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A finance analyst at a small retail trading proprietorship is closing FY 2025-26 in April 2026. Turnover for the year lands at Rs 1.5 crore — up from Rs 96 lakh in FY 2024-25. Roughly 90 per cent of receipts came through UPI and bank transfer; the remaining 10 per cent was in cash. The CA advisor suggests opting into the Section 44AD presumptive scheme for FY 2025-26 onwards, with the deemed profit at six per cent on the digital slice and eight per cent on the cash slice. The proprietor's actual profit for the year — after deducting cost of goods sold, employee salaries, rent, utilities, and interest on the working capital loan — works out to roughly Rs 22 lakh. On the deemed computation, the six-plus-eight blend produces roughly Rs 9.3 lakh of taxable income, a materially lower tax outgo. The pitch reads as an obvious yes. What the AP head does not immediately see is Section 44AD(4) — the five-year lock-in that turns any exit before FY 2029-30 into a Section 44AB(e) tax audit for the exit year and the four following, regardless of turnover. The question is whether the tax saving of the current year justifies the compliance obligation of the next five, and whether the eligibility conditions under Section 44AD(6) — resident individual, HUF, or partnership firm (not LLP), no commission or agency business, no profession under Section 44AA(1) — are satisfied in the first place.
Section 44AD is the presumptive taxation provision for an eligible assessee (resident individual, HUF, or partnership firm — not LLP) engaged in an eligible business (any business except a Section 44AA(1) profession, an agency business, or a commission or brokerage business). Sub-section (1) fixes the deemed profit at eight per cent of turnover; the proviso reduces this to six per cent for the slice of turnover received through account payee cheque, account payee bank draft, or electronic clearing system through a bank account (or other prescribed electronic mode), received either during the previous year or before the due date under Section 139(1). The turnover ceiling is Rs 2 crore under sub-section (1); the third proviso (inserted by Finance Act 2023) raises the ceiling to Rs 3 crore where cash receipts do not exceed five per cent of total receipts (the 95 per cent digital test). Sub-section (2) denies further deductions under Sections 30 to 38 — everything is subsumed in the deemed profit — but salary and interest paid to partners of a firm remain deductible against the deemed profit under Section 40(b). Sub-section (4) is the five-year lock-in — an exit before the five consecutive assessment years are complete strips the Section 44AD eligibility for the exit year and the four following years, requires Section 44AA books, and triggers Section 44AB(e) tax audit where total income exceeds the basic exemption limit. Section 211(1)(b) collapses the four-instalment advance-tax schedule into a single 15 March instalment for a Section 44AD or Section 44ADA assessee. Section 44ADA is the sibling scheme for eligible professionals at 50 per cent of gross receipts, with a Rs 50 lakh ceiling (Rs 75 lakh where cash receipts do not exceed five per cent). Section 44AE is the sibling scheme for a transporter owning up to ten goods carriages, at Rs 1,000 per tonne per month for a heavy goods vehicle and Rs 7,500 per month for other goods vehicles.
A Section 44AD eligibility working paper maintained at the start of the AY — with the eligible-assessee test (resident individual/HUF/firm, LLP disqualification), the eligible-business test (not a Section 44AA(1) profession, not agency, not commission or brokerage), the turnover ceiling test (Rs 2 crore base, Rs 3 crore where 95 per cent digital), the digital-receipts-split working paper for the six per cent versus eight per cent rate application, the actual-profit-versus-deemed-profit gap analysis, and the five-year lock-in horizon check (how many of the five years have been consumed by prior opt-ins). A firm-level Section 40(b) working paper for the deductibility of partner salary and interest against the deemed profit, so the deduction is not double-counted with the presumptive computation. A single-instalment advance-tax cash-flow plan against the 15 March deadline under Section 211(1)(b), with a Section 234B and Section 234C interest projection for any shortfall. An opt-in memo signed off by the proprietor or the partners that documents the five-year commitment and the exit-year audit consequence under Section 44AB(e) — so the exit decision in year three or four is made against a written record rather than a rediscovery.
