How to file ITR for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27)

The return you file now for salary and other income earned from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 is the return for FY 2025-26, AY 2026-27. It is governed by the Income-tax Act, 1961. The Income-tax Act, 2025 came into force on 1 April 2026. It does not rewrite this year’s form.

That is why this page says 80C, 87A, 139 and 234F. The section number guide is for the next return, the one for FY 2026-27. The slabs you see on Finfod’s calculators are labelled FY 2026-27. The department has said those rates also match FY 2025-26. The section numbers on the FY 2025-26 form do not.

File on the official e-filing portal, https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/. This page follows the Income Tax Department’s own pages on which form to use, the due dates, and how to file online. It is not a shortcut around those pages.

Which ITR form

The department’s return page sorts individuals and Hindu undivided families like this.

Table: Individual forms for AY 2026-27

If you sold shares and the long-term equity gain is above ₹1,25,000, ITR-1 is the wrong form even if everything else looks simple. If you have two houses, ITR-1 is the wrong form. If you are a director of a company, ITR-1 is the wrong form. Pick the form from the income you have, not from the form that looks shortest.

Due dates, and which have passed

The department’s due-date table for this year is not one date for everyone. The August date for business and profession without an audit is part of this year’s calendar.

Table: Due dates for AY 2026-27

The audit-case return date was 31 October 2026. CBDT Circular No. 7/2026 dated 28 September 2026 moved it to 21 November 2026. The same circular moved the tax audit report date to 21 October 2026. Transfer pricing stays 30 November 2026. A business without an audit stays 31 August 2026. Most other people stay 31 July 2026. As of 29 October 2026 the audit-case return is still ahead.

A belated return is a return filed after the section 139(1) due date. The department’s example for AY 2026-27 says the last date for that belated return is 31 December 2026, unless the assessment is completed earlier. The window is three months before the end of the assessment year.

A belated return can be revised. Some benefits are refused if you are late. The department names carry-forward of losses, and some deductions, as things a late return can lose. There is also a fee under section 234F, and interest under section 234A on tax that is still unpaid.

The fee is ₹1,000 if total income does not exceed ₹5,00,000. It is ₹5,000 if total income is higher. There is no fee if you file on or before your due date, or if you were not required to file. The new Act’s section 428 copies these amounts for later years. It does not replace section 234F for this assessment year.

You may still have to file even when income is below the exemption limit. The department lists deposits in current accounts above ₹1,00,00,000, foreign travel above ₹2,00,000, electricity above ₹1,00,000, business turnover above ₹60,00,000, professional receipts above ₹10,00,000, TDS or TCS of ₹25,000 or more (₹50,000 for a senior citizen), and savings-account deposits above ₹50,00,000.

What to keep before you open the form

For salary, the certificate is Form 16. CBDT’s transition note says the employer issues it under the 1961 Act, and the due date was 15 June 2026. It shows salary paid and tax deducted. Match the salary and the tax on the form to that certificate.

Tax deducted on payments other than salary, such as bank interest above the TDS line, comes on Form 16A, also due 15 June 2026 for the last quarter of this year. Next year the names change. Salary for tax year 2026-27 uses Form No. 130, due 15 June 2027. Other payments in the first quarter of that year use Form No. 131, due 15 August 2026. Do not look for Form No. 130 while you are filing FY 2025-26.

The form also asks for income that never had TDS. Interest on a savings account or a small deposit can be below the TDS threshold and still be taxable. ITR-1’s own description includes other sources, and it names interest. Put that interest in. The glossary note on TDS explains why tax already deducted is not the final bill.

If you paid advance tax during FY 2025-26, those challans belong on the return. The last instalment for that year was 15 March 2026, under the 1961 Act. A shortfall is interest under Sections 234B and 234C of that Act, even if you are computing the interest after 1 April 2026. The threshold, unchanged in section 404 of the new Act, is ₹10,000 of tax payable in the year.

Keep the deduction proofs you used: PPF, insurance, ELSS, health insurance, rent receipts, and the home-loan certificate. For this year they support section 80C, section 80D and section 24(b). The 80C list is written with next year’s numbers. The payments are the same idea. The label on this return is the old one.

The income tax calculator and the regime calculator use FY 2026-27 labels. They are a check on the arithmetic of slabs, rebate and cess. They are not the return, and they do not file anything.

