Taxeon

Every person who is liable to deduct tax under the income tax act has to file a statement in the prescribed form, in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time(Sec 200). Every person who is liable to collect tax under the income tax act has to file a statement in the prescribed form, in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time(Sec206C). A person is liable to pay late filing fee if he failed to file the tds or tcs return within the prescribed period.

Type	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
TDS	31st July	31st October	31st January	31st May
TCS	15th July	15th October	15th January	15th May

The late filing fee as per Sec 234E is Rs 200 per day of default.

• For eg: Mr. Saalim filed the TDS return of Q1 on 8th August 2024. Since the last date of filing of Q1 return is 31st July, the total days of default is 8 days. Hence the late filing fee payable is Rs 1600 ( 8 days x Rs 200 )

However the amount of late filing fee shall not exceed the total amount of tax deducted or collected for the period to which the statement is filed.

• For eg: Mr. Saalim filed the TDS return of Q1 on 8th August, 2024 & the total amount of tax deducted is Rs 1000/-. The total days of default is 8 days because the last date of filing Q1 TDS return is 31st July. Normally the late filing fee is Rs 1600, but in this case, the total tax deducted is Rs 1000 only, hence the total late filing fee is limited to Rs 1000/-.

Such late filing fee should be paid before filing the TDS or TCS statement.

• In the above example, Mr. Saalim should make the payment of late filing fee on 8th August and then file the return.

This late filing fee is applicable to all statements filed on or after 1st July, 2012. From the above it is clear that the late filing fee, being statutory in nature, can not be waived off.