The Income-tax Act 2025 replaces the Income-tax Act 1961 with effect from FY 2026-27, aiming to simplify and consolidate the law without large changes to tax rates. It introduces a single 'tax year' concept, plainer drafting, and renumbered provisions, including TDS under Sections 392 (salary), 393 (non-salary) and 394 (TCS).
What the new Act is and is not
The Income-tax Act 2025 is largely a structural rewrite: it removes redundant provisos and explanations, consolidates scattered sections, and uses simpler language and tables. It is not a wholesale change in tax policy — rates, regimes and most computational concepts continue. The bigger practical impact is renumbering and reorganisation, which affects every reference, software mapping and template a finance team uses.
The 'tax year' concept
The new Act replaces the dual 'previous year' and 'assessment year' terminology with a single 'tax year'. This removes a long-standing source of confusion for taxpayers, aligning the period of income with the year of reference. Returns, assessments and compliance will be described by the tax year.
Renumbered TDS and TCS
| Provision | Old Act (1961) | New Act (2025) |
|---|---|---|
| TDS on salary | Section 192 | Section 392 |
| TDS on non-salary payments | Sections 193-196 etc. | Section 393 (consolidated) |
| TCS | Section 206C | Section 394 |
See the TDS chart for the rate-and-section map. TDS: Section 392 (salary), 393 (other payments); TCS: Section 394. Rates and thresholds same as the 1961 Act. The new Act is in force from 1 April 2026.
What finance teams should do now
- Re-map standard letters, notices, and engagement templates to new-Act references.
- Update accounting/payroll software section masters for TDS/TCS.
- Train teams on the tax-year terminology.
- Keep a 1961-to-2025 concordance handy during the transition.
The renumbering map every finance team needs
| 1961 Act | Income-tax Act 2025 | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| Section 139 | Section 263 | Return filing |
| Section 115BAC | Section 202 | New tax regime |
| Sections 80C / 80D | Sections 123 / 124 | Deductions |
| Section 192 | Section 392 | TDS on salary |
| 194-series (non-salary TDS) | Section 393 | Consolidated TDS |
| Section 195 | Section 393(2) framework | Non-resident payments |
| Section 206C | Section 394 | TCS |
| Sections 234A/B/C | Sections 432/433/434 | Interest |
| Sections 44AD / 44ADA | Sections 58 / 59 | Presumptive taxation |
| Section 43B | Section 37 | Payment-linked deductions |
The consolidation is deliberate: the 1961 Act's 819 sections (as amended) compress into a leaner structure with schedules and tables replacing provisos and explanations. Rates, thresholds and the compliance calendar carry over — the change is architectural, not substantive, for most day-to-day positions.
The "tax year" concept
The Act replaces the previous-year/assessment-year duality with a single tax year. Practically: "FY 2026-27 (AY 2027-28)" phrasing gives way to "tax year 2026-27" in notices, returns and orders issued under the new Act. During the transition, expect both vocabularies in circulation — CPC communications for older years continue under the 1961 Act's framework, since the new Act applies to income of tax years beginning 1 April 2026, while assessments and litigation for earlier years continue under the old Act for years.
Transition actions for a corporate tax function
- Documentation refresh: engagement letters, TDS certificates issued to vendors, standard replies to notices, board-pack tax notes — all need dual-referencing (old section, new section) for at least FY 2026-27 and FY 2027-28.
- ERP and payroll masters: TDS section codes in the ERP (194C, 194J tags) map to Section 393 sub-provisions — most software vendors handle this in updates, but validate the first quarter's 26Q/24Q equivalents carefully.
- Litigation memos: positions built on 1961-Act case law remain persuasive — the new Act's language was intended to preserve settled interpretation — but every memo should note where the new text differs even slightly, because "plain reading" arguments will be re-run by both sides.
- Training: the fastest practical failure is a junior quoting a 1961 section in a reply filed under the new Act. Keep the mapping table above pinned until the muscle memory forms.
Track CBDT's transition circulars and the section-mapping utility at incometax.gov.in.
What did NOT change — and where to stay alert
Slab rates, the new-regime default, TDS/TCS rates and thresholds, presumptive percentages, capital-gains rates and holding periods, and the return calendar all carry over unchanged into the new Act. The areas worth active monitoring in the first two years: transitional provisions for carried-forward losses and unabsorbed depreciation (mapped across via the repeal-and-savings clauses — verify your brought-forward schedule survives with the same character), pending assessments and appeals (which continue under the 1961 Act for earlier years, meaning teams run both Acts in parallel until the old years close), and delegated legislation — the new Rules, forms and utilities issued under the 2025 Act, where drafting differences from the old Rules can create genuinely new positions. Treat every "same as before" assumption as verifiable, not assumed, for the first filing cycle.
Key takeaways
- The 2025 Act replaces the 1961 Act from FY 2026-27.
- Mainly a simplification/renumbering, not a rate overhaul.
- Single 'tax year' replaces previous year/assessment year.
- TDS/TCS renumbered to Sections 392/393/394 — verify sub-sections.