India compliance calendar 2027: wages, TDS and ESIC due dates

Three payroll dates repeat every month in 2027 and have an official source: wages by the 7th, TDS deposit by the 7th, and ESIC contributions by the 15th. Tax deducted in March follows a different date for non-government deductors, April 30. EPF is the gap. The only EPF payment date we found is the 15th, in a booklet whose last page is dated November 1, 2022. Nothing we opened confirms that date under the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 2026, whose text we did not find, so the table below leaves EPF out.

Ten of the 36 monthly dates fall on a Saturday or Sunday, on six calendar days. Two ESIC dates also sit on the 2027 holiday list for Central Government offices: Thursday, April 15 (Ram Navami) and Sunday, August 15 (Independence Day). No page we read for the monthly dates says a weekend or holiday moves a due date. This page adds each monthly date’s weekday, flags those ten and the two holidays, and lists four annual deadlines under the 2026 Central Rules. Checked October 28, 2026.

* Falls on a Saturday or Sunday. † Also on the 2027 central holiday list for Central Government offices in Delhi: Ram Navami (April 15), Independence Day (August 15). The table shows the nominal date. The sources print rules, not 2027 dates, so each date applies a rule to a month and its weekday is computed in code.

Ten dates fall on a weekend, and two on a central holiday

The weekend dates are:

• Wages and TDS: Sunday, February 7; Sunday, March 7; Saturday, August 7; Sunday, November 7.
• ESIC: Saturday, May 15; Sunday, August 15.

Annexure I of the DoPT memorandum lists Ram Navami on Thursday, April 15 and Independence Day on Sunday, August 15, both ESIC dates. The memorandum says the list is observed in the administrative offices of the Central Government at Delhi/New Delhi. A private employer’s holidays come from its own policy or State law, so check both dates against each site. Tamil Nadu’s Industrial Establishments (National, Festival and Special Holidays) Act, 1958, for example, names August 15 among four fixed holidays for the establishments it covers.

The pages read for the monthly dates are silent on weekends and holidays.

We recommend paying on the last working day before each weekend date, and on Wednesday, April 14 if your site closes for Ram Navami. The advice assumes a Monday-to-Friday week. If your site works Saturdays, May 15 and August 7 are working days. Set the seven calendar days beside the holiday rules for each site, using India Public Holidays 2027 for Employers, before you fix the payroll cut-off.

TDS under the Income-tax Act, 2025

The Income Tax Department’s FAQ on the Income-tax Act, 2025 opens Q2.7 with the Income-tax Act, 1961 rule: TDS is deposited “within the 7th of the month following the month of deduction.” Q2.7 gives exceptions. Tax deducted in March is due April 30 for non-government deductors. Four sections of the old Act (194-IA, 194-IB, 194M and 194S) are due 30 days from the end of the month in which tax is deducted. The same answer names Rule 218 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026, which corresponds to Rule 30 of the old Rules, and says the Rules “retain the same timelines without any policy change.” The FAQ’s transition table lists April 2026 onwards as the 7th of the next month under the 2025 Act (Rule 218). The 2027 dates here rest on those two statements. The text of Rule 218 could not be reached, because the Rules page, opened on October 28, 2026, showed no rule text.

Q2.7 states the March date without a year. Q2.8 gives April 30, 2026 for tax deducted in March 2026, and the Income Tax portal’s TDS FAQs give the same date. Q2.8 adds that government deductors depositing by challan have until April 7, 2026, a date the table does not carry. We apply the rule to March 2027, which makes the date Friday, April 30, 2027.

The monthly date keys to the month of deduction. Check which month your payroll books each deduction in. The wage month and the deduction month differ when wages are paid after month end.

The Income-tax Act, 2025 comes into force from April 1, 2026, according to the Income Tax Department’s release of that date. The FAQ says the 1961 Act stands repealed on that date. Any sum paid or credited on or before March 31, 2026 stays under the 1961 Act. Where the earlier of credit or payment falls on or after April 1, 2026, TDS provisions under section 393 of the 2025 Act apply. Salary TDS returns are filed in Form 138, in place of Form 24Q.

