Form 140 is the quarterly statement for resident non-salary tax deducted at source under the new framework, effective for tax year 2026–27 filings; the old-Act equivalent was Form 26Q. The filing reports what the company deducted, deposited and attributes to each deductee during the quarter.
New form, same discipline
The form number changed; the filing discipline did not. Every quarter still demands the same three-way match — ledger deductions, challan deposits and deductee-wise attribution — before the statement goes up. Teams hunting for "what is new in Form 140" while skipping the reconciliation repeat the classic error: a perfectly formatted statement carrying unreconciled figures.
Two transition rules govern this page. First, old-period quarters keep the old form and the old Act — never relabel a historical 26Q filing as Form 140. Second, new-period quarters use Form 140 with the due dates in rule 219(4) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026: 31 July, 31 October and 31 January for the quarters ending 30 June, 30 September and 31 December, and 31 May after the tax year for the quarter ending 31 March. Q2 of tax year 2026–27 is therefore due 31 October 2026.
Check your position first
Enter these inputs per quarter before touching the utility. Each quarter is a separate filing with its own acknowledgement.
Note: the table above applies section 397(3)(b) of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Do it in order
- Fix the period: confirm the quarter belongs to the new framework (Form 140) rather than a historical quarter (old form, old Act).
- Reconcile ledgers: total the quarter's TDS per the books and tie every rupee to a deduction decision from the classification working.
- Reconcile challans: match deposits CIN-by-CIN to the ledger total — unmatched challans and unchallaned deductions are both holding items, not filing items.
- Validate deductees: PAN correctness, rate applied, certificate references and amounts per deductee, since the statement attributes tax to persons, not just totals.
- File and resolve errors: upload, clear validation errors with evidence (not placeholders), and preserve the acknowledgement.
Validate before uploading
Run the statement through the validation utility on a trial basis before the real upload: PAN format failures, challan mismatches and duplicate rows all surface at validation, where they cost minutes, rather than after filing, where they cost correction statements. Keep a validation log per quarter — error, cause, evidence used to clear it — alongside the acknowledgement, since the same errors recur across quarters until their root causes (usually master-data gaps) are fixed.
- Diarise corrections: where a filed quarter needs revision, route it through the correction-statement mechanism with the original acknowledgement referenced.
Worked example: ₹80,000 deductions versus ₹75,000 challans
Take Q2 of tax year 2026–27. The ledger shows ₹80,000 of resident non-salary TDS deducted; mapped challans total ₹75,000. The ₹5,000 gap must be resolved before filing — never filed around.
Note: the resolution rule above follows the statement-matching discipline of section 397(3)(b).
The ₹5,000 is one of three things: a deposit made but not mapped (find the CIN), a deduction booked but not deposited (deposit it now, with interest for the delay), or a booking error (correct the ledger with evidence). Each resolution has a different next step; all three start from the same gap table. Filing the ₹80,000 against ₹75,000 of challans books a mismatch the system will raise later with interest running meanwhile.
PAN errors deserve their own pass
Invalid and missing PANs do two kinds of damage: wrong rates at deduction time and failed attribution at statement time. Scrub the deductee master before every quarter — solicit missing PANs in writing, apply the correct consequence where PAN stays missing, and never file known-bad PANs hoping the utility will forgive them.
Close the quarter file
A complete quarter file contains seven items: the ledger extract, the challan set with CINs, the deductee master snapshot used, the validation log, the filed statement copy, the acknowledgement, and the gap-resolution notes. Assemble all seven before moving to the next quarter — a file missing any of them is an audit finding waiting for its auditor.
If you miss it
Late statements draw the late-statement fee under section 427 — ₹200 for every day the failure continues, not exceeding the tax deductible or collectible, and payable before the statement is delivered. Non-deduction or non-payment of tax carries simple interest under section 398(3) (1% per month or part of a month until deduction, then 1.5% until payment). Section 461 separately lets the Assessing Officer impose a penalty of ₹10,000 to ₹1,00,000 for late delivery or incorrect information in the statement. Three defaults, three provisions, one quarter file that should have prevented all three.
FAQ
Is Form 140 just renamed 26Q?
Form 140 is the form prescribed for new-framework quarters by rule 219 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026; the old-Act equivalent was Form 26Q. It is not a find-and-replace label, and historical quarters keep the old form.
What is the Form 140 due date?
Under rule 219(4) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026: 31 July for the quarter ending 30 June, 31 October for 30 September, 31 January for 31 December, and 31 May after the tax year for 31 March. The Q2 statement for tax year 2026–27 is due 31 October 2026.
Challans don't match the ledger. File anyway?
No. Resolve the gap first: map missing CINs, deposit shortfalls with interest, or correct booking errors with evidence. An unmatched filing converts a fixable gap into a demand.
How are corrections filed?
Through the correction-statement mechanism under section 397(3)(f), referencing the original acknowledgement — never by filing a second original for the same quarter.
A filed statement has a wrong PAN. What now?
File a correction statement attributing the tax to the correct PAN — the deductee is denied credit in the meantime, so speed matters to the vendor relationship as well as to compliance. Then fix the master data that produced the error, since a corrected statement without a master-data fix guarantees a repeat next quarter.
Do nil quarters need filing?
The Income-tax Act, 2025, section 397(3)(b), frames the statement duty around tax deducted and paid to the credit of the Central Government. One case is explicit: where the company received Form No. 121 declarations under section 393(6) in the quarter, Rule 211(4) of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 requires the quarterly statement under Rule 219, carrying those declarations, regardless of the fact that no tax was deducted in that quarter. For any other nil quarter, record the nil position and its reason in the quarterly working kept with the books of account under the Companies Act, 2013, Section 128; a documented nil position beats an unexplained gap in the filing history.
Sources
- Income-tax Rules, 2026, Form 140 and the rule 219(4) due-date table; Rule 211(4) (statement where Form No. 121 declarations are received, even with no deduction)
- Income-tax Act, 2025 statement, fee and correction provisions (sections 397 and 427)
- The company's quarterly workings, challans with CINs, deductee master and acknowledgements
What to send for a review
Send your quarter and tax year, the ledger TDS with challan mapping, the deductee master with PAN flags, and prior quarters' acknowledgements. The review returns your quarter-specific resident TDS reconciliation with the gap resolutions.
Next steps on TDS compliance
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