Section 402: definitions for the collection and recovery of tax chapter

Selected key definitions

• "Specified person" generally means any person other than an individual or HUF, or an individual/HUF whose total sales, gross receipts or turnover from business exceeds ₹1 crore (or from profession exceeds ₹50 lakh) in the immediately preceding tax year.
• "Designated person" (for contractor payments under Section 393(1) [Table Sl. No. 6(i)]) includes the Government, local authorities, statutory corporations, companies, co-operative societies, certain authorities/societies/trusts/universities, foreign Governments/enterprises, firms, and an individual/HUF whose turnover exceeds ₹1 crore (business) or ₹50 lakh (profession) in the preceding tax year.
• "Rent" means any payment under a lease, sub-lease, tenancy or similar arrangement for the use of land, building (including factory building), land appurtenant to a building, machinery, plant, equipment, furniture or fittings - though for the Section 393(1) [Table Sl. No. 2(i)] rate, only payments for land, building and land appurtenant to a building count as "rent".
• "Work" (for contractor TDS) includes advertising; broadcasting and telecasting (including production for it); carriage of goods or passengers other than by railways; catering; and manufacturing/supplying a product to a customer's specification using material purchased from that customer or its associate - but excludes manufacturing/supplying using material bought from someone else, and (from the Finance Act, 2026) includes supply of manpower to work under another person's supervision, control or direction.
• "Professional services" means services rendered in the course of the legal, medical, engineering, architectural, accountancy, technical consultancy, interior decoration or advertising professions, or any other profession notified by the Board.
• "Seller" (for TCS on liquor, tendu leaves, timber, forest produce, scrap, minerals or motor vehicles) generally means the Government, local authorities/statutory corporations, companies/firms/co-operative societies, or an individual/HUF whose turnover exceeds ₹1 crore (business) or ₹50 lakh (profession) in the preceding tax year.
• "Buyer" is separately defined, table-wise, for goods purchase TDS (Section 393(1) [Table Sl. No. 8(ii)]), TCS on specified goods, motor vehicles, LRS remittances and overseas tour packages - each with its own exclusions (e.g. public sector companies, Government/embassies, retail buyers for personal consumption).
• "Fees for technical services" and "royalty" carry the meanings assigned in Section 9(7)(b) and Section 9(6)(b) respectively.
• "Specified senior citizen" means a resident individual aged 75 or more, with only pension income and interest from an account with the same specified bank, who has furnished the prescribed declaration to that bank.
• "E-commerce operator" means a person who owns, operates or manages a digital or electronic facility or platform for electronic commerce; an "e-commerce participant" is a person resident in India selling goods or providing services (including digital products) through such a facility or platform.
• "Immovable property" (for TDS on property transfer) means any land other than agricultural land, or any building or part of a building.
• "Person responsible for paying" is defined separately for salary payments, interest on securities, non-resident Indian foreign-exchange asset transfers, non-resident payment information reporting, and Government payments - generally the employer/payer or, for a company, the company itself including its principal officer.

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