The presumptive-scheme opt-in is documented at the start of each financial year with a full eligibility test, a turnover-ceiling verification against the 95 per cent digital test, and a deemed-versus-actual profit gap analysis that surfaces the tax saving against the five-year compliance commitment. The Rs 1.5 crore illustrative business declares roughly Rs 9.3 lakh of deemed income under the six-per-cent-plus-eight-per-cent split — a materially lower figure than the roughly Rs 22 lakh of actual profit — and the tax outgo is computed on the deemed figure. The advance-tax cash-flow is planned around the 15 March single-instalment schedule under Section 211(1)(b), avoiding the four-instalment Section 234C interest exposure but concentrating the March payment. Where a later-year exit is contemplated, the exit consequences under Section 44AD(4) and Section 44AB(e) are known in advance, the books-of-account discipline under Section 44AA can be restarted before the exit year rather than retrofitted after, and the five-year tax-audit obligation runs against an already-audited data trail rather than a scramble to reconstruct history.
Turnover for FY 2025-26 came in at Rs 1.5 crore. The CA advisor mentions the Section 44AD presumptive scheme — deemed profit at eight per cent of turnover, six per cent on the digital slice, no books, no tax audit. On the numbers, that is roughly Rs 9.3 lakh of taxable income against actual profits closer to Rs 22 lakh. The pitch reads as an obvious yes.
What the pitch does not immediately mention is Section 44AD(4). The five-year lock-in. Opt in for FY 2025-26 and any exit before FY 2029-30 triggers a Section 44AB(e) tax audit for the exit year and the four following, regardless of turnover — and books of account under Section 44AA restart at the same moment.
The quick answer
Section 44AD of the Income-tax Act 1961 is a presumptive-taxation provision available to a resident individual, a resident Hindu Undivided Family (HUF), or a resident partnership firm — not a Limited Liability Partnership — carrying on an eligible business with turnover up to Rs 2 crore (Rs 3 crore under the Finance Act 2023 amendment where cash receipts do not exceed five per cent). The deemed profit is eight per cent of turnover, reduced to six per cent for the portion received through banking channels. The assessee is relieved of the books-of-account requirement under Section 44AA and the tax audit under Section 44AB.
The trap is Section 44AD(4) — a five-consecutive-assessment-year lock-in. An exit before the lock is complete strips the eligibility for the exit year and the four immediately following years, restarts the Section 44AA books obligation, and — where total income exceeds the basic exemption limit — triggers Section 44AB(e) tax audit for each of those five years. The presumptive shortcut is therefore also a five-year compliance commitment, and the eligibility test at Section 44AD(6) — no LLP, no professional under Section 44AA(1), no agency or commission business — has to be cleared before the opt-in memo is signed.
Trigger 1 — Who counts as an “eligible assessee” under Section 44AD(6)
The eligible-assessee test is narrower than the turnover ceiling suggests. Section 44AD(6) restricts the scheme to three categories — a resident individual, a resident Hindu Undivided Family, or a resident partnership firm. A Limited Liability Partnership is expressly excluded, even where turnover sits well inside the Rs 2 crore ceiling. A private limited company or a public limited company is also excluded — the scheme is meant for the unincorporated small business, not for the corporate form. A non-resident individual carrying on a business in India cannot opt in.
The business side carries three exclusions of its own. A person carrying on a profession referred to in Section 44AA(1) — chartered accountancy, legal, medical, engineering, architecture, interior decoration, technical consultancy, film artistry, or company secretary — cannot use Section 44AD; the correct route is Section 44ADA. A person earning income in the nature of commission or brokerage — a distributor on a percentage margin, a general insurance agent — is excluded. And a person carrying on an agency business is excluded. A trading proprietorship or a small manufacturing partnership firm falls inside the eligible-business definition; a CA firm or a stock-broker distribution agency does not.
Trigger 2 — The turnover ceiling and the 95 per cent digital test
The base turnover ceiling under Section 44AD(1) is Rs 2 crore of total sales, turnover, or gross receipts in the previous year. The third proviso — inserted by the Finance Act 2023 — raises the ceiling to Rs 3 crore where cash receipts do not exceed five per cent of total receipts (the 95 per cent digital test). Crossing the ceiling is not a “recompute the deemed profit at a higher rate” trigger; it is an eligibility loss. A business with Rs 2.4 crore of turnover and 90 per cent digital receipts does not qualify for the raised Rs 3 crore ceiling (the digital share needs to be 95 per cent, not 90 per cent), breaches the base Rs 2 crore ceiling, and falls back on normal computation under Sections 28 to 43C — with Section 44AA books and, above the Rs 1 crore turnover trigger, the Section 44AB(a) audit net waiting.
