The India Payroll Compliance Calendar for FY 2026-27
The short version
If you run payroll in India, four dates repeat every month:
- 7th: deposit TDS deducted last month
- 15th: deposit PF and file the ECR
- 15th: deposit ESI
- 10th, 20th, 21st or the last day: professional tax, depending on the state
Then five dates repeat every year: 31 July, 31 October, 31 January and 31 May for the quarterly TDS returns, and 15 June for Form 16.
Miss the 7th and you pay 1.5 percent a month. Miss the 15th and PF damages run at 1 percent a month with no ceiling. Neither is negotiable, and neither depends on whether your finance team is in a different time zone.
The full calendar is below.
What you are actually filing
Before the dates, the five things. Skip this if you already run India payroll.
TDS (tax deducted at source). You withhold income tax from every salary payment under Section 192 and deposit it with the government. The amount depends on the employee’s slab and their declared investments. You also deduct TDS on contractor payments under Section 194C or 194J, which matters if you engage freelancers through an agent of record.
Provident fund (EPF). Mandatory once you have 20 or more employees. Employee contributes 12 percent of wages, employer contributes 12 percent. The employer’s half splits into 8.33 percent to the pension scheme, capped at a wage of ₹15,000, and 3.67 percent to provident fund. On top sit EDLI at 0.5 percent and administrative charges at 0.5 percent with a floor of ₹500 a month.
Employees’ state insurance (ESI). Health insurance for lower-paid staff. Applies at 10 or more employees in most states, 20 in a few. Covers employees earning up to ₹21,000 a month. Employee pays 0.75 percent, employer pays 3.25 percent. Contribution periods run April to September and October to March.
Professional tax (PT). A state tax on the fact of being employed. Capped by the Constitution at ₹2,500 per person per year. Around a dozen states levy it. Several do not, including Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab.
Labour welfare fund (LWF). Small deductions into a state welfare board. Tiny amounts, wildly inconsistent frequency, and the one everybody forgets.
Every line of this shows up on the payslip. If you want the employee’s view of the same numbers, we broke it down in the Indian salary slip explained.
The month-by-month calendar, FY 2026-27
Dates falling on a Sunday or a public holiday do not move by themselves. Pay the working day before.
April 2026
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 15 Apr | PF contribution and ECR for March |
| 15 Apr | ESI contribution for March |
| 10 / 20 / 21 / 30 Apr | Professional tax for March, by state |
| 30 Apr | TDS for March, not the 7th. March is the one month of the year that runs to 30 April instead. |
| 30 Apr | Karnataka professional tax annual return |
May 2026
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 7 May | TDS for April |
| 15 May | PF and ESI for April |
| 31 May | Form 24Q for Q4 of FY 2025-26. This is the annual salary return. It carries the full-year salary detail for every employee, and Form 16 is generated from it. |
June 2026
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 7 Jun | TDS for May |
| 15 Jun | PF and ESI for May |
| 15 Jun | Form 16 issued to every employee. Late issue costs ₹100 per day per employee. |
| 30 Jun | Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh LWF, half-yearly |
| 30 Jun | Odisha professional tax, half-yearly |
July 2026
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 7 Jul | TDS for June |
| 15 Jul | PF and ESI for June |
| 31 Jul | Form 24Q for Q1 (April to June) |
August 2026
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 7 Aug | TDS for July |
| 15 Aug | PF and ESI for July |
| 31 Aug | Kerala professional tax, half-yearly |
September 2026
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 7 Sep | TDS for August |
| 15 Sep | PF and ESI for August |
| 30 Sep | Tamil Nadu professional tax, half-yearly |
| 30 Sep | ESI contribution period April to September closes |
October 2026
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 7 Oct | TDS for September |
| 15 Oct | PF and ESI for September |
| 31 Oct | Form 24Q for Q2 (July to September) |
November 2026
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 7 Nov | TDS for October |
| 15 Nov | PF and ESI for October |
| 30 Nov | Statutory bonus paid for FY 2025-26. Eight months from the close of the accounting year. |
December 2026
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 7 Dec | TDS for November |
| 15 Dec | PF and ESI for November |
| 30 Dec | Form D, the bonus annual return, within 30 days of the payment deadline. Several state inspectorates work to 1 February instead. Confirm yours. |
| 31 Dec | Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa LWF |
| 31 Dec | Odisha professional tax, second half |
January 2027
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 7 Jan | TDS for December |
| 15 Jan | PF and ESI for December |
| 31 Jan | Form 24Q for Q3 (October to December) |
| 31 Jan | Karnataka and Tamil Nadu LWF |
| 31 Jan | POSH annual report for the calendar year, to the District Officer |
February 2027
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 1 Feb | Unified annual return on Shram Suvidha, covering eight central labour laws for the previous calendar year |
| 7 Feb | TDS for January |
| 15 Feb | PF and ESI for January |
| 28 Feb | Kerala professional tax, second half |
March 2027
| Date | What is due |
|---|---|
| 7 Mar | TDS for February |
| 15 Mar | PF and ESI for February |
| 31 Mar | Tamil Nadu professional tax, second half |
| 31 Mar | Maharashtra professional tax for employers under ₹50,000 annual liability |
| 31 Mar | ESI contribution period October to March closes |
| 31 Mar | Financial year ends. Close investment proofs and finalise the tax computation for every employee. |
Professional tax, state by state
This is where most foreign employers slip, because the deadline moves with the employee’s location and not with your registration.