The steps on the e-filing portal

The department’s own online method is short. Do it on incometax.gov.in, not on a site that asks you to pay before you have even seen the form.

1. Open the e-filing portal and log in with your PAN as the user ID, then your password.
2. Go to e-File, then Income Tax Returns, then File Income Tax Return.
3. Choose assessment year AY 2026-27. Choose online as the mode. Start the filing.
4. Choose the type of taxpayer. For a normal salary return that is individual. Continue, and start a new filing if you are not resuming a draft.
5. Choose the ITR form from the list above. Read the instructions on the form. Fill every field that applies to you. Leave a field blank only when it truly does not apply.
6. Preview the return. Then run the validation. The portal lists errors. Clear them until the error list is empty.
7. Verify. Aadhaar OTP, an electronic verification code from net banking, a bank account, a demat account or an ATM, or a digital signature. If you do none of these, print ITR-V, sign it, and send it to CPC Bengaluru within 30 days. The department counts those 30 days from the day CPC receives the form, not from the day you posted it.

A draft that you left half-finished can be resumed after you log in again. Uploading is not filing until verification is done.

Paper filing is only for a super senior citizen, aged 80 or over, filing ITR-1 or ITR-4. An updated return cannot be filed on paper. Everyone else files electronically.

After the due date

A revised return replaces the original when the original has a mistake. The department says you can revise before the end of the assessment year, or before the assessment is completed, whichever is earlier. There is no stated cap on how many times you revise. A later revision can correct an earlier one. For legal purposes the filing date of the original still applies.

If the revised return comes more than 9 months after the end of the financial year, section 234-I charges a fee: ₹1,000 if total income does not exceed ₹5,00,000, and ₹5,000 otherwise. Nine months after 31 March 2026 is 31 December 2026. A revision after that, and before 31 March 2027, is the case that fee is aimed at.

An updated return is the later window. From 1 April 2025 it can be filed within 48 months from the end of the assessment year. It has to be a return of income. It cannot be a return of loss. You pay the extra tax before you file it. The department’s rates are 25% of the tax and interest if you are within 12 months after the end of the assessment year, 50% from 12 to 24 months, 60% from 24 to 36 months, and 70% from 36 to 48 months. A notice under section 148 can add a further 10%. You cannot use an updated return to reduce tax that was already correct, or to claim a refund you forgot. It is for income that was left out.

Some cases cannot use an updated return at all: a search, a requisition, or a survey, an updated return already filed for that year, or an assessment that is pending or finished, except where the notice itself allows one. Read that list on the department’s page before you rely on the 48-month line.

Mistakes that cost time

The department’s rules make a few mistakes expensive. They are ordinary, and they are avoidable.

Choosing ITR-1 when you have capital gains above ₹1,25,000, a second house, foreign assets, or business income. The form will either block you or leave income out. Income left out is how notices start.

Skipping verification. The upload feels like the end. It is not. 30 days, then the return is invalid unless CPC condones the delay.

Missing the row that applies to you. A salaried person who also has a small presumptive business is not always in the 31 July row. Read the business row before you assume July was your only date. For this year, both of those dates are already past if you are reading this on 29 October 2026. The belated date is the one that is still open for you.

Copying last year’s deductions into this year’s form without the receipts. Section 80C is a cap of ₹1,50,000, not a memory. Interest on a self-occupied house is a different section, with its own cap. The home loan guide uses next year’s section numbers. The rupee caps it describes are the ones this year’s form still calls 24(b) and 80C.

Treating the calculator as the return. Finfod works out tax from the figures you type. The portal works out tax from the figures you declare, and from the tax already deducted in your name. If those two disagree, the portal is the one that processes the refund or the demand.

Filing a paper form because the website was slow. Unless you are 80 or older and on ITR-1 or ITR-4, the paper form is not available.

What changes next year

The return for income earned from 1 April 2026 will use the new Act. Section 80C becomes section 123. Section 87A becomes section 156. The new regime becomes section 202. The late fee becomes section 428, at the same rupee amounts. The salary certificate becomes Form No. 130. Advance tax for that year is paid under section 408, on the same dates: 15% by 15 June, 45% by 15 September, 75% by 15 December, and 100% by 15 March.

None of those new labels go on the return you are filing for FY 2025-26. Finish this return under the Act that governed the year. Then use the FY 2026-27 guides when you plan the year that has already started.