Advance Tax in India: Four Dates, and the One That Isn't 31 March

Salaried employees in India mostly never think about advance tax, because TDS quietly handles it. Everyone else — freelancers, consultants, landlords, anyone with capital gains or meaningful interest income — has four dates a year, and missing one costs interest rather than a penalty notice.

That distinction matters, and it is why these dates slip: nothing arrives to tell you off. The cost simply accrues quietly and appears later.

Who actually has to pay it?

Anyone whose tax for the year works out at ₹10,000 or more after TDS. The Income Tax Department's wording is that "advance tax is payable if the amount of tax payable during the year, computed under the advance tax provisions, is Rs. 10,000 or more."

That threshold is lower than most people assume, and it is calculated after tax already deducted at source. A salaried person with a side income, or a large one-off capital gain, can cross it without ever having thought of themselves as an advance tax payer.

Senior citizens without business income are the main exception, which is worth checking rather than assuming either way.

What are the four dates?

15 June, 15 September, 15 December and 15 March — and the last one is 15 March, not 31 March. The financial year ends on the 31st; the final advance tax instalment does not.

That fortnight's gap is a reliable source of error. People who think of the tax year as ending on 31 March discover that the payment window closed two weeks earlier, and by then the only available action is to pay late and accept the interest.

Each date carries a cumulative share of the year's estimated liability, rising through the year to 100% by March.

What actually triggers the interest?

Not quite what the instalment schedule suggests — and this is the detail almost no summary explains. Section 234C charges 1% per month on a shortfall, but the thresholds at which it bites are slightly more forgiving than the scheduled instalments for the first two dates.

Interest under 234C applies if advance tax paid is less than 12% of assessed tax by 15 June, less than 36% by 15 September, less than 75% by 15 December, and less than 100% by 15 March.

So there is a small tolerance early in the year, and none at all from December onwards. Somebody who slightly under-estimated in June may be fine; the same under-estimate in December is not.

Worth knowing too: 234C interest is mandatory. Assessing officers cannot waive it, so there is no conversation to be had after the fact — which makes it precisely the sort of obligation a reminder is for.

What if you are on presumptive taxation?

One date, not four. The portal is explicit that assessees opting for the presumptive taxation scheme "must discharge their entire advance tax liability in a single instalment on or before 15 March of the relevant financial year."

This is genuinely simpler and genuinely riskier. Simpler because there is one date. Riskier because there is no earlier instalment to prompt you — nothing happens in June, September or December, so the first time the obligation surfaces is a fortnight before the year ends, at which point the full amount is due at once.

If you are a freelancer under 44ADA, that single March date is the most important recurring financial deadline in your year, and nothing will remind you of it.

Which reminders are worth setting?

Four or two, depending on which regime you are in — and all set a week early:

• 8 June, 8 September, 8 December and 8 March for the standard schedule. A week's lead means you can estimate, check what TDS has already covered, and pay without the 15th becoming a scramble.
• 8 March alone, if you are under presumptive taxation — plus, honestly, a second one in December. Not because anything is due, but because a December prompt to estimate the year's income is what makes the March payment calculable rather than a guess.

Set them as recurring annual reminders: unlike most deadlines on this site, these dates do not move.

In ReminderIt you can set one by message — "remind me every year on 8 March to pay advance tax" — and it reads the schedule back before saving. Worth putting the estimate step in the message itself, because the work is the calculation rather than the payment.

What this page is not

Tax advice, and not a calculation method. How much you owe depends on your income mix, deductions, regime choice, TDS already deducted and several things that change between financial years — none of which a blog can work out, and all of which a chartered accountant can.

The figures here are from the Income Tax Department's own published guidance. Rates, thresholds and rules are revised in Finance Acts, so verify against the current year before acting on anything, particularly the ₹10,000 threshold and the 234C percentages.

What does not change much is the shape of the problem: four fixed dates, an interest charge nobody can waive, and no letter arriving to warn you. That is a reminder's job rather than a memory's.

Sources: Income Tax Department (incometax.gov.in) — the ₹10,000 advance tax threshold and the single-instalment rule for presumptive taxation. Income Tax Department (incometaxindia.gov.in) — section 234C interest at 1% per month and the 12%/36%/75%/100% thresholds.