Your clients keep
10% of every
bill. Track it back.
Every company client deducts TDS before they pay. HourSlip logs it per invoice, reconciles it against your 26AS, and shows the refund you're owed — instead of it quietly vanishing into your PAN.
The ₹10,000
you'd have lost.
A client pays you short — because they withheld TDS. HourSlip catches the gap, names the section, matches it to your 26AS, and rolls it into the refund you claim at filing.
- 0:0001Client pays ₹90,000 on a ₹1,00,000 invoice
- 0:0402HourSlip flags the ₹10,000 TDS — section 194J, auto
- 0:0803Match it against your 26AS line
- 0:1104Receivable rolls into your ITR total
Why a tenth of your
income disappears.
Company clients are legally required to withhold TDS before paying you. It's not lost — it's parked against your PAN. But if you never track it, you never claim it, and it stays with the government.
The trap isn't the deduction — it's forgetting the ₹10,000 exists. Most freelancers under-report their TDS credits and quietly overpay tax every single year.
Six sections,
picked for you.
You never type a section code. HourSlip reads who's paying you and how, and applies the right one — with the right rate. Here's the full set a freelancer ever meets.
The 4-state
reconciliation worksheet.
Every deduction you log is checked against the matching 26AS line and sorted into one of four states. You work the board until everything's green — then the FY total is one you can defend.
Client deposited ₹500 less than they deducted. HourSlip flags it so you chase the deductor — not the refund you'd have lost.
Got a Section 197
certificate?
Apply it once.
If your income doesn't justify 10% withholding, the Assessing Officer can issue a Section 197 certificate at a lower rate. Drop it on a client once — every future invoice for that client deducts at the new rate automatically.
- ›Per-client — Each certificate binds to one deductor and its validity window.
- ›Retroactive — Applies to open invoices in the FY, not just new ones.
- ›Audit-safe — The certificate number prints on the invoice so the deductor can match it.
It all reconciles to
your 26AS at filing.
When March comes, your whole year is already reconciled. The FY total — broken down by section — carries straight into ITR-4 as a tax credit. This is money back in your pocket, not a line you forgot.
Free to estimate.
Pro to actually claim.
The free calculator tells you what a deduction should be. Pro logs every real one against your invoices, reconciles it to your 26AS, and rolls the whole year into your ITR.
An honest
side-by-side.
TDS tools exist — but almost all of them are for the company deducting tax, not the freelancer owed it back. The honest gap here is real: tracking your TDS receivable is a job nobody else does end-to-end.
TDS, in plain terms.
What freelancers ask us before they start tracking the tax their clients withhold.
- TDS — Tax Deducted at Source — is income tax your client withholds before paying you and deposits with the government against your PAN. It's not a charge; it's an advance on your own tax. For most freelancers it's 10% under Section 194J. You claim it back (or set it off) when you file your ITR.
- 194J covers professional and technical services — design, development, consulting, writing — and is the default for most freelancers at 10%. 194C is for contract/works (production, events, builds) at 1–2%. HourSlip shows the section options and the applicable rate for each; it defaults to 194J for most freelancers and lets you confirm or change it per deductor.
- It derives it from the invoice. When a payment lands short of the gross, HourSlip computes the expected deduction from the section and rate, logs it as a receivable against that invoice, and waits to match it to your 26AS — so you don't enter a single figure by hand.
- Yes — import your 26AS CSV and HourSlip places each entry into one of four states: Matched, Pending, Mismatch or Unmatched. You review and work the board manually until it's green. The auto-match engine is on the roadmap; for now the four-state worksheet gives you the full picture to present to your CA.
- If 10% withholding is more than your actual tax liability, the Assessing Officer can issue a Section 197 lower-deduction certificate. Drop it on a client once and every future invoice for that client deducts at the certified rate automatically — and it applies retroactively to open invoices in the FY.
- It surfaces exactly how much TDS you're owed, fully reconciled, before you file — so it lands in your ITR as a credit instead of being forgotten. If your TDS credits exceed your tax payable, the difference comes back as a refund. The tracking is what makes the claim possible.
Stop leaving
TDS on the table.
Your clients have already withheld it and deposited it against your PAN. The only question is whether you claim it back — or hand the government an interest-free loan every year.