Q6.10 lists three 2026 return dates: May 31, 2026 for January to March 2026, July 31, 2026 for April to June, and October 31, 2026 for July to September. It lists no later quarter, so the table above carries no return date. The FAQ’s certificate table lists Form No. 130 for salary TDS of tax year 2026-27 under the 2025 Act, due June 15, 2027, a Tuesday, and Form No. 131 for non-salary TDS of April to June 2026, due August 15, 2026. Neither is a deposit date.

The portal’s TDS FAQs say a delayed deposit of tax deducted in March 2026 “will attract interest liability @ 1.5% per month from the date of deduction to the date of actual payment.” That answer names no Act. The same wording sits in Q6.9 of the Department’s FAQ on the 2025 Act, in an answer about tax deducted in March 2026, which the FAQ places under the 1961 Act (Rule 30). So 1.5% reads as the 1961 Act rate, and neither source states a rate under the 2025 Act.

The EPF 15th rests on a 2022 booklet

EPFO’s information booklet for employers of newly covered establishments says the monthly contribution is paid by filing the ECR “on or before 15th of every month.” The last page of the booklet ends with the date 1st November 2022. The booklet does not mention the Code on Social Security, 2020. It says nothing about a due date that falls on a weekend or holiday.

The newer document is Gazette notification S.O. 3582(E) of July 1, 2026. Made under the first proviso to section 16(1)(a) of the Code on Social Security, 2020, it sets twelve percent as the contribution paid by the employer and the employees of establishments covered under section 1(4), (5) and (6), with exclusions in paragraph 2 worded “except specified herein of Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 2026”. It is deemed in force from November 21, 2025. It names the Scheme without setting out its text, and has no sentence about when contributions are paid or about replacing the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 1952. We did not find the text of the Scheme itself. The Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 344(E), May 8, 2026) were searched in full. The search found no monthly EPF or ESIC payment date, so the EPF 15th still rests on the 2022 booklet. The India Labour Codes 2027: What Changes for Employers page sets this notification beside the other central notifications.

The booklet’s page 12 is headed “PENAL DAMAGES”. Its table lists damages rates of 5%, 10%, 15% and 25% by the length of the default, from less than 2 months to 6 months and above, with the note “It may correspondingly go up to 100%”. The same table lists “Simple interest at the rate of 12% per annum for each day of the default or delay in payment of contribution.”

We recommend holding the 15th as a placeholder in the payroll calendar and asking EPFO or your payroll provider to confirm it in writing before the first 2027 run.

ESIC contributions fall due 15 days after month end

ESIC’s contribution page says contributions are paid “within 15 days of the last day of the Calendar month in which the contributions fall due.” That gives the 15th of the following month. The page shows “Last updated / Reviewed : 2025-04-04” and does not mention the Code on Social Security. It states no late-payment interest rate and no holiday adjustment. The ESIC site did not open on October 28, 2026, so these statements rest on the October 27 read.

The page gives the employee rate as 0.75% of wages (from July 1, 2019) and the employer rate as 3.25% of wages paid or payable, which together make 4%.

Wages are due before the 7th day ends

The Ministry of Labour’s Compliance Handbook says monthly wages are paid “before the expiry of the seventh day of the succeeding month.” Section 17(1)(iv) of the Code on Wages, 2019 uses the same words. Section 17(3) lets the appropriate Government “provide any other time limit for payment of wages where it considers reasonable”. A PIB release posted November 21, 2025 says the four Labour Codes, including the Code on Wages, 2019, are being made effective from that date. The Handbook states no commencement date. It “primarily covers provisions of the Codes for the establishments for which the appropriate government is Central Government.” It prints no date and still counts “351 (draft rules)”. The English copy of the Code on Wages (Central) Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 343(E), May 8, 2026) gave no rule on the day for paying monthly wages in our read.

We recommend using the 7th for every site and confirming it against the State rules for sites whose appropriate government is a State Government. The India Labour Codes 2027: What Changes for Employers page covers how to decide which government applies to a site.

Section 39 of the Code on Wages, 2019 has the employer credit bonus to the employee’s bank account “within a period of eight months from the close of the accounting year”. The appropriate Government may extend the period on application, and “the total period so extended shall not in any case exceed two years”. For an accounting year ending March 31, 2027, eight months ends on Tuesday, November 30, 2027.

