Advance Tax Due Date FY 2026-27 — the Four Instalments

Advance Tax Due Date explained: this guide covers what it means, who it applies to, the step-by-step process, documents required, fees, due dates and penalties in India — so you can stay compliant with confidence and avoid costly mistakes.

The advance tax due dates for FY 2026-27 are 15 June 2026, 15 September 2026, 15 December 2026 and 15 March 2027, at cumulative 15%, 45%, 75% and 100% of the estimated liability. This is the first full cycle under section 408 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, the successor to section 211.

The calendar

Which provision sets these dates now

Section 408 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 sets the advance tax calendar. The Act takes effect from 1 April 2026 and applies from tax year 2026-27, so FY 2026-27 is the first year whose instalments run under it. The percentages and dates are unchanged from section 211 of the 1961 Act — what changed is that they are now laid out in a three-column table rather than in running text.

Who has to pay at all

The advance tax due date only matters to someone who is liable in the first place. Liability arises where the estimated tax payable for the year, after reducing tax deductible or collectible at source, crosses the threshold in the conditions-of-liability provision — section 404 of the Income-tax Act, 2025, the successor to section 208.

Two categories fall outside the schedule even where the amount is large:

• A resident senior citizen with no business or professional income. Under section 207(2) of the 1961 Act, a resident individual aged 60 or above at any time during the year, having no income chargeable under the head profits and gains of business or profession, is not liable to pay advance tax. Pension, interest, rent and capital gains do not disturb that; any business head income removes it entirely.
• A presumptive taxpayer, who is on a single 15 March date rather than four.

Everyone else works to the four dates, including salaried taxpayers whose other income is large enough that TDS on salary does not cover the liability.

How the payment is actually made

Payment is made through the e-Pay Tax facility on the income tax e-filing portal, selecting the correct assessment year and the minor head for advance tax rather than self-assessment tax. Two mechanical points cause most of the trouble.

• The minor head decides how the payment is read. A payment made before 31 March but tagged as self-assessment tax is not advance tax, and the 90% test at year end is computed on advance tax. Getting the head wrong converts a timely payment into a late one on paper.
• The assessment year is one ahead of the financial year. A payment for FY 2026-27 is tagged AY 2027-28. Selecting the current-looking year is the single most common challan error, and it takes a correction request to undo.

Keep the challan with its CIN against each advance tax due date, and reconcile the four of them against Form 26AS before the return is drafted.

Worked example

A business estimates its advance tax liability for tax year 2026-27 at Rs 8,00,000.

The full Rs 8,00,000 was paid by the last advance tax due date, and interest still arises. The September shortfall attracts interest under section 425 for deferment. Section 425(2) provides a tolerance — no interest where at least 36% of the tax due on returned income was paid by 15 September — and here only 32.5% was paid, so the shortfall bites.

Presumptive taxpayers pay once

A taxpayer declaring profits under the presumptive provision pays the whole amount of advance tax on or before 15 March, in a single instalment. There are no June, September or December instalments.

Two cautions. The single-instalment rule follows the presumptive declaration, so a taxpayer who intends to declare presumptively and then does not is exposed for the earlier dates. And the relief is from the instalment schedule only — the 90% test at year end still applies.

The 31 March grace, and what it does not do

Section 408(3) provides that any amount paid by way of advance tax on or before 31 March is treated as advance tax paid during the financial year ending that day, for all purposes of the Act.

The two interest provisions, kept apart

Missing an advance tax due date has two separate consequences and both can apply in the same year.

• Section 425 (formerly 234C) — interest for deferment. It is triggered by missing an instalment date, even if the year ends fully paid.
• Section 424 (formerly 234B) — interest where total advance tax paid is less than 90% of assessed tax. It tests the year as a whole, not any individual date.

Section 425(2) carries tolerances that make early estimation practical: 12% by 15 June and 36% by 15 September. Those are the figures to plan the first two instalments against when the year's income is still genuinely uncertain.

Reliefs worth knowing

Capital gains and first-time business income receive relief from section 425 interest, on the sensible basis that neither can be estimated in advance in the way recurring income can. The relief conditions sit in section 425(4) and generally require the tax on that income to be paid in the remaining instalments once it arises.

Checklist

• Diarise all four dates now: 15 June, 15 September, 15 December and 15 March.
• Compute each instalment cumulatively, against 15%, 45%, 75% and 100%.
• Reduce the liability by TDS and TCS as the computation provision requires — paying advance tax on income already subjected to TDS is a common overpayment.
• Use the 12% and 36% tolerances when estimating the first two instalments.
• Aim for at least 90% of assessed tax by 31 March to stay clear of section 424.
• Where capital gains arise mid-year, pay the tax on them in the remaining instalments to preserve the section 425(4) relief.
• Presumptive taxpayers: one payment, by 15 March.