 138 is the new counterpart of Form 24Q and Form 140 is the new counterpart of Form 26Q. The quarterly forms are live on the e-Filing portal, but new-year correction-statement functionality is still being rolled out. Deductors should update compliance systems now and carefully distinguish old-law periods from transactions governed by the Income-tax Act, 2025.