You agreed ₹50,000. The bank shows ₹45,000. Nobody stole from you: the brand deducted tax at source (TDS), usually 10% on professional services, and deposited it with the government against your PAN. It is a prepayment of your income tax, made on your behalf.
The mental model that fixes everything
Think of every deal as two amounts: the cash that lands, and a tax credit parked with the government. At filing time, that credit reduces the tax you owe rupee for rupee, and if too much was deducted, it comes back as a refund. Creators who track only the cash consistently overpay: they forget the credit exists.
Two documents keep the credit real
- Form 16A: the TDS certificate the brand must issue you each quarter. Not optional; failing to issue it attracts a penalty of ₹500 per day under the Income-tax Act.
- Form 26AS / AIS: your own statement on the income-tax portal showing every deposit made against your PAN. If a brand deducted but the amount never appears here, they took your money and did not deposit it. That is a serious problem, for them.
Useful side effect: a TDS entry in your 26AS is the brand admitting, in a government record, that the deal and the debt exist. In a payment dispute, that is evidence they handed you for free.
Practical habits
- Record every payment as gross, cash received and TDS deducted, per deal.
- Reconcile your 26AS once a quarter against your own records.
- Chase Form 16A the way you chase payments; it is money.
Creator Kamai does the splitting for you: log a payment and the TDS credit is tracked per deal, totalled for the financial year, and handed to your CA in one export. Information, not tax advice; your CA makes the final call.