October has four clocks and one HR inbox. Salary TDS for September was due on the 7th. The September PF return, with a mid-month ceiling change, is due on the 15th. Form 138 for the quarter is due on the 31st. The EPFO enrolment window also ends on the 31st. ESI started a new contribution period on the 1st. Treating them as “month-end PF” is how one of them gets missed.
Dates that matter in October 2026
| When | What | Notes for HR / payroll |
|---|---|---|
| 1 October | New ESI contribution period | Re-check who is inside the ESI wage ceiling and whether new insured persons finished Aadhaar authentication. |
| 7 October | September salary TDS deposit | Deposit by the 7th. Late deposit draws interest. This is not Form 138. |
| 15 October | September EPF ECR and remittance | One ECR. Ceiling ₹15,000 up to 16 September and ₹25,000 from 17 September. Full employer and employee amounts. |
| 31 October | Form 138 (July–September) | Quarterly salary TDS return under the Income-tax Act, 2025. Replaces Form 24Q. Due 31 October. |
| 31 October | EPFO Enrolment Campaign ends | One-time window for eligible employees left out from 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2026. Not the same job as the 15 October ECR. |
15 October is the PF day, not “sometime in October”
The revised ₹25,000 wage ceiling took effect on 17 September 2026. EPFO’s FAQs require a single September ECR that respects both ceilings, filed with full remittance by 15 October 2026. If you could not deduct the employee share for newly covered people in the September payroll, you may recover it next month without prior approval - only if that ECR and the full remittance still happen by the 15th.
Interest on amounts due under the Code on Social Security runs at 12% a year from the due date until payment. A late ECR is not a paperwork delay. It is a cost.
31 October is two different filings
Form 138
Quarterly salary TDS statement for July–September. It feeds Form 130 later. Form 130 itself is due by 15 June after the tax year, not this month.
Enrolment Campaign
Closes 31 October 2026. Historical non-coverage only, for people still employed. Details are in the campaign guide. Face authentication needs lead time.
ESI period
1 October starts a new contribution period. Do not discover excluded or newly covered people when the return is already due.
Wage slips
Most states want the wage slip on or before payday. October payroll should publish slips from the locked month, not a follow-up mail next week.
A week-by-week cut for a small HR team
- This week: confirm September TDS was deposited by the 7th. If it was late, tell finance the interest applies; do not wait for the quarterly return to discover it.
- Before the 15th: lock the September wage split, list newly covered EPF/EPS/EDLI employees, file one ECR, remit both shares.
- Mid-month: ESI eligibility for the new period, and Aadhaar authentication still open inside 30 days of IP registration.
- Before the 31st: Form 138 with your CA or TDS filer, and the enrolment-campaign declarations that still qualify. These are different logins. Assign two owners.
Professional tax is still monthly and state-specific. It does not move because PF moved. If you operate in more than one PT state, the October challan is a fifth clock. See PF, ESI and professional tax mistakes for the wage-base errors that show up on all three.
Where Bynarize fits
Government portals still take the ECR, Form 138 and the campaign declaration. Bynarize is the record those filings should be built from: locked payroll, attendance that already agrees with pay, and employee data you can filter by join date and wage. If September only exists in the CA’s working file, none of the October dates are under your control.
If you are a Founder, HR Head or Finance lead: put 7, 15 and 31 October on one page with a name next to each. The month is already underway. An unnamed “compliance” task will land on whoever opens the inbox last.
Calendar drawn from the Income-tax Act, 2025 return pattern (Form 138 due 31 October for the July–September quarter; monthly TDS by the 7th), EPFO’s September 2026 ceiling FAQs (ECR by 15 October), the ESI contribution period starting 1 October, and the Enrolment Campaign ceasing 31 October 2026. State PT and labour-welfare dues are extra. Confirm challans with your consultant before you treat a date as filed.
Want October’s filings to start from a locked payroll month?
See payslips, salary components and employee records in Bynarize.
