Your tax did not change on 1 April 2026. Your vocabulary did.
Short answer: the Income Tax Act 2025 replaced the 1961 Act from 1 April 2026. Slabs, rates, the ₹75,000 standard deduction, cess, surcharge and the ₹12 lakh Section 156(2)(a) rebate all carry over unchanged — Budget 2026 confirmed it. What changed is the numbering: familiar forms and sections now have new names, and “assessment year” is gone, replaced by the single tax year.
In force from 1 April 2026 (tax year 2026-27) · FY 2025-26 returns filed during 2026 still use the 1961 Act's numbering
| You knew it as (1961 Act) | It is now (2025 Act) | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Form 15G / Form 15H | Form 121 | Nil-tax declaration to stop TDS on interest — full guide |
| Form 16 | Form 130 | Employer's TDS certificate for salary |
| Form 26AS | Form 168 | Your consolidated tax-credit statement |
| Section 80C (₹1.5 lakh basket) | Section 123 | PPF, ELSS, 5-yr tax-saver FD, etc. — old regime only, as before |
| Section 80TTB (senior interest deduction) | Section 153 | ₹50,000 off interest income — old regime only, as before |
| Section 194A (TDS on interest) | Section 393(1) | The ₹50,000 / ₹1 lakh TDS thresholds live here now |
| Previous year + Assessment year | Tax year | One term: the 12 months from 1 April in which the income arises |
Mappings shown are the ones we have verified against official and professional sources; the Act renumbers hundreds more. Where a bank form or portal still shows the old number, the old and new refer to the same provision.
The 1961 Act made everyone learn a two-calendar dance: income earned in the previous year 2025-26 was assessed in assessment year 2026-27. The 2025 Act collapses this into one term — the tax year — written as six digits on forms (2026-27 is 202627). Income of tax year 2026-27 is simply the income of tax year 2026-27. A generation of confusion about "which year do I write on this form" ends here.
Every number on this site's salary, tax and gratuity pages survives the new Act untouched: the 0/5/10/15/20/25/30% slab ladder from ₹4 lakh, the ₹75,000 standard deduction, the ₹12 lakh rebate with its marginal relief, the surcharge bands, the 4% cess, and both regimes side by side with new-regime as default. Budget 2026 changed filing plumbing (revised returns now allowed to 31 March with a fee), not liability.
2026 is the straddle year: the return you file during 2026 is for FY 2025-26 and speaks 1961-Act language (15H, 26AS, 80C), while the income you earn in 2026-27 speaks 2025-Act language (121, 168, 123). Quote the old numbers on the old year's return and the new numbers to your bank. Any article that mixes the two — and most do right now — is describing neither year correctly.
No. The 2025 Act, in force from 1 April 2026, carried the existing slabs, standard deduction, rebate, surcharge and cess over unchanged, and Budget 2026 made no revisions either.
Form 168 — the same consolidated tax-credit statement under the new numbering. Form 16 became Form 130, and Forms 15G/15H became Form 121.
The provision survives as Section 123 of the 2025 Act, with the same ₹1.5 lakh limit and the same catch: it applies only under the old tax regime.
The 2025 Act's single replacement for 'previous year' and 'assessment year' — the 12 months from 1 April in which income is earned, written as six digits (202627 for 2026-27) on forms.
Related: Form 121 guide · Income tax by salary · Old vs new regime
A note on section numbers. The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the Income-tax Act, 1961 with effect from 1 April 2026. Section numbers on this page are those of the 2025 Act. Where you know a provision by its old number, the mapping is: 115BAC → 202, 87A → 156, 16(ia) → 19, 80CCD(2) → 124, 112A → 198, 10(10) → 19(1) Table Sl. Nos. 3-6.
The official pages this page is checked against. If one of them disagrees with us, it wins.
Written and checked by the PaisaSamajh editorial desk · Last reviewed: 24 August 2026 · How we check this →