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Income-tax Act 20259 September 20269 min read

TDS Under the 2025 Act: The 393 and 394 Tables, Worked Through

A conversion table tells you the address. This one works through the arithmetic — including the director's fee with a nil threshold and the TCS row that no longer exists.

In short
  • A 2025 Act TDS citation has two halves, the section and the Table serial: s.393(1) [Table: Sl. No. 6(i)].
  • 393(1) covers resident payees, 393(2) non-residents, 393(3) winnings and specific payments including partner remuneration, and 394 collection at source.
  • A director's remuneration has a nil threshold, purchase of goods is deducted at 0.1% only on the sum exceeding ₹50,00,000, and 206C(1H) has no serial.
A calculator and a pen resting on a sheet of handwritten workingPhotograph: Aaron Lefler / Unsplash

The first part of this series set out where each section moved. This one works through the deduction Tables themselves, with the arithmetic, because a conversion table tells you the address and not what to do when you get there.

Everything below is quoted from the enacted text of the Income-tax Act, 2025 [30 of 2025], as amended by the Finance Act, 2026, in force from 1 April 2026 and applying from FY 2026-27.

How to read a Table serial

Section 393(1) is a Table with four columns: the nature of the payment (B), who must deduct (C), the rate (D), and the threshold. A citation therefore has two halves — the section, and the serial within it.

s.393(1) [Table: Sl. No. 6(i)] is one obligation. Not "section 393" on its own, which names a whole chapter's worth of them.

The Tables are split by who is being paid:

  • 393(1) — resident payees, the everyday deductions.
  • 393(2) — non-resident payees.
  • 393(3) — winnings, and a short list of specific payments including partner remuneration.
  • 394 — collection at source.

Worked examples

Contracts — s.393(1) Sl. 6(i)

Rate: 1% if the contractor is an individual or HUF, 2% otherwise. Threshold: ₹30,000 for any single sum, ₹1,00,000 in the aggregate.

A company engages a proprietor for fabrication work. Four bills in the year: ₹22,000, ₹18,000, ₹26,000 and ₹41,000.

The fourth bill breaches the single-sum limit of ₹30,000 on its own. But the aggregate crossed ₹1,00,000 at ₹1,07,000 with that same bill, so both limbs are engaged. Deduction is at 1%, because the contractor is an individual — and it applies to the whole ₹1,07,000, not only the bill that crossed.

The first three bills, looked at one at a time, each looked exempt. That is the trap in every aggregate threshold, and it is why this cannot be tested by sampling vouchers.

Professional fees — s.393(1) Sl. 6(iii)

Rate: 2% for technical (non-professional) services, cinematograph film royalty, or a call-centre payee; 10% in other cases. Threshold: ₹50,000, and nil for a director's remuneration.

A company pays ₹40,000 to a director as sitting fees, and ₹80,000 to a firm of chartered accountants.

The ₹80,000 is professional, so 10% — ₹8,000. The director's ₹40,000 is below ₹50,000 and is deducted anyway, because the threshold for a director's remuneration is nil. That carve-out sits inside the threshold column, and it is the single most-missed item in this serial.

Rent — s.393(1) Sl. 2(ii)

Rate: 2% for machinery, plant or equipment; 10% for land, building, furniture or fittings. Threshold: ₹50,000 for a month or part of a month.

Purchase of goods — s.393(1) Sl. 8(ii)

Rate: 0.1%. Threshold: ₹50,00,000, and tax is deducted on the sum exceeding it.

A buyer with preceding-year turnover of ₹14 crore purchases ₹68,00,000 of goods from one supplier.

The buyer qualifies, because "buyer" is defined in s.402(6) [Table: Sl. 1] as a person whose turnover in the immediately preceding tax year exceeded ten crore rupees. Deduction runs on ₹18,00,000 — the excess over the threshold, not the whole ₹68,00,000 — at 0.1%, so ₹1,800.

Two conditions, in two different sections. The rate and threshold are in s.393(1); who counts as a buyer is in s.402(6). Reading only the first gets you a deduction the client did not have to make.

Partner payments — s.393(3) Sl. 7

Rate: 10%. Threshold: ₹20,000.

An LLP credits a partner ₹3,00,000 of remuneration and ₹90,000 of interest on capital.