The 95 per cent digital test is a per-year test, computed on the full previous year, not just the last quarter. A business that ran at 96 per cent digital for three quarters and dropped to 82 per cent digital in Q4 (because a large festive-season customer paid partly in cash) has a full-year digital share around 92 per cent and fails the test.
Trigger 3 — The six per cent versus eight per cent deemed profit rates
Section 44AD sub-section (1) fixes the deemed profit at eight per cent of turnover. The proviso reduces this to six per cent for the portion received through account payee cheque, account payee bank draft, or electronic clearing system through a bank account (or another prescribed electronic mode). The two rates apply to the two slices of the same turnover figure — not a blended rate on the whole.
On a Rs 1.5 crore turnover with Rs 1.35 crore of digital receipts and Rs 15 lakh of cash receipts, the arithmetic is (Rs 1.35 crore x six per cent) plus (Rs 15 lakh x eight per cent) — Rs 8.1 lakh plus Rs 1.2 lakh, totalling Rs 9.3 lakh of deemed income. Actual profit on the same turnover after deducting cost of goods sold, salaries, rent, utilities, and working-capital interest could run closer to Rs 22 lakh; the tax computed on the Rs 9.3 lakh deemed figure is materially lower than the tax on Rs 22 lakh of actual profit at slab rates, which is what makes the scheme attractive to a small business.
The digital-received slice qualifies for the six per cent rate if it is received either during the previous year or before the due date under Section 139(1) for filing the return of income. A March invoice with a bank realisation on 5 April against a 31 July return-filing due date still qualifies for the six per cent rate on that receipt.
Trigger 4 — The five-year lock-in under Section 44AD(4)
Sub-section (4) is where the trap sits. Once the assessee elects into Section 44AD for a year, the election must hold for five consecutive assessment years. An exit before the lock is complete — because actual profits ran materially above the six per cent digital deemed rate and normal computation would produce a lower tax outgo, or because the business grew past the turnover ceiling, or because the assessee changed status (an individual moving to an LLP structure) — strips the Section 44AD eligibility for the exit year and the four immediately following years.
The consequences are three: books of account under Section 44AA must be maintained for each of those five years, the tax audit under Section 44AB(e) is compulsory where total income exceeds the basic exemption limit, and no re-opt-in to Section 44AD is possible during the five-year exit penalty. The exit therefore turns a presumptive shortcut into a five-year compliance obligation, and the sibling walkthrough on when a Section 44AB tax audit is required is the treatment of the sub-clause (e) trigger that fires the moment the Section 44AD election is broken.
The economically rational moment to exit is when the actual-profit-versus-deemed-profit gap is large enough that the additional tax outweighs the five-year compliance and audit cost. The moment to plan for the exit is at the start of the AY, not at the return-filing date — a mid-year discovery that the exit is unavoidable is what leaves the books-of-account retrofit and the Form 3CD walkthrough as a September-and-October scramble.
Trigger 5 — Section 44ADA and Section 44AE — the sibling schemes
Section 44ADA is the presumptive scheme for a resident individual or partnership firm (not LLP) carrying on a profession notified under Section 44AA(1). The ceiling is Rs 50 lakh of gross receipts (Rs 75 lakh under the Finance Act 2023 amendment where cash receipts do not exceed five per cent), and the deemed profit is 50 per cent of gross receipts. A Rs 60 lakh medical practice with 100 per cent bank-channel receipts is inside the Rs 75 lakh raised ceiling and can declare Rs 30 lakh of deemed income. A Rs 60 lakh practice with eight per cent cash receipts fails the 95 per cent digital test, cannot use the raised ceiling, breaches the base Rs 50 lakh ceiling, and reverts to normal computation with the Section 44AB(b) audit net at Rs 50 lakh of profession gross receipts.
Section 44AE is the presumptive scheme for a transporter owning up to ten goods carriages at any time during the previous year. The deemed profit is Rs 1,000 per tonne of gross vehicle weight per month for a heavy goods vehicle (gross weight above 12,000 kg), and Rs 7,500 per month for a goods vehicle other than a heavy goods vehicle. A part month counts as a full month. A transporter owning eleven vehicles at any point in the year loses eligibility.
Trigger 6 — The single-instalment advance tax on 15 March
Section 211(1)(a) sets a four-instalment advance-tax schedule for the general population — 15 per cent by 15 June, 45 per cent by 15 September, 75 per cent by 15 December, and 100 per cent by 15 March. Section 211(1)(b) collapses this into a single instalment for a Section 44AD or Section 44ADA assessee — the entire advance-tax liability is payable on or before 15 March of the financial year.
