Maintenance charges to society

Sudesh,

While I do not have any case law/circular that I can quote/cite, in my opinion, TDS would be deducted under section 194C.

Maintenance charges, in it's general connotation, includes supervisory/security expenses, cleaning charges, electrical maintenance charges, general repairs and restructuring expenses.

All such expenses, which form a part of "Maintenance Charges", attract the provisions of Section 194C, thereby, inherently implying that tax has to be deducted at source for maintenance charges as well.

Now, since you've mentioned that you're client is paying such an amount to a specific individual company for doing the collective work, it goes onto imply that there is a contractual agreement between your client and the maintaining company.

Therefore, I believe the provisions of Section 194C can be applied in the aforementioned case. However, this is purely my opinion. I would love to hear what others have to say about it.

Cheers,
Sam