How to File Form 26QC Online: TDS on Rent Under Section 194-IB

To file Form 26QC online, log in to the Income Tax e-filing portal at incometax.gov.in, go to E-File and then E-Pay Tax, choose Form 26QC (TDS on Rent of Property), fill in the tenant, landlord, property, and rent details, pay 2% of the rent as TDS, and save the acknowledgment number the portal issues.1Income Tax Department. TDS on Rent by Certain Individual or HUF The form is the combined challan-cum-statement that individual tenants and HUFs use to report and pay TDS on rent under Section 194-IB, and you do not need a TAN — your PAN is enough.

The obligation applies when monthly rent to a landlord exceeds ₹50,000 for any land, building, or both, whether residential or commercial.2Indian Kanoon. Section 194IB in The Income Tax Act, 1961 Tenants whose business turnover crossed ₹1 crore or professional receipts crossed ₹50 lakh in the preceding year deduct under Section 194-I instead, not this form.

What to Have Ready Before You Open the Portal

The portal session times out, and if a field is missing you start again. Pull everything together first:

  • Your PAN and your landlord’s PAN, checked digit by digit against the cards. A wrong PAN can trigger the higher no-PAN deduction rate or bounce the filing.
  • Your mailing address, the landlord’s mailing address, and the full property address with locality, city, state, and PIN.
  • Tenancy start and end dates, or the relevant financial year period.
  • Total rent paid or payable for the whole tenancy period, plus the rent for the last month, since TDS is calculated on that final payment.
  • The correct financial year and assessment year. Rent paid in FY 2025–26 goes against AY 2026–27; picking the wrong year sends the credit to the wrong cycle for your landlord.

Step by Step on the e-Filing Portal

Once the details are in hand, the sequence on incometax.gov.in is short:

  • Sign in with your PAN and password.
  • Open E-File, then E-Pay Tax, and from the list of tax payment forms select Form 26QC (TDS on Rent of Property).
  • Enter tenant and landlord details: PAN, name, and address for both, plus the property address and whether it is residential or commercial.
  • Enter the rent and TDS details: total rent paid or credited, date of payment or credit, date of TDS deduction, and the TDS amount at 2% of the rent.3Income Tax Department. TDS Rates
  • Review every field. Names must match PAN records exactly. A wrong rent figure or tenancy date leads to notices or a mismatched credit for your landlord.
  • Choose a payment method, make the payment, and submit. The portal shows an acknowledgment number on screen — save it immediately, because you need it to download Form 16C later and to file any correction.

One caveat on the rate: 2% applies when the landlord has furnished a valid PAN. If they haven’t, Section 206AA pushes the rate as high as 20%, though Section 194-IB(4) caps the deduction at one month’s rent even in that case.2Indian Kanoon. Section 194IB in The Income Tax Act, 1961

How to Pay the TDS

After the form is generated, the portal offers several payment routes:

  • Net banking through authorized banks linked to the e-filing portal.
  • Debit card from select authorized banks.
  • Payment gateway, which accepts net banking, debit card, credit card, and UPI from any bank. Useful if your own bank is not directly authorized for tax collection.
  • RTGS or NEFT from any bank offering the facility.
  • Pay at bank counter, where the system generates a challan with a unique Challan Reference Number that you take to an authorized branch for over-the-counter payment.

The bank-counter option is available because Form 26QC filers are individuals not subject to tax audit; companies and audit-liable taxpayers cannot use it.4Income Tax Department. e-Pay Tax FAQs If you go offline, finish paying inside the 30-day filing window.

When You Deduct and When You File

Section 194-IB requires only one deduction in the whole financial year. If the tenancy runs through March, you deduct with the rent for the last month of the financial year, whichever happens earlier between payment and credit. If you vacate mid-year, you deduct with the final rent payment or credit for the last month of occupancy.1Income Tax Department. TDS on Rent by Certain Individual or HUF

You then have 30 days from the end of the month in which the deduction was made to deposit the tax and file Form 26QC.1Income Tax Department. TDS on Rent by Certain Individual or HUF A March deduction is therefore due by the end of April.

Downloading Form 16C and Giving It to Your Landlord

Filing Form 26QC and paying the TDS is not the last step. Your landlord needs Form 16C, the TDS certificate, to claim credit on their own return, and you have to hand it over within 15 days from the due date for filing Form 26QC.1Income Tax Department. TDS on Rent by Certain Individual or HUF

Form 16C is downloaded separately from TRACES (tdscpc.gov.in), and only after the 26QC has been processed.5Income Tax Department. E-Tutorial – Taxpayers-Download Form 16C Log in as a registered taxpayer, open Downloads, select “Form 16B/16C/16D/16E (For Buyer/Tenant/Payer),” pick the form type and assessment year, and enter the acknowledgment number along with the landlord’s PAN. The portal issues a request number; when the status turns from “Submitted” to “Available,” download the ZIP file. The password is your date of birth in DDMMYYYY format.

Fixing a Mistake After You’ve Filed

Errors — a wrong PAN digit, an incorrect rent figure, the wrong property address — are corrected through TRACES once the original Form 26QC is processed. Log in, look for a statement status of “Processed with Default,” and download the Form 26QC Justification Report to see what was flagged. Then open Statements/Forms, select Request for Correction, pick Form Type 26QC, and enter the financial year and acknowledgment number.

It takes 24 to 48 hours for the request to move from “Submitted” to “Available.” Once available, enter the challan details (BSR code, deposit date, challan serial number, deposit amount), edit the affected fields, and submit. You can correct tenant or landlord PAN, payment and deduction dates, rent amounts, property details, and the landlord’s name and address. Without a Digital Signature Certificate registered on TRACES, and without e-verification through internet banking, some corrections may need an Assessing Officer’s approval.

Filing When There Is More Than One Landlord or Tenant

If the property has multiple owners, file a separate Form 26QC for each landlord and split the rent according to each owner’s share in the agreement or their ownership proportion. Every filing produces its own acknowledgment number and its own Form 16C.

On the tenant side, if co-tenants share a lease and the total monthly rent exceeds ₹50,000, each tenant who pays rent has to deduct TDS on their share. The ₹50,000 threshold looks at total rent for the property, not each person’s slice of it.

Penalties If You Miss a Deadline

Delays stack, and a single lapse can attract charges from more than one direction.

If you were supposed to deduct TDS and didn’t, interest runs at 1% per month, or part of a month, from the date the deduction was due until you actually deduct. If you deducted on time but didn’t deposit, the rate rises to 1.5% per month from the deduction date to the deposit date.6Indian Kanoon. Income Tax Act 1961 – Section 201(1A) Any part of a month counts as a full month.

Filing Form 26QC after the 30-day deadline attracts a late-filing fee of ₹200 per day under Section 234E, capped at the total TDS you were required to deposit.7Income Tax Department. Penalties If your TDS was ₹10,000, the fee cannot exceed ₹10,000 no matter how long the delay.

Failing to hand Form 16C to the landlord on time carries a Section 272A penalty of ₹500 per day for defaults from April 1, 2022 onward, up from the earlier ₹100. It is capped at the tax deductible, but the practical costs — notices from the department, a soured relationship with the landlord — usually matter more than the rupee amount.