Section 206AB

Section 206AB — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 206AB, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• Statutory position — s.206AB and s.206CCA omitted, and s.206C(1H) disapplied, from 1 April 2025 CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  Do I still have to run the compliance check and deduct at the higher non-filer rate, and does my client still have to collect TCS on his sales of goods?
  No to both, for anything on or after 1 April 2025. Section 206AB and section 206CCA were omitted by the Finance Act 2025 with effect from 1 April 2025 and no longer exist. Section 206C(1H) has not been omitted from the statute book, but a third proviso inserted by the Finance Act 2025 provides that nothing contained in that sub-section shall apply from 1 April 2025, and the department's own guidance states that the provisions of s.206C(1H) are not applicable from that date and that s.194Q applies to the sale of goods.
• Statutory position — s.194-IB and s.194M: the once-a-year deduction on rent, the cap that operates only under s.206AA, the gateway that keeps most individuals out of s.194M, and why neither needs a TAN CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  I am an individual paying Rs 70,000 a month rent, and separately I have paid an interior contractor Rs 62 lakh for my own house. When exactly do I deduct, how much, and do I need a TAN?
  Under section 194-IB you deduct once, not monthly: the tax is deducted at the time of credit of rent for the last month of the previous year, or the last month of the tenancy if you vacate during the year, or at the time of payment of that rent, whichever is earlier, and the rate is two per cent of the income by way of rent, substituted for five per cent with effect from 1 October 2024. Under section 194M you deduct two per cent, again substituted for five per cent from the same date, but only if you are not a person required to deduct under section 194C, 194H or 194J, and only if the sum or aggregate of sums credited or paid to that resident during the financial year exceeds fifty lakh rupees. Neither section requires a TAN: section 194-IB(3) and section 194M(2) each disapply section 203A.
• Statutory position — section 194S: one per cent on payment for transfer of a VDA, from 1 July 2022 CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  We are paying for crypto bought from an Indian seller. Do we deduct tax, at what rate, and is there a threshold below which we can ignore it?
  Yes, from 1 July 2022. Section 194S requires any person responsible for paying a resident any sum by way of consideration for transfer of a virtual digital asset to deduct one per cent of that sum, at the time of credit to the resident's account or at the time of payment, whichever is earlier. No tax is deducted where the payer is a 'specified person' and the value or aggregate value of the consideration does not exceed Rs 50,000 during the financial year, or where the payer is anyone else and it does not exceed Rs 10,000 during the financial year. Where the consideration is wholly in kind, or is a swap of one VDA for another, or the cash part is not enough to fund the deduction, the payer must ensure the tax has been paid BEFORE releasing the consideration.
• Notification 67/2022 — the 194S forms CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both waysNo later treatment found
  I deducted 1% under s.194S on a peer-to-peer purchase. Which challan and which certificate, and by when?
  Form 26QE and Form 16E, on a thirty-day clock. A specified person deducting under s.194S pays the tax within thirty days from the end of the month of deduction, accompanied by a challan-cum-statement in Form 26QE filed electronically within the same thirty days, and issues the certificate in Form 16E to the payee within fifteen days of that due date. Form 26Q was substituted at the same time to carry ss.194R and 194S for deductors who are not specified persons.

Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.