Taxpayers are required to pay income tax in advance if their net tax liability during the financial year is expected to be 10, 000 rupees or likely to exceed 10, 000 rupees per year. Paying it in advance i.e. before the actual liability arises, is called advance tax.
Which means, every taxpayer is required to pay tax in advance instead of paying it at the time of filing Income Tax return.
For the financial year 2023-24 (assessment year 2024-25), if your net tax liability is 10,000 or more after taking out all tax deducted and paid, then you need to pay advance tax in installments on or before the due date as mentioned below.
Provisions of advance tax is applicable to all individuals, self employed persons, business man and corporates.
Advance tax is calculated on the total estimated taxable income of the assessee after deducting all expenses required to generate such income and tax deducted (TDS) by others from the source of income.
If you are a salary employee and your net income tax liability after deduction of tax (TDS) is not likely to exceed 10, 000 rupees, then you are not liable to pay advance tax for the year. If you are expecting the net tax liability to be 10, 000 rupees or more, then you need to pay tax in advance. To avoid such things you can disclose your loss from house property and interest from bank account to your employer to consider it for tax deduction calculation.
Similarly, all self employed persons whose net income tax liability is 10,000 or likely to exceed 10, 000 rupees after deducting tax (TDS) need to pay advance tax to the government on or before the due dates as specified in the Income Tax Act.
Who is liable for Advance Tax
All assesses are liable if their expected income tax liability after deducting tax (TDS) if any is likely to be 10, 000 rupees or likely to exceed 10, 000 rupees at the end of the financial year.
All assesses includes salary persons, self employed persons, business man, partnership firms, OPC, private limited companies and public limited companies.
If net tax payable for a financial year is 10,000 or more than 10,000 rupees, then you are required to pay it in installments during that year itself instead of paying at the end of the year or while filing Income Tax return.
In order to avoid penal interest, salary individuals are advised to assess their tax liability if they have worked for more than one employer during the financial year or they have other incomes not disclosed to employer.
A resident senior citizen aged 60 years or more will not be liable for advance tax if such senior citizen does not have any income chargeable under the head “profits and gains of business or profession”.
Due dates for payment of advance tax
As discussed above, advance tax is applicable to all assessee including corporate and non corporate.
Corporate means companies incorporated in India including a private limited company and a public limited company. Non corporate are other than companies which includes individual, partnership firm and HUF. Due dates for payment are same for all assessee.
Table Showing Advance Tax Due Dates – Applicable to all assessee
| Due dates | Amount Payable on or before due dates |
| On or before 15th June of the financial year | Not Less than 15% of total advance tax payable |
| On or Before 15th September Of the financial year | Not less than 45% of the total advance tax payable as reduced by the amount paid in last installment |
| On or before 15th December Of the financial year | Not less than 75% of the total advance tax payable as reduced by the amount paid upto 2nd installments |
| On or before 15th March Of the financial year | 100% of the advance tax payable as reduced by the amount paid in last installments |
If taxpayer has opted for presumptive taxation scheme under section 44AD or 44ADA or 44AE, then 100% advance tax has to be paid on or before 31st March of the financial year instead of paying in installments.
| Amount payable as a percentage of actual tax liability | Due date of instalments |
| Up to 100% | On or before 31st March |
If the last day for payment of advance tax installments is a day on which banks are not functioning or closed then you can make payments in the next following working day. In such type of cases, interest leviable for late payment of advance tax will not be charged – circular no 676 dated 14th January 1994.
How to pay advance tax
You can pay it in two ways;
- Online payment
- Manual Payment
Through online payment you need to fill out “challan no: 280” and deposit the money online by using your net banking account. While filling up the Challan no: 280 you need to enter following things correctly;
- Chose either “0020” or “0021” based on your applicability
- Enter your PAN number correctly
- Chose assessment year as the year that is applicable for the financial year for which you are making payment
- Under tax payment segment select “100-advance tax”
- Select the bank name from where you want to make payment.
Companies and those liable for tax audit are required to pay taxes online.
In manual payment you need to visit a bank and deposit it against your PAN number.
Interest on Late Payment of advance tax
If you have not paid advance tax before the due dates as mentioned above then you are liable to pay penal interest on such amount payable by you.
Interest under section 234B
If the assessee is liable to pay advance tax but failed to pay it or paid less than 90% of total liability payable then such assessee will be liable to pay simple interest @ 1% for every month or part of a month to IT department.
The period for which interest payable would be the period starting from 1st day of April next following such financial year to the date of determination of total income.
Interest under section 234C
If you are not paid advance tax as per the percentage mentioned above then you will be liable to pay penal interest of 1% (simple interest) per month on the defaulted amount for 3 months. If you have not paid such amount before 15th march then 1% would be payable for every month till the payment of final tax amount.
You may be charged with both interest amount under section 234B and 234C if you have not paid such amount before the respective date as mentioned under these sections.
If any capital gain arises after the due date of installment payment then interest will not be applicable on tax payable on capital gain. However, such tax on capital gain has to be paid in advance in remaining installments as applicable.
If after making payment of one or two installments, assessee wants to increase or decrease the amount of remaining installments of advance tax in accordance to the revised estimates of income then it can be done but interest for short payment of earlier installments are required to be paid.
How to calculate Advance tax
At the beginning of the financial year, you need to estimate your total taxable income for the whole year starting from 1st April to 31st March. If the net tax liability for the estimated income is Rs. 10,000 or more, you need to pay advance tax on or before the due dates as mentioned above.
- Step 1: Estimate your total income for the whole financial year
- Step2: Calculate your Income Tax liability based on the rates and provisions applicable to you
- Step3: Deduct tax amount as deducted (TDS) from your source of income to arrive at your net liability
- Step4: On the net amount you calculate surcharge and education cess as applicable to you
- Step 5: Add step 4 and step 3 to arrive at your Income Tax liability
If step 5 is equal or more than Rs. 10, 000 then you are liable for advance tax. If it is less than Rs. 10, 000 then no need to pay in advance.
If during the year you have paid advance tax more than your income tax liability then you can get refund for the extra amount paid. While filling your Income Tax return you need to claim the excess amount paid as refund.
Table Showing the format to calculate advance tax liability
| Sr. No. | Particulars | Amount in Rs. |
| 1 | Estimated income under all 5 heads | XXX |
| 2 | Less: Carried forward losses | XXX |
| 3 | Gross Total Income (1-2) | XXX |
| 4 | Less: IT deductions (chapter VIA) | XXX |
| 5 | Estimated total income (3-4) | XXX |
| 6 | Tax (based on present rates of the year) | XXX |
| 7 | Add: Surcharge | XXX |
| 8 | Total tax payable (6+7) | XXX |
| 9 | Relief u/s 89 | XXX |
| 10 | Tax liability (8-9) | XXX |
| 11 | Education and SHEC Cess (3% on Sr. No. 10) | XXX |
| 12 | Total Tax liability (10+11) | XXX |
| 13 | Less: Relief u/s 90, 90A, 91 if applicable | XXX |
| 14 | Less: MAT credit if applicable | XXX |
| 15 | Less: TDS | XXX |
| 16 | Advance Tax Payable (12-13-14-15) | XXX |
