Advance tax second instalment is due 15 September

The second advance tax instalment for the financial year falls due on 15 September. By that date you are expected to have paid 45 percent of your total estimated tax liability for the year, cumulative of the 15 percent that was due in June.

This catches three groups every year. Freelancers and consultants, whose clients deduct TDS at 10 percent while their actual slab is 20 or 30 percent. Salaried people with meaningful capital gains, rental income or interest income, where the employer's TDS covers only the salary. And anyone who switched jobs mid-year, where two employers each applied the basic exemption and under-deducted between them.

Missing it is not a penalty in the usual sense, but it is not free. Interest under Section 234C runs at 1 percent a month on the shortfall, and under 234B at 1 percent a month from April of the assessment year if you have paid less than 90 percent of your liability by the end of the financial year. On a ₹2 lakh shortfall carried for six months, that is roughly ₹12,000 of avoidable interest.

Senior citizens aged 60 and above with no business or professional income are exempt from advance tax entirely and can pay by self-assessment instead.