The relief is administrative simplification; the cost is a concentrated March cash-flow. Section 234C interest for deferment of advance tax is computed against this single-instalment schedule for a presumptive assessee, so paying nothing until 15 March and the full amount on that date does not attract Section 234C. Section 234B interest for shortfall of advance tax paid against the assessed tax still applies from 1 April of the assessment year — see the sibling walkthrough on why interest under Section 234B and 234C is being levied for the interest-computation detail.
The one to escalate first — the eligibility and lock-in check before opt-in
The single most costly mistake is a mid-year discovery that the presumptive election taken at return-filing time will not hold — either because the eligible-assessee test was missed (an LLP that assumed it qualified as a firm), or because the eligible-business test was missed (a commission-brokerage line of business, or a professional practice that belongs under Section 44ADA), or because a five-year lock-in from a prior opt-in is still running.
The escalation clock runs at the start of the AY. In April of the financial year, the eligibility working paper is drawn — assessee status, business classification, turnover projection against the Rs 2 crore or Rs 3 crore ceiling, digital-receipt-share projection against the 95 per cent test, and the five-year lock-in horizon from the prior-year returns. The opt-in memo is signed before the first tax-related decision of the year (typically the June advance-tax non-payment under the Section 211(1)(b) relief); the exit-year projection is documented alongside so the Section 44AB(e) consequence is known before it fires.
When the manual presumptive tracking outgrows itself
A single-line proprietorship trading business with one turnover figure, one bank account, one set of receipts, and one CA advisor can hold the Section 44AD eligibility check on a one-page working paper. The digital-receipt-share test is a bank statement export; the deemed-versus-actual profit gap is a P&L subtraction; the five-year lock-in horizon is a note in the return-filing folder. The July return-of-income upload takes an afternoon.
A multi-GSTIN partnership firm carrying multiple lines of business — a trading line at Rs 1.4 crore turnover, an agency line at Rs 40 lakh (which is Section 44AD-ineligible under sub-section (6)), a professional-services line at Rs 30 lakh (which belongs under Section 44ADA rather than 44AD), a transport line at Rs 20 lakh from four owned goods vehicles (which belongs under Section 44AE) — is running four different presumptive-versus-normal computations at once, with four different eligibility tests, and one aggregation into a partnership-firm return of income with partner salary and interest deductibility to work through. The one-page working paper does not hold that.
At that scale, moving the presumptive-scheme eligibility register, the turnover-ceiling-and-digital-share test, and the five-year lock-in horizon onto continuously refreshed detection — where Terra Insight’s reconciliation software for India treats the digital-receipts computation and the multi-line turnover roll-up as first-class monthly outputs — is what keeps the Section 44AD election defensible and the TDS payment codes 1001 to 1092 cross-era reconciliation against the presumptive-scheme returns aligned. Below that scale, the one-page working paper plus the December TRC-refresh discipline for any foreign-vendor legs is the right tool.
Go deeper
- When do I need a tax audit under Section 44AB — the five-clause trigger walkthrough
- Why am I getting interest under Section 234B and 234C — the advance-tax interest detail
- Tax audit Form 3CD reconciliation — the clause-by-clause treatment
- TDS payment codes 1001 to 1092 — the Section 393(1) cross-era coding table
- TDS reconciliation software for India
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is an eligible assessee under Section 44AD?
Section 44AD(6) restricts the eligible assessee to three categories — a resident individual, a resident Hindu Undivided Family, or a resident partnership firm (excluding a Limited Liability Partnership). A non-resident individual carrying on a business in India cannot opt in. An LLP is expressly excluded, even where turnover is well below the Rs 2 crore ceiling. A private limited company or a public limited company also cannot opt in — the presumptive scheme is meant for the small unincorporated business, not for the corporate form. Additional exclusions on the business side under Section 44AD(6) — a person carrying on the profession referred to in sub-section (1) of Section 44AA (chartered accountancy, legal, medical, engineering, architecture, interior decoration, technical consultancy, film artistry, company secretary), a person earning income in the nature of commission or brokerage, and a person carrying on an agency business — cannot use Section 44AD. Professionals go to Section 44ADA; transporters go to Section 44AE.
