ITR Filing Guide 2026 — Which Form (ITR-1 to ITR-7), the 10 Changes This Year, New vs Old Regime, Documents and the Mistakes That Bring Notices

Income comes from five heads — salary, house property, business or profession, capital gains and other sources — and the seven return forms are cut by who you are and which heads you have. File the wrong form and the return is defective; the department will issue a notice.

• •Two laws in play: the return for FY 2025-26 is filed under the Income-tax Act, 1961; the new Income Tax Act, 2025 applies from 1 April 2026 (FY 2026-27) with a single 'tax year' replacing previous year and assessment year. Plan the coming year under the new Act.
• •Wider ITR-1 / ITR-4 eligibility: up to two house properties can be reported in the simple forms, as explained in the video, pulling many salaried taxpayers out of ITR-2.
• •A secondary address field: useful for NRIs and people working away from home, so notices actually reach you.
• •Capital gains reporting simplified: date-based classification (before and after 23 July 2024) flows from AIS/TIS into the return.
• •AIS/TIS integration: TDS and TCS under every section, bank transactions and savings-account interest are pre-filled. Reconcile every line — or use the AIS feedback option to dispute a wrong entry before filing. Filing without reconciling is the surest way to a notice.
• •Due dates: 31 July 2026 for individuals not under audit; 31 August for non-audit business and professional cases per the video; 31 October for audit cases; 30 November for transfer-pricing cases. A belated return that still wants a refund must be filed by 31 December 2026.
• •Updated return (ITR-U): a missed or wrong return can be corrected within four years of the end of the year, on payment of additional tax — but no refund is available on an ITR-U.
• •Presumptive limits: ₹3 crore for business and ₹75 lakh for professionals when 95% or more of receipts are digital.
• •Rationalised disclosures: fewer redundant schedules on the front, stricter analytics at the back.
• •Faster refunds with automatic set-off: small outstanding demands (for example the ₹5,000 late-filing fee on a defective return) are adjusted before the refund is released.

The new regime is the default. For FY 2025-26 it charges no tax up to ₹12 lakh of income (₹12.75 lakh for salaried taxpayers after the ₹75,000 standard deduction) through the section 87A rebate, but allows almost none of the old deductions — no 80C, 80D, HRA or home-loan interest. The old regime keeps every deduction and exemption but taxes from ₹2.5 lakh at the older slabs. As a rule of thumb: heavy home-loan interest, HRA, children's fees and 80C investments point to the old regime; little or no investment points to the new one. Salaried taxpayers choose each year in the return; business taxpayers opting out of the new regime file Form 10-IEA.

Salary checklist

1. 1Step 1 — Log in at incometax.gov.in with PAN and password; check AIS/TIS and Form 26AS first and note every income and TDS entry.
2. 2Step 2 — e-File → Income Tax Returns → File Income Tax Return; choose the assessment year, online mode, Individual, and ITR-1.
3. 3Step 3 — Select the filing section: 139(1) for an original return before the due date, 139(5) for a revised return, 139(4) belated, or the notice section if you are responding to one.
4. 4Step 4 — Choose the regime (opt out of the new regime here if the old one saves tax).
5. 5Step 5 — Verify the pre-filled personal details, employer category, salary, house property, other sources, deductions and taxes paid; add anything AIS missed — savings interest, FD interest, dividend, commission.
6. 6Step 6 — Check the computed tax and refund; preview; submit.
7. 7Step 7 — e-Verify within 30 days by Aadhaar OTP, net banking or DSC; the return is not filed until it is verified.

• •One 'tax year' (1 April 2026 – 31 March 2027 is the first) instead of previous year and assessment year.
• •Revised salary exemptions — children's education and hostel allowances, meal vouchers and gift limits are raised, as itemised in the video; most benefit those in the old regime.
• •HRA: major tier-2 cities such as Jaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh and Pune get the 50% metro treatment; rent paid to parents must be reported by the recipient.
• •Due date for non-audit returns moves to 31 August and a revised return can be filed within 12 months.
• •Mutual-fund transactions above ₹10 lakh move from SFT into AIS; PAN becomes mandatory for foreign-travel cash above ₹1 lakh, vehicles above ₹6 lakh, aggregate cash deposits above ₹10 lakh and property transactions above ₹20 lakh.
• •TCS on foreign remittances rationalised to a flat 2% above ₹10 lakh; STT changes on futures and options; buy-back proceeds taxed in the shareholder's hands; interest on loans taken to buy shares no longer deductible against dividend.
• •Buyers of property from NRIs can deduct and deposit TDS on their PAN without obtaining a TAN.

• •Ignoring an AIS/TIS entry — interest, dividend, share sale, commission — that the department already knows about.
• •Claiming deductions you did not pay for; the ₹5,000 late-filing fee is the smallest consequence.
• •Wrong form — an NRI or a share trader in ITR-1, a director in ITR-4.
• •Salary arrears taxed in one year without Form 10E relief.
• •Wrong home-loan interest deduction, or HRA claimed with rent to parents that they never reported.
• •Not e-verifying within 30 days, so the return lapses.
• •Filing late and losing the refund, or losing the option to carry forward losses.