The TDS mistake we fix most often in Mumbai has nothing to do with a missed date. A business takes office space in Powai or Lower Parel on a leave and licence agreement, pays the licence fee every month, and deducts nothing, because someone decided a licence fee is not rent. The tax department reads it the other way. Once the payment crosses the rent threshold, tax has to come off before the money moves, and every silent quarter adds interest, late fees and correction work to the eventual bill. The fix is simple: treat the licence fee as rent, deduct, deposit, and report it in the quarterly statement. That last step, done correctly every quarter, is what TDS return filing in Mumbai from LegalX India covers, starting at ₹999.
What will TDS return filing cost you in Mumbai?
The service starts at ₹999 for a quarterly return and runs 3 to 5 working days once your documents are complete. The price covers the full cycle:
- TDS computation from your payment records
- Challan matching against every deduction made in the quarter
- Preparation and filing of the return under your TAN
- Form 16 or Form 16A for every person you deducted from
Most Mumbai businesses file two forms a quarter: 24Q for salaries and 26Q for everything else, from contractor invoices to the licence fee on the office. Each form is a separate return, and we quote the full figure before any work starts.
Compare that against the cost of getting it wrong. The late filing fee runs at ₹200 a day until the return goes in, capped at the TDS for that quarter, and a default that stretches long enough invites penalties between ₹10,000 and ₹1,00,000. No Mumbai business should pay either figure. Both are entirely avoidable costs.
Do the TDS rules actually catch your business?
For companies and LLPs, yes, from the first covered payment. There is no turnover test to hide behind. The day a Powai SaaS company hires its first employee, signs its first contractor, or starts paying a licence fee on office space, it becomes a deductor, and it needs a TAN and a quarterly filing habit. Sole proprietors come into the net later, generally once their accounts fall under tax audit.
It also pays to understand the other side of the table. A fund and financial services consultant in BKC watches TDS come off every invoice she raises. Her credit in Form 26AS depends entirely on each client filing an accurate 26Q. When a client files late or misquotes her PAN, her tax planning breaks through no fault of her own. We act for deductors and chase filings for deductees, because in Mumbai most of our clients are both.
How does the Maharashtra layer sit alongside your TDS?
Honestly: the TDS return itself is identical across India. It is filed centrally and processed centrally, and no Maharashtra officer touches it. What is local is everything else the same payroll run must carry. A Mumbai employer deducts salary TDS for the Income Tax Department and, on the same payslip, profession tax for the state under its PTRC. For staff above the salary threshold that deduction is ₹200 a month, with ₹300 in February. It is paid to the Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Department through mahagst.gov.in, and women earning up to ₹25,000 a month are exempt from it. The company also carries its own PTEC, a flat ₹2,500 a year with no return attached, and each director holds one personally. None of this belongs inside your TDS return, which is exactly why payroll teams miss it. We review both streams together so the payslip, the 24Q and the mahagst ledger tell one consistent story.
Which documents matter most for a Mumbai deductor?
A short list decides how smoothly a quarter closes:
- Your TAN details as registered
- Challans with BSR code, date and amount
- A deductee register with verified PANs
- Payment records or bank statements for the quarter
Mumbai adds one document the rest of the country rarely thinks about. Registration of leave and licence agreements is compulsory in Maharashtra under the Maharashtra Rent Control Act, 1999, so the licence fee schedule for your premises already exists as a registered document. We work rent TDS off that schedule and collect the landlord's PAN early, because that is the deduction Mumbai businesses most often discover late.
Which deadlines govern the quarterly cycle?
Two clocks run at once. Deposits are monthly: tax deducted in a month must reach the government by the 7th of the next, with the March deposit allowed until 30 April. Returns are quarterly:
| Quarter | Period covered | Return due |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 | April to June | 31 July |
| Q2 | July to September | 31 October |
| Q3 | October to December | 31 January |
| Q4 | January to March | 31 May |
The two clocks are independent. Depositing on the 7th every month does not file your return, and filing a return does not cure a late deposit. Mumbai quarter ends are busy for a reason: a consultancy raising heavy March invoices meets the Q4 cutoff of 31 May just as its own clients start demanding Form 16A for their tax filings. We hold internal cutoffs about a week ahead of each date, so portal congestion never decides your outcome.
What trips Mumbai filers up, quarter after quarter?
Five patterns account for most of the correction work we do in the city:
- A contractor moves abroad and the payment quietly changes character. The same monthly invoice now belongs in Form 27Q rather than 26Q, and the deduction logic moves with it. Vendor residency needs a check every quarter, not once at onboarding.
- Two offices, two TANs. A company with a Lower Parel front office and an Andheri East delivery centre sometimes holds separate TANs, and a challan deposited under the wrong one refuses to reconcile against the return built on the other.
- The licence fee blind spot from the top of this page, usually discovered during a funding due diligence or on a notice, with several quarters of corrections to unwind by then.
- Certificates treated as an afterthought. The return is filed but Form 16A never goes out, vendors find nothing in Form 26AS, and the accounts team spends July on apology calls.
- Profession tax netted against TDS in the payroll working. PTRC and salary TDS are different levies owed to different governments, and folding one into the other understates both filings.
Every one of these is cheaper to prevent than to correct. That is the whole argument for a process.
Why LegalX India for Mumbai TDS returns?
Because a quarterly obligation deserves a process, not heroics. A CA reviews every return before it goes in, and more than 15,000 clients across India run their compliance through us. Their feedback holds us at a 4.8 rating on Google. You get a callback within 30 minutes, filing in 3 to 5 working days, and certificates delivered without a reminder. Everything runs online, so it makes no difference whether your desk is in Fort or Vasai Virar. If you would rather talk across a table, our office at Haware Fantasia Business Park in Vashi, Navi Mumbai welcomes visitors, though no filing ever requires the trip. For the national rules, the forms in depth and the penalty framework, read our complete TDS return filing guide for India. For the quarter closing on you right now, send us your documents today.