Annual returns under the Social Security and OSH Codes

The Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 344(E)) and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Central) Rules, 2026 (G.S.R. 345(E)), both final and dated May 8, 2026, add four annual deadlines. Each applies only to employers or aggregators the rule covers; who is covered was not analyzed here.

• OSH Rule 74 makes the annual return in Form XVII due “on or before the last day of February following the end of each Calendar year”, which for calendar 2026 is Sunday, February 28, 2027.
• Social Security Rule 53(5)(a) has employers under Chapters V and VI of the Code (gratuity and maternity benefit) upload a unified annual return in Form XXIII online on or before February 28 or 29 for the preceding year, so Sunday, February 28, 2027.
• Social Security Rule 49(3) has an aggregator assess contribution under section 114(4) in Form XX and pay the provisional contribution for the preceding year not later than June 30 of the current year, so Wednesday, June 30, 2027. The aggregator also submits a final return in Form XXI, detailing the provisional payment and any outstanding contribution, paid by October 31, so Sunday, October 31, 2027.

The rule text quoted here moves no date for a weekend, and this page applies no adjustment. We recommend filing by Friday, February 26 and paying by Friday, October 29, or by Thursday, October 28 if your site closes for Diwali. Annexure I of the DoPT memorandum lists Diwali (Deepavali) on Friday, October 29, for Central Government offices in Delhi. The contribution rate depends on a Central Government notification under section 114(4), which we did not find.

What we could not confirm

• EPF: whether the 15th applies in 2027 under the Employees’ Provident Funds Scheme, 2026, whose text we did not find. The Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 were searched in full and the search found no monthly EPF or ESIC payment date. The 15th rests on the 2022 booklet, so the twelve monthly EPF dates are left out.
• Income-tax Rules, 2026, Rule 218: the text could not be reached, because the Rules page, opened on October 28, 2026, showed no rule text. The 7th and April 30 TDS dates rest on two FAQ statements, the Q2.7 sentence that the Rules retain the same timelines and the transition table.
• ESIC under the Code on Social Security: the ESIC page predates the Code and does not mention it, so the 15th is the regulator’s own rule as printed, not a date confirmed under the Code.
• Weekends and holidays: no page read for the monthly dates says whether they move any date, the two central-holiday dates included.
• 2027 TDS return dates: the FAQ’s return table (Q6.10) stops at the quarter ending September 2026, so later quarters have no stated date.
• TDS late-deposit interest under the 2025 Act: neither FAQ states a rate.
• ESI coverage limit: the Ministry’s Additional FAQs (as on 16.03.2026) answer how coverage is governed “until the finalization of Rules” with “At present, Rs 21,000 per month wages notified for ESI coverage will be applicable.” The ESIC contribution page states no coverage limit. The Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 and the Code on Social Security, 2020 returned no 21,000 figure in a text search, so among the documents read the INR 21,000 figure rests on the Ministry’s March 2026 FAQ.
• ESIC late-payment interest: the ESIC page states no rate.
• Professional tax and the Labour Welfare Fund: this page lists no dates for either, and no State source was used for them. Take the dates from each State authority.

What to do in your 2027 plan

1. Enter the 36 monthly dates in your payroll calendar, using April 30 for the March TDS deposit if you are a non-government deductor. Add February 28, June 30 and October 31 if the annual rules above cover you.
2. Move the ten weekend dates, the annual Sundays (February 28 and October 31), and April 15 if your site closes for Ram Navami, to the previous working day. On a Monday-to-Friday week, move October 31 to Thursday, October 28 if your site closes for Diwali on October 29. On a Monday-to-Saturday week, leave May 15 and August 7 where they are.
3. Hold the 15th as a placeholder for EPF and get EPFO or your payroll provider to confirm it in writing.
4. List each site’s State and collect professional tax and Labour Welfare Fund dates from the State authority.
5. Recheck the EPF date and the 2027 TDS return dates before your first 2027 run, and check this page again after November 27, 2026.

Multi-country teams can lay these dates beside the HR Compliance Calendar 2027 and Public Holidays 2027 by Country: Global Team Calendar.

Start with the seven calendar days that fall on a weekend or a central holiday, and the two annual Sundays, February 28 and October 31. Pick the working-day payment date for each, then record it in the 2027 Contract Update Checklist if any contract or policy states a pay date.

Written and reviewed by the HR Riant Editorial Team. General information, not legal advice.