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TDS Section 194C Payment to contractor / sub-contractor

FY 2025-26 · Rate 1% (individual/HUF) or 2% (others)

Section
194C
Rate (with PAN)
1% (individual/HUF) or 2% (others)
Rate (no PAN)
20%

What does this section cover?

TDS on payment to contractor for work contracts including advertising, broadcasting, transport, catering, manufacturing per customer specs.

Why this section: Work-contract payments above threshold require TDS — 1% if payee is individual/HUF, 2% for companies and others.

Note: Transport operator with ≤10 vehicles (declaring PAN + ownership) is exempt. Pure goods purchase (not work contract) is not covered.

Key facts

Threshold
₹30,000 single payment or ₹1,00,000 aggregate per FY (raised from ₹75k aggregate by Finance Act 2025)
Applicable for
FY 2025-26
Who deducts
Companies, firms, individuals/HUFs (if turnover > ₹1 cr business / ₹50 L profession in prev FY)
Paid to
Contractor (individual, HUF, firm, company)
Statutory source
Section 194C, Income Tax Act
Compute and file this TDS with CAhelperFree TDS computation, Form 26Q prep, challan generation — Part of KLI.

Common terms accountants use

If your description mentions any of these, Section 194C is likely the right answer. The matcher in this tool is a keyword scorer — not an AI classifier — so cross-check borderline cases against the official CBDT TDS rate chart.

contractorsub contractorwork contractadvertising contracttransport contractcateringlabour contractconstruction contract

Related TDS sections

Other sections in the same series or adjacent. Useful when narrowing down between similar payment categories.

Need a different section?

Describe the payment in plain English — “rent of plant”, “senior citizen interest”, “NRI dividend” — and the matcher will surface the right section.

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Source: curated from the CBDT TDS rate chart. Dataset snapshot: 2025-04-01. Rates can change between Finance Acts and notifications — verify before deducting.