The aggregate is ₹3,90,000, well past ₹20,000, and both heads are inside the serial. Deduction at 10%. Note that this obligation lives in the 393(3) Table, not 393(1) — it sits alongside winnings rather than with the trading deductions, which is exactly where nobody looks for it.

Interest from a bank — s.393(1) Sl. 5(ii)

Threshold: ₹1,00,000 for a senior citizen; ₹50,000 for any other person. Rate: rates in force.

The split by payee age is inside the threshold column of the serial. Where interest is paid by someone other than a bank, co-operative society or post office, it is a different serial — Sl. 5(iii) — with a threshold of ₹10,000.

Same section, same Table, three different answers depending on who paid and who was paid.

Collection at source, and the row that is not there

Section 394 carries the old 206C. Sale of alcoholic liquor, tendu leaves, timber and forest produce, scrap, and coal, lignite or iron ore all collect at 2%. A motor vehicle above ₹10,00,000 collects at 1%. A remittance under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme above ₹10,00,000 collects at 2% for education or medical treatment and 20% for other purposes.

What is absent is 206C(1H), TCS on the sale of goods. There is no serial for it.

That is not an oversight to work around. The same commercial transaction is dealt with on the other side — as a deduction by the buyer under s.393(1) Sl. 8(ii). A seller who has been collecting under 206C(1H) stops, rather than converting to a new number.

One honest gap

Section 194LD has no clean successor. No serial in s.393(2) reproduces its conditions — interest on rupee-denominated bonds or Government securities payable to a Foreign Institutional Investor or Qualified Foreign Investor.

Where that provision is live for a client, the right course is to cite s.393(2) and have the position confirmed against the section, not to map it onto the nearest-looking serial. A mapping that is probably right is worse than a stated uncertainty, because nobody re-examines it.

How Audcrix runs it

  • The tax year selects the Act. FY 2026-27 onward computes under the 2025 provisions; earlier years continue to compute exactly as they did.
  • Every determination carries its serial, so a working paper cites s.393(1) [Table: Sl. No. 6(iii)] rather than a bare section number.
  • The Tables are committed as verified data, each row carrying the page and the passage of the enacted text it was read from.
  • Unmapped provisions are flagged as unmapped. 194LD returns a stated uncertainty, not a guess.

Part two of a series working through the 1961 and 2025 provisions side by side. Part one is the section conversion table.

Audcrix is audit and compliance intelligence for Indian CA firms. See how it works.

Questions this answers

What is section 393 of the Income-tax Act, 2025?

It carries the deduction obligations that had separate sections under the 1961 Act. Section 393(1) covers resident payees, 393(2) non-resident payees and 393(3) winnings and specific payments such as partner remuneration, each obligation set out as a serial number in a Table.

What is section 394 of the Income-tax Act, 2025?

Collection at source, the old 206C. Sale of alcoholic liquor, tendu leaves, timber and forest produce, scrap, and coal, lignite or iron ore collect at 2%, and a motor vehicle above ₹10,00,000 collects at 1%.

What is the TDS threshold for a director's remuneration under s.393(1) Sl. 6(iii)?

Nil. Professional fees carry a ₹50,000 threshold at 10% (2% for technical services), but the threshold for a director's remuneration is nil, so even ₹40,000 of sitting fees is deducted.

How is TDS on purchase of goods computed under the 2025 Act?

At 0.1% on the sum exceeding ₹50,00,000, and only by a buyer whose turnover in the preceding tax year exceeded ten crore rupees under s.402(6). A ₹68,00,000 purchase is deducted on ₹18,00,000, which is ₹1,800.

Is there TCS on the sale of goods under the 2025 Act?

No. Section 206C(1H) has no serial in section 394; the same transaction is dealt with as a deduction by the buyer under s.393(1) Sl. 8(ii).

Look up any section

The Income-tax Act 2025 section finder lists every 1961 TDS and TCS section with its 2025 section and Table serial, the rate and threshold as enacted, and the page of the Act, with a TDS rate chart and a TCS rate chart.

Where Audcrix runs this

  • TDS IntelligenceDeductee-wise TDS keyed to PAN — the real payee from each voucher, the right section, 194Q and 194T gates, month-wise deposits, and the 2025 Act's Table serials.