Methods and apparatuses for beam indication and association for control and data channels. A method by a user equipment (UE) includes receiving a first radio resource control (RRC) configuration related to one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states for reception of a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH); receiving a second RRC configuration related to one or more TCI states for reception of a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); receiving, in downlink control information (DCI), an indicator related to the one or more TCI states for reception of the PDSCH; and receiving a timing threshold for reception of the PDSCH. The method further includes identifying, based on the first RRC configuration, one or more TCI states to use for reception of the PDCCH and identifying, based on (i) the timing threshold and (ii) the second RRC configuration or the indicator in the DCI, one or more TCI states to use for reception of the PDSCH.