The business turnover is Rs 1.8 crore and about 90 per cent of receipts are through UPI and bank transfer. Am I eligible for the raised Rs 3 crore ceiling?
No. The Rs 3 crore ceiling under the third proviso to Section 44AD (inserted by Finance Act 2023) is available only where cash receipts do not exceed five per cent of total receipts — the threshold is 95 per cent digital, not 90 per cent. On Rs 1.8 crore of turnover with a 10 per cent cash-receipts share, the base Rs 2 crore ceiling applies and the business is inside it, so the scheme is still available. But if the same business had Rs 2.4 crore of turnover with a 10 per cent cash share, the raised Rs 3 crore ceiling would not apply, the base Rs 2 crore ceiling would be breached, and Section 44AD would not be available at all — the business would revert to normal computation under Section 28 to Section 43C, would have to maintain books under Section 44AA, and would fall into the Section 44AB(a) tax audit net.
What is the difference between the eight per cent and six per cent deemed profit rates?
Section 44AD sub-section (1) fixes the deemed profit at eight per cent of turnover. The proviso reduces this to six per cent for the portion of turnover that is received through banking channels — account payee cheque, account payee bank draft, or electronic clearing system through a bank account, or another prescribed electronic mode. The two rates apply to the two slices of the same turnover figure — the digital-received slice at six per cent, the cash-received slice at eight per cent. On a Rs 1.5 crore turnover with a Rs 1.35 crore digital receipt and a Rs 15 lakh cash receipt, the deemed income is (Rs 1.35 crore x six per cent) plus (Rs 15 lakh x eight per cent) — Rs 8.1 lakh plus Rs 1.2 lakh, totalling Rs 9.3 lakh. The digital-received portion must be received either during the previous year or before the due date under Section 139(1) for filing the return of income; a bank realisation of a March invoice on 5 April against a return-filing due date of 31 July still qualifies for the six per cent rate.
I want to exit Section 44AD next year because my actual profits are much higher than the deemed rate. What happens?
Section 44AD sub-section (4) locks the assessee into the presumptive scheme for five consecutive assessment years. If you opted in for AY 2024-25 and want to exit in AY 2026-27 because your actual profits are, say, Rs 22 lakh on Rs 1.5 crore turnover (roughly 14.7 per cent — well above the six per cent digital deemed rate), the exit itself is permitted but two consequences follow. First, you lose the Section 44AD eligibility for the exit year and the four immediately following assessment years — that means AY 2026-27, 2027-28, 2028-29, 2029-30, and 2030-31 all have to be computed under normal provisions. Second, for each of those five years, Section 44AA books of account must be maintained and — where total income exceeds the basic exemption limit — Section 44AB(e) tax audit is compulsory, regardless of whether turnover is above or below Rs 1 crore. The exit therefore turns a five-year presumptive shortcut into a five-year audit obligation. The economically rational moment to exit is when the actual-profit-versus-deemed-profit gap is large enough that the extra tax outweighs the five-year audit and compliance cost.
What is the advance-tax schedule for a Section 44AD assessee?
Section 211(1)(b) collapses the four-instalment advance-tax schedule of Section 211(1)(a) — 15 per cent by 15 June, 45 per cent by 15 September, 75 per cent by 15 December, 100 per cent by 15 March — into a single instalment for a Section 44AD or Section 44ADA assessee. The entire advance-tax liability is payable on or before 15 March of the financial year. This is administratively simpler but it concentrates the cash-flow hit into a single date — a business that has been holding the cash-flow through the year has to plan for a large March outflow. Section 234C interest for deferment of advance tax is computed against this single-instalment schedule for a presumptive assessee, so paying nothing by 15 December and the full amount by 15 March does not attract Section 234C interest, whereas the same payment profile under Section 211(1)(a) would. Section 234B interest for the shortfall of advance tax paid against the assessed tax still applies from 1 April of the assessment year — the sibling walkthrough on Section 234B and Section 234C interest is the deeper treatment of the advance-tax interest machinery.
