Payroll Compliance Calendar 2026-27: PF, ESI, TDS, PT and LWF Due Dates in India

Salaries went out on time, so did the notices. PF was paid late, a Professional Tax return was missed in a state where one remote employee joined last quarter, and a LWF payment nobody knew was due. Interest starts running, a late fee attaches, and your payroll lead spends the next week rebuilding challans from bank statements.

The truth is the payroll was perfect, but the compliance calendar was not.

This is the quiet pain of running payroll in India. Paying employees is one job. Tracking five statutory clocks that run on different dates, in different portals, under different laws, is another.

This guide puts every PF, ESI, TDS, Professional Tax and Labour Welfare Fund due date for FY 2026-27 in one place.

PF, ESI, TDS, PT and LWF Due Dates at a Glance

Why Payroll Compliance Deadlines Get Missed

HR teams never forget the 15th. The missed dates are the ones that sit outside the monthly routine:

• A TDS return that falls after quarter-end, when the team is busy with closing.
• A new state registration triggered by a single hire working remotely.
• A data gap, such as an unlinked UAN or a missing ESI number, that blocks a filing on the last day.

Late payment costs more than the amount involved. Interest begins the day after the deadline, and late fees can attach to returns. The employee's share of PF and ESI is deductible for the employer only if it is deposited on time.

If not, then come the notices, where your team do reconciliation and rebuilds the audit trail.

Where Monthly Payroll Deadlines Cluster

Most recurring payments crowd into a window of about two weeks. TDS comes first on the 7th, PF and ESI follow on the 15th, and state Professional Tax dates spread between the 10th and the 21st.

Three of these are central deadlines. The rest depend on the state where your employees are. Maharashtra now joins the 15th-of-the-month cluster after its February 2026 amendment. 

The practical lesson behind these deadlines is that every business should fund and approve TDS before the 7th and have PF, ESI, and early-month PT payments ready before the 10^th. If all your approvals wait until the 14th, one bank delay becomes a compliance default.

PF, ESI, Gujarat PT, and Maharashtra PT all fall on the 15th, so that is the riskiest day of the month for every business.

PF and ESI Due Dates Under the New Labour Codes

Both contributions' due dates are the 15th of the following month. PF is paid by filing the ECR on the EPFO portal, and ESI is paid on the ESIC portal.

What changed is the legal framework. The four Labour Codes have been in effect since 21 November 2025, and PF and ESI now sit under the Code on Social Security, 2020. A new Employees' Provident Funds Scheme, 2026, replaced the 1952 scheme.

Three points deserve attention before the date itself:

• The 50% wage rule. The code states that basic pay, dearness allowance, and retaining allowance must make up at least 50% of the total remuneration. If your CTC design still keeps basic near 30%, your PF, ESI, and gratuity base may be understated.
• Wage ceilings are settings, not constants. The ESI limit is ₹21,000 a month (₹25,000 for persons with disabilities). Store both as effective-dated parameters so a notification does not force a payroll rebuild.
• Extensions are not a plan. Businesses should treat the 15th as the final deadline.

Register for ESI within 15 days of becoming eligible. PF applies to 20 employees, and coverage continues once it has started, even if headcount drops later.

TDS on Salary: Same Dates, New Form Numbers

Since 1st April 2026, the timeline you know is the same: deposited by the 7th of the next month and by 30 April for March, but the paperwork changed. The salary return that was Form 24Q is now Form 138, and the salary certificate that was Form 16 is now Form 130.

This is where outdated payroll exports and old filing utilities cause errors, so test your returns against the new formats before the deadline, not on it.

Two things to watch this quarter:

• The Q2 return for FY 2026-27 was due on 31 October. If it is still pending, the ₹200-a-day late fee is already running. The fee is limited to the TDS amount involved.
• Form 130 depends on the Q4 return. A filing after 31 May delays every employee's certificate by weeks, and their own income tax return along with it.

Professional Tax and LWF: Where Multi-State Payroll Slips

Both are state levies, not central ones. A company headquartered in Delhi with staff in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Kolkata pays Professional Tax in three states and none in Delhi. Around 16 states and union territories also levy the Labour Welfare Fund, each under its own act with its own rate and cycle.

Three habits protect you here:

• Register by employee location, not office location. PT generally follows the state where the employee works.
• Respect half-yearly states. Tamil Nadu and Kerala assess PT on half-yearly income through local bodies, so a monthly-slab assumption gives wrong deductions.
• Clean your PF and ESI data first. Some states ask for an employee-wise LWF upload that includes PF and ESI numbers.

Quarter-by-Quarter Compliance Calendar: November 2026 to October 2027

TDS (7th), PF and ESI (15th), and your state PT dates repeat every month. These are the extras to mark in your calendar:

Nov 2026 to Jan 2027

• November: October TDS by the 7th, October PF and ESI by the 15th.
• December: Maharashtra LWF for the second half by 31 December.
• January: Q3 TDS return (Form 138) by 31 January.

Feb to Apr 2027

• February: review PT slab changes before the new financial year.
• March: Maharashtra annual PT by 15 March (earlier 31 March); Tamil Nadu PT for October to March, around 31 March.
• April: March TDS deposit by 30 April, then refresh PF, ESI and PT parameters for the new year.

May to Jul 2027

• May: Q4 TDS return by 31 May.
• June: Form 130 to employees by 15 June, Maharashtra LWF for the first half by 30 June.
• July: Q1 TDS return by 31 July.

Aug to Oct 2027

• August: Use the quieter month to audit state registrations and employee master data.
• September: Tamil Nadu PT for April to September, around 30 September.
• October: Q2 TDS return by 31 October.

How to Build a Compliance Process That Does Not Depend on Memory

A calendar on a shared drive works until someone goes on leave. A few habits make it reliable:

• Set internal deadlines three working days early. Bank delays and holidays should not decide your compliance.
• Name a preparer and a reviewer for every date. "The payroll team" is not an owner.
• Run a data check on the 5th. Unlinked UANs, missing PAN details, and blank ESI numbers cause most last-day failures.
• Keep a notification log. Record each circular, its effective date, and who updated the settings.
• Keep dates inside the payroll system. Keep a system that can hold your statutory dates and employee data in one place.

How Webtel’s HR Pearls Keeps Your Payroll Compliance on Track

Everything above stops at one problem where statutory dates, employee data, and payroll live in different places. Webtel’s HR Pearls puts them together. It is hire-to-retire HRMS software that brings HR management, payroll processing, and compliance into one system, so the team that runs payroll is also the team that sees every due date.

HR Pearls is built from four modules:

• HRMS keeps employee data in one place, including the UAN, PAN, and ESI details that cause most last-day filing failures.
• PMS (Payroll Management System) handles payroll calculation and the financial record of each employee.
• CMS (Compliance Management System) covers rules and regulations such as PF, ESI, TDS, PT, and LWF.
• ESS (Employee Self-Service) lets employees see their own information and company guidelines, which means fewer queries to your payroll team.

Frequently Asked Questions