What Is Form 138 Under the Income-tax Act, 2025 and Who Must File It?

I checked the current Income Tax Department information because there are already quite a few articles using the old form numbers.

The Department currently lists Form 24Q / Form 138 together and identifies Form 138 under the Income-tax Act, 2025.

For filing, the deductor needs a valid TAN registered on the e-Filing portal. The department's user manual also refers to the Return Preparation Utility and FVU process for preparing the quarterly statement.

I'd also be careful about using deadlines from older Form 24Q articles without checking the 2026 rules. The new portal currently lists Form 138 among the quarterly forms available for filing.

The part about individuals being deductors is worth clarifying. You don't automatically file Form 138 just because you have employees. The requirement comes into play when you are actually required to deduct TDS from salary.

The Income Tax Department specifically says that any employer who deducts tax from employees' salaries has to file Form 138.

There is also a separate category for specified banks. They may have to use Form 138 when deducting tax on pension or interest paid to certain senior citizens under the new Act.

So I'd look at it as a quarterly TDS reporting form rather than an individual income-tax return.

The new form numbering can definitely be confusing if you've previously dealt with Form 24Q, so checking the current e-Filing portal instructions is probably better than relying on older articles.

I was confused about this initially too because Form 138 is essentially the new form number for what was previously known as Form 24Q.

The Income Tax Department's current Form 138 user manual describes it as a quarterly statement/return for reporting TDS deducted on salary, pension or interest income in the specified cases. It says employers such as companies, firms, government bodies and even individuals who deduct tax from employees' salaries are required to file it.

The quarterly deadlines are:

• Q1 (April–June): July 31
• Q2 (July–September): October 31
• Q3 (October–December): January 31
• Q4 (January–March): May 31 of the following financial year

So it isn't something an employee files personally. It's a TDS statement filed by the relevant deductor.