How to Pay TDS Online: Challan, CIN, and Late Penalties

Paying TDS online in India runs through the Income Tax Department’s e-Filing portal at incometax.gov.in, using the e-Pay Tax feature. The whole transaction takes about ten minutes if you have your TAN, the deductee’s PAN, and the correct section and head codes ready. The deposit must reach the government by the 7th of the month following deduction; miss that and interest of 1% to 1.5% per month starts running under Section 201(1A) of the Income-tax Act, 1961.¹

What to Have Ready Before You Start

Every field on the challan routes money to a specific taxpayer, tax type, and year. Get one wrong and the payment lands in the wrong account. Have these in front of you:

TAN. Your ten-digit Tax Deduction and Collection Account Number, required under Section 203A. No TDS payment or return is possible without it.
PAN of the deductee. The Permanent Account Number of the person or entity you deducted tax from. If they haven’t given you one, TDS must be deducted at 20% or the rate in the Act, whichever is higher.
Assessment Year. The year after the financial year in which the income was earned. For a payment made during FY 2025-26, choose AY 2026-27. This is the most commonly bungled field, especially in April and May when last year’s AY still feels current.
Major Head. 0020 if the deductee is a company; 0021 for non-corporate deductees such as individuals, partnerships, or HUFs.
Minor Head. 200 for TDS/TCS payable by the taxpayer (the usual choice). 400 applies where the payment answers a demand raised on regular assessment.
Section code. Identifies the nature of the payment: 192 for salary, 194A for interest other than on securities, 194C for contractor payments, 194I for rent, 194J for professional or technical fees, and so on.

Review each field on the confirmation screen before you authorize payment. The correction window afterwards is narrow and single-use, as covered below.

Step by Step on the e-Filing Portal

Open incometax.gov.in and click e-Pay Tax on the homepage. You can proceed without logging in, or log in first with your credentials.
Enter your TAN and verify it. The portal loads your deductor details.
Select the TDS payment tile. This is the online equivalent of Challan ITNS 281. Choose the Major Head, Minor Head, Assessment Year, and section code.
Enter the tax amount, plus any interest or fee if you are paying late. Check the summary screen carefully.
Pick your payment method and complete the transaction on the bank’s secure gateway.

The portal issues a Challan Reference Number (CRN) the moment you initiate the payment. Once the bank confirms the debit, the CRN status changes to Paid under the Payment History tab.

Payment Methods the Gateway Accepts

The e-Filing portal’s gateway takes net banking, debit cards from participating banks, credit cards, and UPI.² Net banking is the workhorse because every authorized bank supports it. UPI works for smaller TDS amounts where per-transaction limits on your app aren’t a problem. Whichever route you pick, the portal hands you off to the bank’s own environment to authorize the payment, so no card or banking credentials are entered on the tax site itself.

If the status doesn’t update right away, the Income Tax Department suggests waiting 30 minutes and checking again. If it’s still pending after a full day, contact your bank directly.³

Your Challan Receipt and CIN

A successful payment produces a Challan Receipt carrying a Challan Identification Number (CIN). The CIN has three parts: the seven-digit BSR code of the bank branch that processed the payment, the deposit date, and a serial number unique to that challan.⁴ Download it from the Payment History section of the portal.³

Keep the receipt. You’ll quote the CIN in your quarterly TDS return and in your own income tax return as proof of deposit, and it’s the reference for any later query from the department.⁴ Save it somewhere you can find in a hurry. Reconstructing a CIN from government records after the fact is possible, but slow.

Verify the Payment Posted

Once the bank has cleared the funds, confirm the tax department has recorded the deposit. The Challan Status Inquiry tool on the portal handles this, and typically becomes available a few days after clearance.⁵ You’ll need the seven-digit BSR code, the deposit date, and the challan serial number, all of which are on your receipt. If the portal confirms receipt, you’re done. Skip this step and any transmission error between the bank and the treasury will only surface when your quarterly return throws a mismatch.

Fixing a Mistake on a Paid Challan

If you selected the wrong Assessment Year, Major Head, or Minor Head, the e-Filing portal permits one online correction, but the clock is short:⁶

Assessment Year: within 7 days of the deposit date.
Major Head (Tax Applicable): within 30 days of the deposit date.
Minor Head (Type of Payment): within 30 days of the deposit date.

Online correction is limited to challans from AY 2020-21 onward, and only for Minor Heads 100 (Advance Tax), 300 (Self-Assessment Tax), and 400 (Regular Assessment Tax).⁶ You get one attempt per challan through the portal. Need a second correction, or missed the deadline? You’ll have to go to your Jurisdictional Assessing Officer in person, which is a much slower route. Reviewing the summary screen before clicking pay is the cheapest fix.

The Deposit Deadline and What Late Costs You

TDS deducted in any month must be deposited by the 7th of the following month. There’s one exception: TDS deducted in March is due by April 30. The deadline applies regardless of amount.

If you deducted the tax but didn’t deposit it on time, interest runs at 1.5% per month (or part of a month) from the deduction date to the actual payment date. If you were supposed to deduct but didn’t, the rate is 1% per month from when the deduction should have happened until it did.¹ A part-month counts as a full month, so a delay of even a few days into a new month adds a whole month’s interest. Add the interest to the tax amount on the same challan when you finally pay.

Paying the TDS is one part of the compliance cycle. Filing your quarterly TDS return and issuing TDS certificates to your deductees come after, each with its own deadlines and separate penalties, and each starts once the payment is safely posted and the CIN is in hand.

1
Indian Kanoon. Section 201(1A) in The Income Tax Act, 1961
2
Income Tax Department. Tax Payment Through Payment Gateway User Manual
3
Income Tax Department. e-Pay Tax FAQs
4
TIN/OLTAS Portal. New Simplified Challans Under On Line Tax Accounting System – Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
5
Income Tax Department. Challan Status Inquiry FAQs
6
Income Tax Department. Challan Correction Request User Manual