TDS rate chart for FY 2026-27: salary, rent, fees and more

Why a TDS chart still matters

Tax deducted at source is the government's way of collecting income tax as money changes hands. A payer holds back a slice of certain payments, deposits it against the payee's PAN, and the payee claims it as credit when they file. Most salaried people meet it only on their payslip. Anyone who also earns fees, rent, commission or dividends, or who pays them, meets it in several places at once, each with its own rate and its own threshold.

The Income-tax Act 2025, in force from 1 April 2026, renumbered the TDS provisions. The nil-tax declaration, for instance, is now Form 121 under section 393(6), as our post on TDS on FD interest explains. Payers, Form 16s and this chart still use the familiar 194-series labels, because that is what people recognise. The rates and thresholds carried over.

The chart

These are the values the site's TDS calculator applies for FY 2026-27, plus the salary, dividend and property rows from our tax posts. Thresholds have different bases: some are per payment, some per year, one is per month.

Without a PAN, every rate in the table becomes the higher of the section rate and 20%.

Worked examples

Each of these runs through the same rules as the calculator.

Once a threshold is crossed, the deduction is on the full amount, not only the part above the line. That is why the ₹60,000 fee loses ₹6,000 and the ₹45,000 fee loses nothing.

Salary is the odd one out

Salary has no flat rate. Your employer estimates your tax for the year under the regime you declare, and deducts it in roughly equal monthly slices. On a ₹20 lakh CTC with the default structure of the CTC breakdown calculator, the new-regime tax for FY 2026-27 is ₹1,52,235, so TDS is about ₹12,686 a month. If gross salary stays within ₹12.75 lakh, the standard deduction and the section 87A rebate bring the tax to nil and nothing is deducted. The salary calculator shows the monthly figure for your own pay.

Three details that trip people up

Rent is a monthly test. Budget 2025 replaced the old annual limit for section 194I with ₹50,000 for a month or part of a month. A single ₹5 lakh payment crosses it even though an annual reading would not. Rent paid by an individual tenant who is not under tax audit falls under section 194-IB instead, at the same ₹50,000-a-month threshold. Whether rent of that size is worth paying at all is a question for the rent-versus-buy guide.

Dividends are counted per payer. ₹8,000 of dividends from each of three companies attracts no TDS anywhere, though all ₹24,000 is taxable at your slab rate. The same goes for fund houses: choosing the growth option over IDCW avoids the payout, and the TDS, altogether. Our post on tax on dividends runs the comparison.

On property, the buyer deducts. The 1% is the buyer's duty, deposited before the sale completes; the seller claims it against the capital gains tax. Our guide to capital gains on stocks and property covers the seller's side, and the property capital gains calculator prices it.

TDS is not the tax

The deduction is a prepayment. A consultant who loses 10% under section 194J but sits in the 30% slab owes the rest when filing, and if what is still due after TDS comes to ₹10,000 or more, it has to be paid as advance tax in instalments. The advance tax calculator and the guide to advance tax and TDS show the dates and the interest for missing them. Freelancers on presumptive taxation can check their own numbers in the section 44ADA calculator.

The other direction matters too. If your tax is lower than the TDS, the difference comes back as a refund, but only if the deductor has deposited it against your PAN. Match every entry against your Form 26AS and AIS before filing; our explainer on Form 26AS, AIS and TIS shows how. Deductors' filings are visible on the TRACES portal.

What this chart leaves out

It covers the payments most individuals and small businesses meet, not the full list: e-commerce, lottery winnings, insurance commission, purchases of goods, payments to non-residents and several other categories have their own rows. Some sections carry extra conditions, such as annual aggregates or exemptions for particular payees, that a one-line threshold cannot show. Verify the current rule on the Income Tax Department's site before you deduct or rely on a figure. This is not tax advice.