| State | Frequency | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Andhra Pradesh | Monthly | 10th |
| Telangana | Monthly | 10th |
| Madhya Pradesh | Monthly | 10th |
| Gujarat | Monthly | 15th |
| Karnataka | Monthly | 20th |
| West Bengal | Monthly | 21st |
| Assam | Monthly | 28th |
| Meghalaya | Monthly | 28th |
| Maharashtra | Monthly, or annual by 31 March if annual liability is under ₹50,000 | Last day |
| Kerala | Half-yearly | 31 Aug, 28 Feb |
| Odisha | Half-yearly | 30 Jun, 31 Dec |
| Tamil Nadu | Half-yearly | 30 Sep, 31 Mar |
| Jharkhand | Annual | 31 Oct |
| Bihar | Annual | 30 Nov |
| Sikkim | Quarterly | 31 Jul, 31 Oct, 31 Jan, 30 Apr |
No professional tax: Delhi, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, and most of the north east other than Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Nagaland.
Hire one person in Bengaluru and one in Gurugram and you have two different answers. Hire the Bengaluru person and then let them move to Hyderabad and the answer changes again, on the 10th instead of the 20th.
Labour welfare fund, state by state
| State | Frequency | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Haryana, Delhi, Punjab, Odisha, Telangana, West Bengal | Monthly or half-yearly, varies | Last day of the period |
| Maharashtra | Half-yearly | 30 Jun, 31 Dec |
| Madhya Pradesh | Half-yearly | 30 Jun, 31 Dec |
| Gujarat, Goa | Half-yearly | 30 Jun, 31 Dec |
| Karnataka | Annual | 31 Jan |
| Tamil Nadu | Annual | 31 Jan |
The amounts are trivial, often under ₹100 a year per employee. The notices are not. LWF is the most common item on a first-time compliance audit finding, precisely because nobody thinks a ₹20 deduction can generate a letter.
What it costs to miss each one
| Missed | Cost |
|---|---|
| TDS deducted but deposited late | 1.5 percent per month, Section 201(1A)(ii) |
| TDS not deducted at all | 1 percent per month, Section 201(1A)(i) |
| Form 24Q filed late | ₹200 per day under Section 234E, capped at the TDS amount, plus a penalty of ₹10,000 to ₹1,00,000 under Section 271H |
| Form 16 issued late | ₹100 per day per employee, Section 272A(2)(g) |
| PF deposited late | Interest at 12 percent a year under Section 7Q, plus damages at 1 percent a month under Section 14B. Since 14 June 2024 there is no upper cap on the damages. |
| ESI deposited late | Interest at 12 percent a year, plus damages |
| Full and final settlement paid late | Up to ₹50,000 under the Code on Wages, and up to ₹1,00,000 with possible imprisonment for a repeat within five years. We covered the two working day rule in terminating an employee in India. |
| Professional tax paid late | State specific, typically interest of 1.25 percent a month plus a penalty |
The PF change is the one worth reading twice. Before June 2024, damages were on a slab that topped out at 25 percent. Now it is a flat 1 percent a month with nothing to stop it climbing. A default you discover two years later is a 24 percent charge on top of the contribution and the 12 percent interest.
