The 2026 filing year arrives wrapped in one big structural change and a familiar set of rates. The Income-tax Act 2025 replaces the 1961 Act from 1 April 2026, and Budget 2026 (1 February) kept both regimes' slabs unchanged — so the honest summary is "the law's numbering changed; your money's treatment didn't". What follows is a dated explainer: the structural change, the changes from the last two years that most salaried filers still haven't priced in, and the things that did not change despite confidently worded forwards.
The Act changed; the rates didn't
The new Act renumbers the landscape: NPS's deductions moved to section 124, the 60% lump-sum exemption to the schedules, and so on — the substance carried over, the section numbers did not. Budget 2026 confirmed the rates: the new regime stays default with slabs unchanged (nil to ₹4 lakh; 5% to ₹8 lakh; 10% to ₹12 lakh; 15% to ₹16 lakh; 20% to ₹20 lakh; 25% to ₹24 lakh; 30% above), and the ₹60,000 Section 87A rebate keeps income up to ₹12 lakh effectively tax-free, with the ₹75,000 standard deduction intact for salaried filers. If a WhatsApp forward says the 2026 budget "changed everything", it is selling a course.
The changes that matter — with their effective dates
- Employer NPS at 14% under the new regime (80CCD(2)): the largest deduction that survives the default regime — effective for AY 2025-26 onward and current per the department's threshold page. If your employer offers an NPS route and you're not using it, this page has already paid for itself.
- Capital-gains reset (from 23 July 2024): equity LTCG at 12.5% above ₹1.25 lakh a year, STCG at 20%; for property and gold acquired before 23 July 2024, resident individuals choose the lower of 12.5% without indexation or 20% with it. Holding periods and rates changed mid-year that year — old articles lie about this.
- FD TDS thresholds (from 1 April 2025): bank interest TDS at ₹50,000 a year generally, ₹1 lakh for seniors — thresholds, not exemptions; the interest is still taxable and the TDS still settles in the return.
- Family pension relief: the ₹25,000 deduction under Section 57(iia) is available in the new regime from FY 2025-26 — a small but real change for pension-receiving households.
- The ₹12 lakh effective exemption (from FY 2025-26): the rebate-led zero-tax zone changed the "should I even bother with deductions" calculus for millions — and it is why last year's regime comparison is already stale.
The dated table
Each change with its effective date and its source class. This is the part that gets checked line by line at the next budget.
View the numbers as a table
| Change | Effective | Who it moves |
|---|---|---|
| Income-tax Act 2025 replaces the 1961 Act | 1 Apr 2026 | Everyone (renumbering; substance unchanged) |
| Budget 2026: slabs unchanged, new regime default | FY 2026-27 | Every filer |
| Employer NPS 14% under new regime (80CCD(2)) | AY 2025-26 onward | Salaried with an NPS employer route |
| Capital-gains reset: 12.5% / ₹1.25L / STCG 20% | 23 Jul 2024 | Every equity and property seller |
| FD TDS thresholds ₹50K / ₹1L (seniors) | 1 Apr 2025 | Depositors crossing the threshold |
| Family pension ₹25,000 deduction in new regime | FY 2025-26 | Pension-receiving households |
| ₹12 lakh effective exemption (87A ₹60K) | FY 2025-26 | Salaried and pensioners below the line |
Verified 29 October 2026 (sources below). The Act transition renumbers sections without changing substance.
What did not change
- The old regime's structure: 80C (₹1.5 lakh), HRA, and the ₹2 lakh self-occupied home-loan interest cap all exist exactly as before — for filers who choose that regime.
- The ₹50,000 extra NPS deduction (80CCD(1B)) remains old-regime-only, as does the Vatsalya parent version from AY 2026-27.
- The ₹1.25 lakh annual equity LTCG exemption — still annual, still use-it-or-lose-it, still the cheapest alpha in the law.
- Debt funds bought after 1 April 2023 remain slab-taxed; the flagged Budget-2025 change for units bought from 1 April 2026 should be confirmed against the enacted Finance Act text before you rely on it.
The renumbering, briefly
You do not need to learn the new section numbers — your CA and the e-filing portal absorb the mapping. The two worth knowing: NPS's deductions now live in section 124 (with the Vatsalya parent deduction at 124(4)), and the old 10(12A)/10(12B) withdrawal exemptions moved into the schedules. Everything else is the same law in new clothes, which is precisely why the 2026 budget could "change nothing" while changing the entire statute underneath.
The refresh plan
This page is dated by design. The next budget resets the table again — when it lands, this page gets a refresh pass or a redirect to its successor, and the effective-date table is the part that gets checked line by line against the Finance Act, not against coverage of it.
Educational content, not financial advice. The Act transition (1 April 2026), Budget 2026's unchanged slabs, the 80CCD(2) 14% position, the capital-gains reset and the 194A thresholds verified on 29 October 2026 against PIB, the Income Tax Department's pages and corroborating coverage (sources below). The source video for this page listed nineteen changes; this page carries the items that verified — the rest are either section renumberings or claims the sources did not support.