TDS or Tax Deducted at Source refers to the part of the income tax deducted at source only. When rents, salary, interest or any professional fee is paid to you, the tax is deducted in advance and it is known as TDS. However, the government presumes that you are liable to pay the tax on your income which is not always true.

Moreover, this amount of TDS deducted at source will add up to the final tax that a person has to pay. But in some cases, your total income is less than the income tax slabs that are set by the government. Thereby, you need to file for the TDS refund. One can also check TDS Refund Status through the online portal.

How to file the refund of the TDS?

The first thing that will be coming to your mind now about TDS is how you will file the refund of the TDS that is already been paid while making payments to you. Although, you need not worry as income tax authority of India has made provisions for the same. Moreover, there are various TDS return forms that are available on the income tax website used to file for the refund of the TDS. In short, you can get to download the forms and go for TDS return filing after which the amount of extra TDS debited will be refunded to your account.

How & when shall you file the TDS returns?

So then the next question that will be doing the rounds of your mind is how I shall get to file the TDS return. In brief, you need to know about the various forms that are available for filing the TDS returns. Moreover, there are as five different forms that are available for filing the TDS returns. In order to help you on this very aspect, here is a look at the different TDS return forms along with TDS return due date:

Form Number	Type of Tax Paid	Due date
Form 24Q	TDS paid on your salary	Quarter 1 i.e. 31st July Quarter 2 i.e. 31st October Quarter 3 i.e. 31st January Quarter 4 i.e. 31st May
Form 26Q	TDS on all the other payments	Quarter 1 i.e. 31st July Quarter 2 i.e. 31st October Quarter 3 i.e. 31st January Quarter 4 i.e. 31st May
Form 27Q	TDS on all the payments made to non-residents barring salary	Quarter 1 i.e. 31st July Quarter 2 i.e. 31st October Quarter 3 i.e. 31st January Quarter 4 i.e. 31st May
Form 26QB	TDS on income obtained from the sale of any property	30 days (Post TDS Deduction Month’s Last Day)
Form 26QC	TDS on rental income	30 days (Post TDS Deduction Month’s Last Day)

What is actually a TDS certificate?

Of course, you might be wondering about what is a TDS certificate. For example, any person required to deduct tax and has deducted TDS must need a TDS Certificate. Hence, anyone who is deducting tax at source has to give this certificate to the person whose tax is deducted as a proof. Here, they come in handy when you are looking to file the TDS refund. So here is a look at different types of TDS certificates  provided by various authorities:

Form	Certificate	Frequency	Due date
Form 16	Certificate of salary	Yearly	31st May
Form 16A	Certificate of every other income barring salary	Quarterly	Within 15 days of last filing date
Form 16B	Certificate of Sale of your property	Each transaction	Within 15 days of last filing date
Form 16C	Rental income certificate	Each transaction	Within 15 days of last filing date

In brief, you can get to file these forms and check for the TDS Refund status in your bank account which is generally credited within 30 days of filing the form.

How to check the TDS credits in your Form 26AS?

In this case, Form 26AS helps you to know the amount of TDS deducted along with the frequency. However, it is linked to your PAN and is the consolidated statement defining each and every type of TDS deducted by various contributors from your income. It also contains the details of any advance tax which is paid by you to the government.

SMS alerts facility by the Income-tax Department

In particular, the income tax department has made things easier for the TDS payers as they send the details of high-value deductions through SMS facility as well. Similarly, it helps you to know the amount of TDS deducted from your income.

Sometimes, people worry about the huge amount of TDS deducted on their income though they are not liable to pay any tax as per the slabs. So you need to just calm down and file the TDS return forms within the due date and keep on checking the TDS refund status.