The three dates that actually hurt
Most of the calendar is routine. Three items cause almost all the real damage.
The March TDS trap. Every other month the deposit is due on the 7th. March is due on 30 April. Teams that automate the 7th and never look again either pay March early, which is harmless, or assume 7 April and get it wrong in the other direction. Put a separate reminder on it.
Form 24Q Q4 on 31 May. This is not just another quarterly return. It carries the full-year salary and tax detail for every employee, and Form 16 is generated from what you file. Get it wrong on 31 May and you are reissuing Form 16 to your whole India team in June, with a correction return behind it.
Form 16 on 15 June. ₹100 per employee per day is small at 5 people and unpleasant at 50. It also lands directly on the employee, who cannot file their own return without it. This is the compliance failure your India team will actually notice and talk about.
What the labour codes changed
The four labour codes came into force on 21 November 2025. They did not move the monthly due dates. They changed the base those contributions are calculated on.
Under the new definition, wages means basic pay plus dearness allowance plus retaining allowance, and the allowances you exclude cannot exceed 50 percent of total remuneration. Anything above that line gets pulled back into wages.
If your India salary structures were built with a small basic and a large stack of allowances, which was standard practice for years, your PF base goes up, your gratuity provision goes up, and your bonus base goes up. The dates on this page stay the same. The numbers on those dates do not.
Two practical consequences. First, rerun your cost model. Our India hiring cost calculator already uses the new definition, and we walked through the full loaded cost in what a software engineer actually costs in India. Second, if you restructure salaries to manage the impact, do it at appraisal time with proper communication, not quietly in a payroll run.
A note on who is liable
If you run your own Indian entity, the liability sits with the company and, for several of these, with a named principal officer or director personally. Directors have been prosecuted for PF default. This is not a theoretical risk.
If you use an employer of record, the EOR is the registered employer and carries the filings and the liability. That is most of what you are buying. It does not mean the dates go away, it means somebody whose job is these dates is watching them, on Indian time, with Indian registrations already in place.
Either way, this calendar is the thing to check your provider against. Ask them to show you the last three months of challans. A good provider will send them the same day. We cover the common questions in the India hiring FAQ, and what a full engagement includes is on the payroll outsourcing page.
If you are setting up now rather than fixing something, hiring in India is the starting point, with country versions for the USA, the UK and Australia. Pricing is on one page. If you have a live problem, talk to us.
Frequently asked questions
What is the PF due date in India? The 15th of the following month. The employer deposits the contribution and files the electronic challan cum return (ECR) on the EPFO portal by that date.
What is the ESI due date in India? The 15th of the following month, the same day as provident fund.
What is the TDS payment due date for salary in India? The 7th of the following month for every month except March. TDS deducted in March is due by 30 April.
When are TDS returns due for FY 2026-27? Form 24Q is due on 31 July 2026 for Q1, 31 October 2026 for Q2, 31 January 2027 for Q3, and 31 May 2027 for Q4.
When must Form 16 be issued in India? By 15 June following the end of the financial year. Late issue attracts a penalty of ₹100 per day per employee under Section 272A(2)(g).
What is the professional tax due date? It depends on the state where the employee works. Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are the 10th, Gujarat the 15th, Karnataka the 20th, West Bengal the 21st and Maharashtra the last day of the month. Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha are half-yearly. Several states including Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have no professional tax.
What is the penalty for late PF payment in India? Interest at 12 percent a year under Section 7Q, plus damages at 1 percent a month under Section 14B. Since 14 June 2024 the damages have no upper cap, replacing the earlier slab that stopped at 25 percent.
What is the penalty for late TDS payment? 1.5 percent per month for tax deducted but deposited late, and 1 percent per month where tax was not deducted at all, under Section 201(1A). Late filing of the return adds ₹200 per day under Section 234E, capped at the TDS amount.
When is statutory bonus payable in India? Within eight months of the close of the accounting year, so 30 November for an April to March year.
Do the 2026 labour codes change payroll due dates? No. The monthly and quarterly deadlines are unchanged. The codes changed the definition of wages, so the contribution base for provident fund, gratuity and bonus is higher where allowances made up more than half of total pay.
Does provident fund apply to every company in India? It becomes mandatory at 20 or more employees. Smaller employers can register voluntarily, and many do because candidates expect it.
