If you've spent years citing Section 194C, 194J, or 194I on invoices and TDS certificates, brace for a change. From 1 April 2026, every TDS provision in the Income-tax Act, 1961 — more than 40 separate sections — is consolidated into just two sections of the Income-tax Act, 2025: Section 392 for salary and PF-related deductions, and Section 393 for everything else. Here's how the old section numbers map to the new structure.
The Income-tax Act, 1961 built up TDS provisions incrementally over six decades — Section 192 for salary, 193 for interest on securities, 194 for dividends, then an alphabet soup from 194A through 194T covering everything from rent (194-I) to virtual digital assets (194S) to e-commerce (194-O). Each new payment type got a new section letter, making the TDS chapter one of the most fragmented parts of the law.
The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaces this with a tabular approach: Section 392 covers TDS on salary and provident fund-related payments (the old Section 192 and 192A), while Section 393 covers TDS on virtually all other payments to residents and non-residents — interest, dividends, rent, professional fees, contractor payments, commission, and more. Within Section 393, each transaction type is identified by a numeric payment code from 1001 to 1092, referenced against a table (similar in spirit to how TCS already uses codes in some contexts).
For any sum paid or credited on or after 1 April 2026, deductors must identify the applicable Section 393 table entry and quote the corresponding payment code in TDS returns (Form 26Q/24Q equivalents under the new Act), rather than the old section letter. For example, what was previously TDS on contractor payments under Section 194C is now reported as Section 393(1), Table Sl. No. 6(i), Payment Code 1017. The deduction rate, threshold, and underlying logic for contractor payments are unchanged — only the citation and the way it's reported in TDS software/returns has changed.
| Old Section (1961 Act) | Payment Type | New Reference (2025 Act) |
|---|---|---|
| 192 | Salary | Section 392 |
| 192A | Premature EPF withdrawal | Section 392 |
| 193 | Interest on securities | Section 393 (table entry, with code) |
| 194 | Dividends | Section 393 (table entry, with code) |
| 194A | Interest other than securities (bank FDs, etc.) | Section 393 (table entry, with code) |
| 194C | Payments to contractors | Section 393(1), Table Sl. No. 6(i), Code 1017 |
| 194-I | Rent | Section 393 (table entry, with code) |
| 194J | Professional/technical fees | Section 393 (table entry, with code) |
| 194Q | Purchase of goods | Section 393 (table entry, with code) |
| 194S | TDS on virtual digital assets | Section 393 (table entry, with code) |
Tax Collected at Source (TCS) provisions — previously scattered across Section 206C and its many sub-clauses — are similarly consolidated, with deductors/collectors quoting the relevant table item of Section 394 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 for collections made on or after 1 April 2026.
If you're a salaried employee, your employer's TDS on salary moves from Section 192 to Section 392 — this is largely invisible to you; your Form 16 (or its successor form) will simply cite the new section. If you're a freelancer or small business receiving payments with TDS deducted (e.g., professional fees previously under 194J), expect your Form 16A/26AS-equivalent statement to start showing Section 393 with a payment code from April 2026 onward, instead of '194J'. The TDS rate itself (typically 10% for professional fees) is unaffected.