Buying from an NRI after 1 October 2026: no TAN, but no form yet

Summary

From 1 October 2026 a resident individual or HUF buying immovable property from a non-resident no longer needs a TAN to deduct and deposit the tax under section 393(2) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (the old section 195 of the 1961 Act). But as at 22 September 2026 CBDT has notified no form for depositing that tax on the buyer's own PAN, and the income-tax portal's own help page says Form 141, the form everyone assumes will carry it, is not available where the seller is a non-resident.

The situation

A salaried buyer agrees to buy a flat from a seller who lives in Dubai. Because the seller is a non-resident, the buyer must deduct tax on the whole price, not 1% above ₹50 lakh, and until now the only way to deposit it was to apply for a TAN in Form 49B, deposit against that TAN by the 7th of the following month, file a quarterly statement and issue the seller a certificate — a deductor's full apparatus, for one transaction in a lifetime.

Since February, articles have announced that this ends on 1 October 2026. It does. Deals closing in October are already being planned around "no TAN needed", and several I have seen assume the buyer simply files Form 141 the way a buyer from a resident seller does. That is the part that is wrong, and it is wrong on the department's own words.

The rule

The deduction itself has not changed. A payment to a non-resident for immovable property is deducted under section 393(2) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (the old section 195). There is no ₹50 lakh threshold, and the rate is the rate applicable to the seller's capital gain, with surcharge and cess — not the 1% under section 393(1) (the old section 194-IA) that applies to a resident seller.

What changed is who needs a TAN. Section 397(1) of the 2025 Act carries the requirement to obtain a tax deduction account number (the old section 203A), and clause (c) lists the deductors excused from it. Clause 75 of the Finance Act, 2026 inserts sub-clause (iii) into that list: "a resident individual or Hindu undivided family in respect of a transaction where he is required to deduct tax on any consideration for the transfer of any immovable property under section 393(2)" — with effect from 1 October 2026. Such a buyer deposits through a challan-cum-statement on his own PAN, on the pattern already used for resident sellers.

And the form is not Form 141. The income-tax portal's help page for Form 141, read on 20 and 22 September 2026, says: "Form 141 can be filed only for resident deductees. It is not applicable where the deductee is a non resident." Form 141 consolidates the old Forms 26QB, 26QC, 26QD and 26QE, is filed through PAN login, and is due within one month from the end of the month of deduction. It is the natural candidate for the new route, and the department has already said it is not the form.

The date that decides which row you are in is the date tax becomes deductible — the earlier of payment and credit — not the date of the agreement or the registry.

Where people go wrong

Reading "no TAN" as "file Form 141". The relief removes the TAN. It does not, by itself, tell you where the money goes. Until CBDT notifies the challan-cum-statement for section 393(2) property deductions, there is no published channel for a resident individual to deposit this tax on PAN, and the one form the portal serves for PAN-based property deductions has been declared unavailable for a non-resident deductee. A deposit made on Form 141 against an NRI seller is a deposit on a form the department says is not for this case.

Assuming the tax changed too. Nothing in clause 75 touches the rate or the base. The buyer still deducts on the full consideration at the seller's capital-gains rate; the ₹50 lakh threshold still does not exist for a non-resident seller. The change is plumbing.

Reading a company or LLP into the headline. Sub-clause (iii) names a resident individual or Hindu undivided family and nobody else. A company, firm or LLP buying from a non-resident needs a TAN on 1 October exactly as it did on 30 September.

Instalments that straddle the date. A booking amount paid in September was deductible in September, under a TAN, whatever the buyer's status. Only deductions falling on or after 1 October are inside the new clause. The safer reading is to treat each instalment on its own date.

What to do

1. Fix, for every instalment, the date tax becomes deductible — the earlier of payment and credit. Anything on or before 30 September 2026 goes through a TAN and Form 144.
2. If you are a resident individual or HUF paying on or after 1 October 2026, do not apply for a TAN on the strength of an article, and do not deposit on Form 141. Check what CBDT has notified for section 393(2) property deductions on the day you deposit, and if nothing has, ask before the money moves.
3. Compute the deduction at the seller's capital-gains rate on the whole consideration, with surcharge and cess. If the seller holds a lower-deduction certificate (Form 128 under the 2025 Act, the old Form 13), deduct at that rate and keep the certificate.
4. If the buyer is a company, firm or LLP, obtain the TAN, deposit against it by the 7th of the next month, file Form 144 for the quarter and issue the seller the certificate the portal generates.
5. Keep the seller's PAN, a written declaration of residential status and the deposit challan in the file. The seller cannot claim credit without the certificate, and the buyer cannot recover a short deduction from a seller who has left the country.

The tool

I built a small property-TDS wizard last year because the same six questions came to me before every registry, and the answer depends on a date most buyers never look at. You enter the date of payment or credit, the total property value, the stamp duty value, your share and whether the seller is a resident; it tells you whether Form 26QB or Form 141 applies, the amount to deduct on the higher of the consideration and the stamp duty value, the due date, and — the reason most people arrive — the interest and the ₹200-a-day fee you have already run up if you are late, with a printed sheet of the working. For a non-resident seller the version live today gives an indicative figure only and tells you to confirm the TAN, statement and certificate procedure before you act; it does not yet carry the 1 October branch described above (that update is written and awaiting publication), it does not file anything, and it does not know your seller's holding period, treaty position or certificate. Nothing you type is stored.

Work out the property TDS before you deposit

See also Form 145, not 15CA: the three questions that decide which Part you file.

Sources

1. Income Tax Department — Form 141 (challan-cum-statement for deductions under section 393(1)), help page — https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/help/all-topics/e-filing-services/form-141-challan-cum-statement-deduction-tax-us-3931
2. TaxGuru, TAN requirement removed to ease property purchase from non-residents (2 February 2026; quotes the inserted clause from the Finance Bill, 2026) — https://taxguru.in/income-tax/tan-requirement-removed-ease-property-purchase-non-residents.html
3. TaxTMI, clause-by-clause note on clauses 74–76 of the Finance Bill, 2026 (13 February 2026) — https://www.taxtmi.com/article/detailed?id=15873
4. Toolisky, No TAN for NRI property purchase from 1 October 2026 (25 July 2026; notes the form number was not notified as of July) — https://toolisky.com/blog/no-tan-for-nri-property-purchase
5. TDSMAN, TDS on payments to non-residents — section 393(2) (section 195) (July 2026) — https://blog.tdsman.com/2026/07/tds-on-payments-to-non-residents-section-3932-section-195/
6. ITD utility — provisions of the Income-tax Act, 1961 vis-à-vis the Income-tax Act, 2025 — https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/utility-to-check-provisions-of-income-tax-act-1961-vis-a-vis-income-tax-act-2025