Why is Amazon/Flipkart holding back a cut of my payout, what is this TCS?
The short answer
Under Section 52, every marketplace must collect TCS (Tax Collected at Source) on the net value of your sales and deposit it against your GSTIN, the rate is small (0.5% as of now; it was 1% until mid-2024, so verify the current figure with your CA). It is not a cost you lose: it lands in your electronic cash ledger (reflected via GSTR-8/2B) and you set it off against your monthly GST liability. Note that your own website is not a 'marketplace', so no GST TCS is collected on Shopify/gateway sales there.
A quick summary to orient you. The real value is below: the resources worth your time, from people who've actually done it, not us.
Here are the resources
Hand-picked from around the web, each with a note on why it earns your time. India-specific ones carry a badge.
4 resources4 India-specific4 link-checked
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📄 Article
✓ Link checkedIndiaFreeIntermediate
Why we picked it
Explains TCS under Section 52, what the marketplace deducts, how it hits your ledger and how you reclaim it, so the payout deduction stops being a mystery. Also notes the Nov 2025 simplified-registration change.
Why we picked it
A dense, practitioner-written FAQ covering commission handling, invoice generation, ITC and TCS matching, the kind of detail a marketplace seller runs into in month two.
Why we picked it
The single best plain-English overview for a D2C founder, it ties together registration, place of supply, invoicing, returns and TCS in one read without drowning you in sections of the Act.
Why we picked it
Shows the practical loop of pulling marketplace sales reports and reconciling them into your GST returns, including matching the TCS the platform reported against your own numbers.
