India does not wait until July to collect income tax. It collects as you earn — through TDS if someone else pays you, and through advance tax if the TDS falls short. Salaried people mostly never notice, because payroll does it for them. The moment you add freelance income, large capital gains, rent or interest, the machinery becomes your problem, and it charges interest when ignored.
TDS: collection at the source
Tax Deducted at Source makes the payer the collector: your employer on salary, your bank on FD interest, your client on professional fees, even your tenant on high rents. Each deduction lands against your PAN in Form 26AS/AIS, and at filing it is simply credit already paid. The TDS calculator shows the common sections and rates.
Two habits prevent most TDS grief: reconcile 26AS against your own records before filing, and remember that TDS is not the final tax — a 10% deduction on fees means nothing if your slab rate is 30%; the difference is yours to pay.
Advance tax: the four-date calendar
If your remaining tax for the year — total tax minus TDS and credits — comes to ₹10,000 or more, you owe it in instalments during the year itself:
- 15 June — 15% of the year's tax paid cumulatively
- 15 September — 45%
- 15 December — 75%
- 15 March — 100%
Miss an instalment and interest under s.425 (the old §234C) runs at 1% a month on the shortfall for that quarter. There is a small mercy in the first two dates: paying at least 12% by June (or 36% by September) avoids interest entirely. But the relief is a cliff, not a taper — pay 11% and interest is computed against the full 15%, not against the 12% trigger you just missed.
Fall below 90% of the year's tax by 31 March and a second clock starts: s.424 (the old §234B) charges 1% a month from 1 April until you settle. The advance tax calculator runs the full schedule, including both interest heads and the rounding rules.
The practical difficulty is estimation: June's instalment prices a year you have barely started. The working method is to re-estimate each quarter and true up — the schedule is cumulative, so a strong second half simply raises the December and March payments.
The presumptive shortcut
A freelancer or small business on the presumptive scheme (s.58 of the new Act, the old §44AD/44ADA) pays the entire year in one instalment by 15 March — capping s.425 exposure at one month, and turning four estimation problems into one. It is a genuinely underrated part of the scheme's appeal, covered in freelancing and presumptive tax.
⚠️ The Income-tax Act, 2025 renumbered these sections (234B→424, 234C→425, 44ADA→58); rates, dates and thresholds are statutory values the Budget can revise. Verify current figures before relying on them — this is arithmetic, not tax advice, and WealthTicker is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser.
Key takeaway
TDS is a running prepayment, not the final bill, and advance tax fills whatever gap remains once it crosses ₹10,000 for the year. Know the four dates — 15/45/75/100 by June, September, December and March — respect the cliff in the early triggers, and stay above 90% by year end or a second interest clock starts in April. If you qualify for presumptive taxation, the whole calendar collapses to a single March payment.
More in Module 11 — Money beyond funds: salary, tax, loans and property
Decoding your CTC: why in-hand is so much less
Cost to company is what employing you costs, not what you are paid. The four layers inside a CTC, where EPF and gratuity go, and what basic salary decides.
Old vs new tax regime: the choice that decides everything else
The new regime is the default and usually the winner — but not always. Where the break-even sits, and why the regime decides if ELSS, HRA and 80D matter.
ESOPs, RSUs and ESPPs: taxed twice, at two different prices
Slab tax on the discount when shares become yours, capital gains from that day's FMV when you sell. Why tax can fall due on paper value, and the basis error.
Freelancing full-time: the 50% deal most professionals miss
Presumptive taxation lets a qualifying professional declare half of gross receipts as profit — no books, no audit. How it works, and how it compares to salary.
How an EMI actually works (and the flat-rate trick)
Interest on the outstanding balance first, principal with the rest — so early years repay very little. Why tenure sets total interest, and the flat-rate trap.
A surplus and a loan: prepay, refinance or invest?
Prepayment is a guaranteed, tax-free return equal to your loan rate — cut the tenure, not the EMI. When a balance transfer or investing the surplus beats it.
Rent vs buy: the honest math
Terminal net worth on two fully-specified paths, with the renter investing every rupee the buyer sinks. The two assumptions and the tax change that decide it.
The small savings family: PPF, SSY, NSC, KVP, SCSS and kin
One sovereign family, priced quarterly. Which schemes compound, which pay income, which are tax-exempt — and why after-tax yield, not the poster rate, matters.
Insurance is not an investment: term plans and the LIC question
Bundled policies do both jobs badly. Sizing a term cover from needs, not folklore, and judging an endowment you own on forward numbers, not on premiums paid.
What trading actually costs: beyond zero brokerage
STT, exchange charges, GST, stamp duty and DP fees stack on every trade and no broker can waive them. The break-even move, and what leverage really multiplies.
Running a small business by the numbers
Break-even and margin of safety, margin versus markup, the cash conversion cycle, DSCR and GST as an input-credit chain — five checks that catch trouble early.
Section 80C: the whole ₹1.5 lakh menu, not just ELSS
A shared ceiling, not a product — and EPF, home-loan principal and tuition fees may already fill it. Count the headroom before you buy anything to fill it with.
Section 80D: two buckets, and the cash rule that voids most claims
₹25,000 for your family and another ₹25,000 for your parents, each rising to ₹50,000 at 60 — with the check-up allowance inside those limits.
HRA exemption: the least of three numbers, and which one binds
Actual HRA, rent minus 10% of basic, or 50/40% of basic — all keyed to basic salary rather than CTC, and all available only under the old regime.
Property capital gains: what actually changed when indexation went
Bought before 23 July 2024, a resident pays the lower of 12.5% flat and 20% indexed — but that relief caps the tax payable, not the gain itself.
Home loan eligibility: what a bank will lend is not what you can afford
FOIR caps total EMIs against income and subtracts existing loans in full; LTV caps the loan against the property. Neither asks what you can afford.
Education loans and Section 80E: the deduction with no ceiling
Uncapped on interest, but only for eight years from the year repayment starts — so the window, not the amount, is the constraint that should set your tenure.
From the blog
Salary or freelancing on ₹25 lakh: the take-home compared
10 Oct 2026
On ₹25 lakh, salary tax is ₹3,19,800 and presumptive freelance tax ₹52,000. After costs, PF and gratuity, freelancing breaks even near ₹26.7 lakh of billing.
TDS rate chart for FY 2026-27: salary, rent, fees and more
10 Oct 2026
TDS rates and thresholds for FY 2026-27 in one table: 10% on rent above ₹50,000 a month, 1% on contractors and property, 10% on dividends above ₹10,000.
Advance tax on capital gains: do you owe it, and when?
02 Oct 2026
Sold shares or funds at a profit? If the year's tax is ₹10,000 or more, advance tax applies. The four dates, the capital-gains relief and an example.