Form 130 and Form 138: salary TDS under the Income-tax Act 2025

What changed on 1 April 2026

The Income-tax Act 2025 took effect from 1 April 2026. It uses “tax year” in place of the old previous year and assessment year, and renumbers sections and forms.

For salary TDS the substance is familiar: the employer estimates each employee’s tax for the year, deducts it monthly, deposits it and reports it quarterly.

The new form numbers

• Form 130 replaces Form 16 — the yearly certificate of tax deducted from salary that employers give each employee, by 15 June after the tax year.
• Form 138 replaces Form 24Q — the quarterly statement of TDS on salary, for payments from 1 April 2026. Corrections for earlier years still use Form 24Q.

Due dates

• Deposit TDS by the 7th of the following month; tax deducted in March by 30 April.
• Form 138 for each quarter: 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May.
• Form 130 to employees by 15 June.

Tax rates for 2026-27

Budget 2026 left the personal tax rates unchanged. The new regime remains the default, with a ₹75,000 standard deduction and a rebate that means no tax on taxable income up to ₹12 lakh. Employees can still choose the old regime.

How WeHR helps

WeHR projects each employee’s tax for the year under the regime they chose, deducts TDS evenly each month, shows challan details, and prepares Form 138 working sheets and the yearly computation for Form 130. You file on the income-tax portal with your own login.