Income-tax Act, 1961 · Chapter XVII: Collection and Recovery of Tax · B.—Deduction at source
Section 194H: Commission or brokerage
The Income-tax Act, 1961 was repealed by the Income-tax Act, 2025 from 1 April 2026. The text is kept here because the judgments below apply it.
Any person, not being an individual or a Hindu undivided family, who is responsible for paying, on or after the 1st day of June, 2001, to a resident, any income by way of commission (not being insurance commission referred to in section 194D) or brokerage, shall, at the time of credit of such income to the account of the payee or at the time of payment of such income in cash or by the issue of a cheque or draft or by any other mode, whichever is earlier, deduct income-tax thereon at the rate of [five per cent.]:
Provided that no deduction shall be made under this section in a case where the amount of such income or, as the case may be, the aggregate of the amounts of such income credited or paid or likely to be credited or paid during the financial year to the account of, or to, the payee, does not exceed [fifteen thousand rupees]: [Provided further that an individual or a Hindu undivided family, whose total sales, gross receipts or turnover from the business or profession carried on by him exceed the monetary limits specified under clause (a) or clause (b) of section 44AB during the financial year immediately preceding the financial year in which such commission or brokerage is credited or paid, shall be liable to deduct income-tax under this section:] [Provided also that no deduction shall be made under this section on any commission or brokerage payable by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited or Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited to their public call office franchisees.]
Explanation.—For the purposes of this section,—
(i) —commission or brokerage‖ includes any payment received or receivable, directly or indirectly, by a person acting on behalf of another person for services rendered (not being professional services) or for any services in the course of buying or selling of goods or in relation to any transaction relating to any asset, valuable article or thing, not being securities;
(ii) the expression —professional services‖ means services rendered by a person in the course of carrying on a legal, medical, engineering or architectural profession or the profession of accountancy or technical consultancy or interior decoration or such other profession as is notified by the Board for the purposes of section 44AA;
(iii) the expression —securities‖ shall have the meaning assigned to it in clause (h) of section 2 of the Securities Contracts (Regulation) Act, 1956 (42 of 1956);
(iv) where any income is credited to any account, whether called —Suspense account‖ or by any other name, in the books of account of the person liable to pay such income, such crediting shall be deemed to be credit of such income to the account of the payee and the provisions of this section shall apply accordingly.]
Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.
Supreme Court judgments citing the section 194H
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Aman Bhatia v. State (GNCT of Delhi)
Issue arose whether the High Court was right in holding that a licensed stamp vendor falls within the ambit of a public servant for the purposes of Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988; and whether the conviction of the…
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Union of India & Others v. Future Gaming Solutions Pvt. Ltd. & Another Etc.
Matter pertains to the correctness of the judgments of the High Court setting aside various amendments made to the Finance Act, 1994; and whether sole distributor/purchaser of the lottery tickets is liable to pay…
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Bharti Cellular Limited (Now Bharti Airtel Limited) v. Assistant
The liability to deduct tax at source u/s.194-H, Income Tax Act, 1961 on the amount which, as per the Revenue, is a commission payable to an agent by the assessees-cellular mobile telephone service providers under the…
- Singapore Airlines Ltd. v. C.I.T., Delhi
- The Director, Prasar Bharati v. Commissioner of Income Tax, Thiruvanthapuram