VittSphere ONE Calculators Blog CA Firm CA Prabhakar Kumar · FCA · ICAI 560762
Calculators Blog Handle my notice
Case law › Income-tax Act 2025 › Chapter III › Section 11
Chapter IIIwas s.10

Section 11 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 11 — Incomes not included in total income. Successor to s.10 of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 11 is in Chapter III — Incomes Which Do Not Form Part of Total Income, which runs from section 11 to section 12.

← Section 10  ·  Section 12 →

What this section does

Sub-section (1) says that in computing any person's total income for a tax year, income enumerated in Schedules II, III, IV, V and VI is not included, but only if the conditions set out in those Schedules are met. Sub-section (2) is the counterpart: in any tax year in which those conditions are not satisfied for a given income, that income is charged to tax on the total income for that year. Sub-sections (3) and (4) do the same at the level of persons rather than income — persons listed in Schedule VII are not chargeable on their total income if they meet the Schedule's conditions, and are charged under the Act for any year in which they do not. Sub-section (5) lets the Central Government make rules or issue notifications for the purposes of the section, as specified in Schedules II to VII.

Why it is there

It is the single gateway provision for exemptions: rather than carrying a long list of exempt incomes and exempt bodies in the section itself, the Act puts them in Schedules and uses this section to give them effect. Sub-sections (2) and (4) make clear the exemption is year-by-year and conditional, so a failure of conditions in one year restores the charge for that year.

Who it applies to

What this means in practice

You cannot answer an exemption question from this section — it names no income and no person. Identify the Schedule entry (II to VI for an income, VII for a person), then check the conditions attached to that entry, because sub-sections (2) and (4) put the income or the person back into charge for any tax year in which the conditions fail. The exemption is tested each tax year separately, not granted once.

An example

Illustrative only, and invented for this page. The figures are chosen to show the rule biting, not taken from any real matter.

A body's income is enumerated in one of Schedules II to VI, and in the first tax year it satisfies every condition that Schedule attaches, so sub-section (1) keeps that income out of its total income. In the next tax year one of those conditions is not satisfied, and sub-section (2) charges the same income to tax on the total income for that year, leaving the earlier year alone. The same year-by-year test runs at the level of the person under sub-sections (3) and (4) for anyone enumerated in Schedule VII. The section itself carries no amounts and no conditions — everything that decides the outcome sits in the Schedule.

Where you meet this section

You meet it in the return of income, where an amount is reported as not included in total income under one of Schedules II to VI, and in an assessment order that brings that income back into charge for a year in which the Schedule's conditions were not met. The section names no form and no authority; the conditions actually argued about are in the Schedules it points to.

The words themselves

any income enumerated in Schedules II, III, IV, V and VI shall not be included, subject to fulfilment of conditions specified therein
s.11(1), Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

What this replaced

The correspondence is the Income Tax Department’s own, from its comparison utility for the 1961 and 2025 Acts. A renumbering is the easy half; whether the words changed is the half that decides cases.

See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.

Rules that serve this section

Rules of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 that work section 11. Where the rule’s own heading names the section we say so; the rest are marked on reading the rule, which is our derivation and not the department’s. A rule that serves the section silently and that we have missed will not appear here.

All of them are in the Rules 2026 index.

Circulars of the Board on this section

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. Every one below was written under the 1961 Act; it reaches this section because the department’s own concordance carries the provision it names to this one.

See every circular and notification on this section, or the circulars index.

Notifications that reach this section

A notification is made under a power the Act gives and, within that power, is law. These too were made under the 1961 Act and are placed here by the department’s concordance. We hold 3551 in all; the 250 most recent are listed.

See every circular and notification on this section, or the notifications index.

Case law carried across

Read this before you rely on it. Every decision below was decided under the Income-tax Act, 1961. It appears here because it is tagged to a 1961 provision that the department’s own mapping carries to section 11. That is an inference we have drawn, not a holding on the new section: where the words changed in the move, the reasoning may not survive. Treat this as the place to start looking, not as authority on the 2025 Act.

Explainers

Read with

What this page does not tell you. It does not reproduce the section. Everything above was written from the section’s own text as the Income Tax Department publishes it — the text is here, and nothing here is advice on your facts. Where a figure matters, read the sub-section it comes from.