Finance Act, 2026 — what it charged

Case law › Finance Acts › 2026

What it charged

Rates for assessment year 2026-27 — income-tax on the income of the previous year 2025-26. re-read independently on 2 September 2026
Rates for assessment year 2027-28 — income-tax on the income of the previous year 2026-27. not independently verified

Two charges are filed against this one Act. Read each year’s page for the wording the Act uses, which is not the same for both.

The department’s records for this Act

The department’s index of Finance Acts is at https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/pages/acts/finance-act.aspx.

What the Finance Act 2026 inserted into the Income-tax Act 1961

Three sections, each inserted retrospectively and each expressed to operate notwithstanding any judgment. The enacting words are quoted below as the department prints them.

Read on 1 September 2026 from the Income Tax Department's own text of the Act, in its Finance Acts browser at incometaxindia.gov.in/finance-acts (Act 2026, which runs to 167 sections).

Section 9 of the Finance Act 2026 — inserts section 147A

Deemed inserted with effect from 1 April 2021.

Insertion of new section 147A. 9. After section 147 of the Income-tax Act, the following section shall be inserted and shall be deemed to have been inserted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021, namely:— Assessing Officer for purposes of sections 148 and 148A. "147A. Notwithstanding anything contained in any judgment, order or decree of any court or in section 151A or in any scheme framed thereunder, for the removal of doubts, it is hereby clarified that the Assessing Officer for the purposes of sections 148 and 148A shall mean and shall always be deemed to have meant to be an Assessing Officer other than the National Faceless Assessment Centre or any assessment unit referred to in sub-section (3) of section 144B."

Section 9 of the Finance Act 2026, as printed in the Income Tax Department’s own text of the Act.

Retrospective to 1 April 2021. This is what kills the JAO-versus-faceless ground (Hexaware, T.K.S. Builders) — and it does so expressly notwithstanding any judgment.

This library has no page for section 147A yet.

Section 32 of the Finance Act 2026 — inserts section 292BA

Deemed inserted with effect from 1 October 2019.

Insertion of new section 292BA. 32. After section 292B of the Income-tax Act, the following section shall be inserted and shall be deemed to have been inserted with effect from the 1st day of October, 2019, namely:— Assessments not to be invalid on certain grounds. "292BA. Notwithstanding anything contained in any judgment, order or decree of any court, for the removal of doubts, it is hereby clarified for the purposes of section 292B that no assessment under any of the provisions of this Act shall be invalid or shall be deemed to have been invalid on the ground of any mistake, defect or omission in respect of quoting of a computer generated Document Identification Number, if the assessment order is referenced by such number in any manner."

Section 32 of the Finance Act 2026, as printed in the Income Tax Department’s own text of the Act.

Retrospective to 1 October 2019 — note the date, which is the DIN circular's own commencement, not 1 April 2021. Any entry saying otherwise should be corrected.

This library has no page for section 292BA yet.

Section 33 of the Finance Act 2026 — inserts section 292BC

Deemed inserted with effect from 1 April 2021.

Insertion of new section 292BC. 33. After section 292BB of the Income-tax Act, the following section shall be inserted and shall be deemed to have been inserted with effect from the 1st day of April, 2021, namely:— Circumstances in which approvals by income-tax authority not to be invalid. "292BC. Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or in any judgment, order or decree of any Court, for the removal of doubts, it is hereby clarified that any approval given by an income-tax authority in relation to any assessment, reassessment or recomputation proceedings under this Act shall be deemed to be administrative and supervisory in nature and shall not be invalid or shall not be deemed to be invalid by reason of any insufficiency of the reasons recorded or by reason of any defect in the form or manner of its authentication or communication including whether digital signature have been appended to such approval or not, where such approval is granted electronically."

Section 33 of the Finance Act 2026, as printed in the Income Tax Department’s own text of the Act.

Retrospective to 1 April 2021.

This library has no page for section 292BC yet.

The Finance Act 2026 received assent on 30 March 2026.

Why these are quoted rather than summarised. Twenty-two entries in this library rest on these three provisions, and until the Act’s own text was read the library could not confirm they existed. A reader meeting one of these arguments should see the words, not our description of them.

What this page is, and what it is not

The figures are the Finance Act’s own. Every rate, threshold and exemption on this page was taken out of the Income Tax Department’s own text of the Act that charged the year — the charging section and the First Schedule — and the records we read are linked under Sources on each year’s page. The writing around the figures is ours: the arrangement, the headings, the comparison with the year before and every sentence of explanation. Those are not the Act.

These tables are for orientation. The Act governs. A rate table is a finding aid, not the law. The Act, its First Schedule and the provisos in it decide what is payable, and a table cannot carry the provisos. If you are about to rely on a figure here — in a return, in a computation, in a reply to a notice — open the source linked on the year’s page and read the figure in the Act for yourself. Where a record did not reach a rate, this library says so rather than filling the gap.