Section 194J: TDS on professional fees, now section 393 Who deducts, what counts as professional services, the 10% rate and the ₹50,000 threshold, in the 2025 Act's words.

Section 194J of the Income-tax Act, 1961 is the rule that makes a payer deduct tax at source on fees for professional services; from 1 April 2026 the same rule sits in section 393(1), Table Sl. No. 6(iii) of the Income-tax Act, 2025, under which a "specified person" deducts 10% on fees for professional services once payments to one payee in the tax year exceed ₹50,000. The 2025 Act is in force from 1 April 2026 (section 1(3)); payments up to 31 March 2026 fell under the 1961 Act's section 194J.

Who has to deduct?

A "specified person", which section 402(37) defines as "(a) any person, not being an individual or Hindu undivided family; or (b) an individual or a Hindu undivided family, whose total sales, gross receipts or turnover from the business or profession carried on by him exceed one crore rupees in case of business or fifty lakh rupees in case of profession during the tax year immediately preceding". A clinic run as a company, LLP, partnership firm, trust or society always deducts. A doctor who owns the clinic as a proprietor deducts under this row only if last year's professional receipts crossed ₹50 lakh. An individual below that line falls under Sl. No. 6(ii) instead: 2% on professional fees, with a threshold of "Fifty lakh rupees" to one payee in the year.

What counts as professional services?

Section 402(28): "services rendered by a person in the course of carrying on legal, medical, engineering or architectural profession or the profession of accountancy or technical consultancy or interior decoration or advertising or such other profession as may be notified by the Board". A visiting consultant's fee, a radiologist's reporting fee and a CA's audit fee are all inside. A salary to an employed doctor is not; it is taxed under section 392 as salary.

What is the rate and the threshold?

Column D of Sl. No. 6(iii) sets "(b) 10% of such sum in cases other than (a)", where (a) is the 2% rate for fees for technical services not being professional services, film royalties and call-centre payees. The threshold is "₹ 50,000" for professional fees, technical fees, royalty and the section 26(2)(h) sums, and nil for a director's remuneration. Section 393(1)(a) says the deduction is "on the entire amount of such income or sum, where the amount or aggregate of amounts exceeds the threshold limit", and 393(1)(c) fixes the moment: "at the time of credit of such income or sum to the account of the payee or at the time of its payment ... whichever is earlier". The deposit date, quarterly statement and certificate are in our post on TDS when a clinic pays a visiting consultant.

What does this look like at a small OPD?

Two partners run a clinic as a partnership firm and bring in a visiting orthopaedic surgeon at ₹8,000 a session. The firm is a specified person. Sessions one to six total ₹48,000, under the threshold, and are paid in full. The seventh session takes the year's aggregate to ₹56,000, above ₹50,000, so the firm now deducts 10% on the entire ₹56,000, not just the excess, and on every later payment. The surgeon receives a TDS certificate and claims the credit in their own return; the firm's monthly deposit and quarterly statement follow. Running a visiting doctor's slots at the desk is covered in how to run a multi-doctor OPD queue.