How to pay advance tax online: step-by-step
The e-Pay Tax portal flow, from login to challan receipt.
Working out how much advance tax you owe is only half the job — you still have to actually send it. This advance tax payment walkthrough covers the income tax e-filing portal’s e-Pay Tax service end to end, the same flow whichever instalment you’re paying.
How to pay advance tax online: the e-Pay Tax steps
- Go to the e-filing portal. Visit incometax.gov.in and click e-Pay Tax under Quick Links — no login required for this first step.
- Verify your identity. Enter your PAN and the mobile number linked to your Aadhaar, then the OTP sent to that number. Confirm the name displayed matches yours.
- Pick the payment type. Select Income Tax as the tax type, choose the current assessment year, and select Advance Tax (100) as the payment type — this is the minor head that routes your payment to the right instalment bucket, not a self-assessment or regular-assessment payment.
- Enter the breakup.Fill in Basic Tax, Surcharge (if applicable), and Health & Education Cess separately; the portal totals them for you.
- Pay and save the receipt.Choose net banking, debit card, UPI, RTGS/NEFT, or pay-at-bank-counter, complete the payment, and download the challan with its CIN (Challan Identification Number) — you’ll need this at filing time.
Plan your quarterly advance tax instalments and avoid interest penalties.
What you’ll need before you start
Your PAN, a mobile number linked to Aadhaar (for the OTP), and the amount you actually owe for this instalment — not a guess. Work that out first with the Advance Tax Calculator above, using your estimated annual liability and TDS already deducted, so the figure you enter at Step 4 is the real cumulative requirement for this due date, not last quarter’s number repeated.
Common mistakes when you pay advance tax
Selecting the wrong payment type — self-assessment tax instead of Advance Tax (100), for instance — doesn’t fail the payment; it just books it against the wrong bucket. The money still reaches the department, but reconciling it later means a correction request, not a quick fix. Double-check Advance Tax (100) is selected before you pay.
Two other frequent slips: paying against the wrong assessment year (easy to do if you pay close to a financial year boundary), and not saving the CIN from the challan receipt — without it, matching this advance tax payment to your return at filing time takes far longer than it should.
All figures are indicative and for educational purposes only, not financial advice.
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