Content authored by practitioners with experience at Amazon India, Intuit QuickBooks, and the Tata Group. Meet the team →
- ▸ Section 44AD, Income-tax Act 1961 — Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in Sections 28 to 43C, in the case of an eligible assessee engaged in an eligible business, a sum equal to eight per cent of the total turnover or gross receipts of the assessee in the previous year on account of such business or, as the case may be, a sum higher than the aforesaid sum claimed to have been earned by the eligible assessee, shall be deemed to be the profits and gains of such business chargeable to tax under the head Profits and gains of business or profession. The proviso reduces the deemed income to six per cent in respect of the amount of total turnover or gross receipts which is received by an account payee cheque or account payee bank draft or use of electronic clearing system through a bank account or through such other electronic mode as may be prescribed during the previous year or before the due date specified in sub-section (1) of Section 139 for filing the return of income. Sub-section (2) provides that any deduction allowable under the provisions of Sections 30 to 38 shall, for the purposes of sub-section (1), be deemed to have been already given full effect to and no further deduction under those Sections shall be allowed. Sub-section (4) locks the assessee into the scheme for five consecutive assessment years — an exit within the lock triggers the requirement to maintain books under Section 44AA and the tax audit under Section 44AB(e) where total income exceeds the basic exemption limit, for the exit year and the immediately following four assessment years. Sub-section (6) restricts the eligible assessee to a resident individual, a resident Hindu Undivided Family, or a resident partnership firm — a Limited Liability Partnership is expressly excluded.
- ▸ Section 44ADA, Income-tax Act 1961 — Notwithstanding anything contained in Sections 28 to 43C, in the case of an assessee, being an individual or a partnership firm other than a limited liability partnership, who is a resident in India and is engaged in a profession referred to in sub-section (1) of Section 44AA and whose total gross receipts do not exceed the specified limit in a previous year, a sum equal to fifty per cent of the total gross receipts of the assessee in the previous year on account of such profession or, as the case may be, a sum higher than the aforesaid sum claimed to have been earned by the assessee, shall be deemed to be the profits and gains of such profession chargeable to tax under the head Profits and gains of business or profession. The specified limit was raised from fifty lakh rupees to seventy-five lakh rupees by the Finance Act 2023 where the amount received, in cash, during the previous year does not exceed five per cent of the total gross receipts. Sections 44AA and 44AB do not apply to an assessee opting into Section 44ADA and declaring at least fifty per cent of gross receipts, unless the assessee declares income lower than the deemed rate and total income exceeds the basic exemption limit.
- ▸ Section 44AE, Income-tax Act 1961 — Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in Sections 28 to 43C, in the case of an assessee, who owns not more than ten goods carriages at any time during the previous year and who is engaged in the business of plying, hiring or leasing such goods carriages, the income of such business chargeable to tax under the head Profits and gains of business or profession shall be deemed to be the aggregate of the profits and gains, from each goods carriage, computed in accordance with sub-section (2). For a heavy goods vehicle (with gross vehicle weight exceeding 12,000 kilograms), the deemed profit is one thousand rupees per tonne of gross vehicle weight for every month or part of a month during which the vehicle is owned by the assessee. For a vehicle other than a heavy goods vehicle, the deemed profit is seven thousand five hundred rupees for every month or part of a month during which the vehicle is owned by the assessee. The assessee is required to maintain a register of goods carriages owned during the previous year.
- ▸ Section 44AB(e), Income-tax Act 1961 — Every person carrying on the business shall, if the provisions of sub-section (4) of Section 44AD are applicable in his case and his income exceeds the maximum amount which is not chargeable to income-tax in any previous year, get his accounts of such previous year audited by an accountant before the specified date and furnish by that date the report of the audit as required under this section. Section 44AB(e) is the audit trigger that fires on the Section 44AD five-year lock-in exit — the eligibility for the presumptive scheme is lost for the exit year and the four immediately following assessment years, books of account must be maintained under Section 44AA, and the tax audit under Section 44AB(e) is compulsory for each of those five years regardless of the Rs 1 crore turnover threshold under Section 44AB(a).
- ▸ Section 211(1)(b), Income-tax Act 1961 — In the case of an eligible assessee in respect of the eligible business referred to in Section 44AD or the eligible profession referred to in Section 44ADA, the whole amount of the advance tax payable in a financial year shall be payable on or before the 15th day of March of that financial year. The four-instalment schedule under Section 211(1)(a) — 15 per cent by 15 June, 45 per cent by 15 September, 75 per cent by 15 December, and 100 per cent by 15 March — is replaced for a Section 44AD or Section 44ADA assessee with a single instalment of the entire advance-tax liability on or before 15 March of the financial year. Interest under Section 234C for deferment of advance tax is computed against this single-instalment schedule, not the four-instalment schedule.