Slabs, surcharge and cess for 32 assessment years, each read out of the Finance Act that charged it — the Act’s own charging section and First Schedule, not a secondary summary.
Every figure in these tables was taken out of the Income Tax Department’s own text of the Finance Act for the year: section 2 of the Act, which charges the tax and names the Part of the First Schedule that applies, and the First Schedule itself, which carries the rate tables. Part I of a Finance Act’s First Schedule is the rate for the assessment year the Act names. Part III of the same Schedule is advance tax for the following year, and it is the commonest way to get a year wrong — one record in this collection had exactly that error and it was caught and struck on verification.
No figure here comes from a commentary, a ready reckoner or a press summary. Where the Act’s text was not reached, the year’s page says so and leaves the row empty rather than filling it from the neighbouring year.
The department’s index of Finance Acts is at https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/finance-acts. The Acts themselves have a page each under Finance Acts.
| Assessment year | Maximum amount not chargeable | Top slab rate | Top surcharge | Cess | Verification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AY 2027-28 Finance Act, 2026 | old: Rs 2,50,000 new (section 202 of the Income-tax Act, 2025): Rs 4,00,000 | 30% | 37% | Health and Education Cess 4% | not verified |
| AY 2026-27 Finance Act, 2026 | old: Rs 2,50,000 new (section 115BAC(1A)): Rs 4,00,000 | 30% | 37% | Health and Education Cess 4% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2025-26 Finance Act, 2025 | old: Rs 2,50,000 new (section 115BAC(1A)): Rs 3,00,000 | 30% | 37% | Health and Education Cess 4% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2024-25 Finance Act, 2024 (No. 1 of 2024) | old: Rs 2,50,000 new (section 115BAC): Rs 3,00,000 | 30% | 37% | Health and Education Cess 4% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2023-24 Finance Act, 2023 | old: Rs 2,50,000 new (section 115BAC): Rs 2,50,000 | 30% | 37% | Health and Education Cess 4% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2022-23 Finance Act, 2022 | old: Rs 2,50,000 new (section 115BAC): Rs 2,50,000 | 30% | 37% | Health and Education Cess 4% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2021-22 Finance Act, 2021 | old: Rs 2,50,000 new (section 115BAC): Rs 2,50,000 | 30% | 37% | Health and Education Cess 4% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2020-21 Finance Act, 2020 | Rs 2,50,000 | 30% | 37% | Health and Education Cess 4% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2019-20 Finance (No. 2) Act, 2019 | Rs 2,50,000 | 30% | 15% | Health and Education Cess 4% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2018-19 Finance Act, 2018 | Rs 2,50,000 | 30% | 15% | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2017-18 Finance Act, 2017 | Rs 2,50,000 | 30% | 15% | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2016-17 Finance Act, 2016 | Rs 2,50,000 | 30% | 12% | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2015-16 Finance Act, 2015 | Rs 2,50,000 | 30% | 10% | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2014-15 Finance Act, 2014 | Rs 2,00,000 | 30% | 10% | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2013-14 Finance Act, 2013 | Rs 2,00,000 | 30% | 10% | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2012-13 Finance Act, 2012 | Rs 1,80,000 | 30% | — | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2011-12 Finance Act, 2011 | Rs 1,60,000 | 30% | — | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2010-11 Finance Act, 2010 | Rs 1,60,000 | 30% | — | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2009-10 Finance Act, 2009 | Rs 1,50,000 | 30% | 10% | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2008-09 Finance Act, 2008 | Rs 1,10,000 | 30% | 10% | Education Cess 2%; Secondary and Higher Education Cess 1% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2007-08 Finance Act, 2007 | individuals generally: Rs 1,00,000 resident woman below sixty-five: Rs 1,35,000 resident individual sixty-five or more: Rs 1,85,000 | 30% | 10% | Education Cess on income-tax 2% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2006-07 Finance Act, 2006 | individuals generally: Rs 1,00,000 resident woman below sixty-five: Rs 1,35,000 resident individual sixty-five or more: Rs 1,85,000 | 30% | 10% | Education Cess on income-tax 2% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2005-06 Finance Act, 2005 | Rs 50,000 | 30% | 10% | Education Cess on income-tax 2% | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2004-05 Finance Act, 2004 | Rs 50,000 | 30% | 10% | — | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2003-04 Finance Act, 2003 | Rs 50,000 | 30% | 5% | — | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2002-03 Finance Act, 2002 | Rs 50,000 | 30% | 2% | — | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2001-02 Finance Act, 2001 | Rs 50,000 | 30% | 17% | — | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 2000-01 Finance Act, 2000 | Rs 50,000 | 30% | 10% | — | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 1999-2000 Finance Act, 1999 | Rs 50,000 | 30% | — | — | not verified |
| AY 1998-99 Finance Act, 1998 | not reached | — | — | — | not verified |
| AY 1997-98 Finance Act, 1997 | Rs 40,000 | 40% | — | — | re-read 2 September 2026 |
| AY 1973-74 Finance Act, 1973 | not reached | — | — | — | not verified |
A dash means the record carries nothing under that head. It does not mean nil: read the year’s page, which says whether the Act imposed none or the text was not reached.
An independent pass went back to the department’s text and re-read 28 of these 32 records. Four it could not confirm. They are listed here rather than left for a reader to discover:
The same pass corrected three records before publication: it struck a surcharge from AY 1999-2000 that had been read out of Part III rather than Part I, and it supplied the cess for AY 2025-26 and AY 2027-28, which the API record had truncated away. Those corrections are carried in the records and shown on the years’ pages.