Which Act and which year you are planning
Two tax years are live at once in September 2026, under two different Acts. Knowing which is which avoids mistakes.
| Year | Law | What you can still do |
|---|---|---|
| FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27), 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026 | Income-tax Act, 1961 | File or revise the return. The non-audit due date was 31 August 2026; a belated return can be filed by 31 December 2026. Old regime is available only in a return filed by the due date |
| Tax Year 2026-27, 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 | Income-tax Act, 2025 | Everything in this page: regime choice, investments, advance tax (next instalments 15 December 2026 and 15 March 2027) and capital-gains timing. Return due in 2027 |
The 2025 Act rewrote and renumbered the law. Slab rates for Tax Year 2026-27 are the same as for FY 2025-26, so the numbers below still apply. We map each deduction to its new section number when we prepare your plan.
Worked example: old regime against new
Here is the comparison we run for every salaried client, with made-up figures. Take a salary of ₹15,00,000, with ₹1,50,000 in 80C investments, a ₹25,000 health insurance premium, ₹50,000 in your own NPS and ₹2,00,000 of home-loan interest on a self-occupied flat.
| New regime | Old regime | |
|---|---|---|
| Salary | 15,00,000 | 15,00,000 |
| Standard deduction | (75,000) | (50,000) |
| 80C, 80D, 80CCD(1B) | Not allowed | (2,25,000) |
| Home-loan interest, self-occupied | Not allowed | (2,00,000) |
| Taxable income | 14,25,000 | 10,25,000 |
| Tax before cess | 93,750 | 1,20,000 |
| Health and education cess at 4% | 3,750 | 4,800 |
| Total tax | 97,500 | 1,24,800 |
Even with every major deduction claimed, the new regime is ₹27,300 cheaper here. Without the home loan, the gap widens. The old regime starts to win when deductions are larger still, for example with a big HRA exemption in a high-rent city. That is why we model both on your own numbers rather than follow a rule of thumb.
Example only. New regime slabs for FY 2025-26: nil up to ₹4 lakh, then 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% in ₹4 lakh steps, and 30% above ₹24 lakh. Old regime (below 60): nil up to ₹2.5 lakh, 5% to ₹5 lakh, 20% to ₹10 lakh, 30% above. Surcharge ignored.
What a planning engagement covers
- The regime decision, modelled both ways on your own figures, with the switching rules that apply to you.
- Deductions and investments, where the old regime is the better answer, spread across the year rather than crammed into March.
- Capital gains timing, including the reinvestment exemptions and when realising a gain in the next year is worth the wait.
- Advance tax, with a schedule for the remaining instalments so interest under sections 234B and 234C does not build up. See advance tax planning for the instalments.
- Salary structuring, where your employer allows it, and the employer NPS contribution that survives in the new regime.
- A written action plan, with dates, so the plan survives contact with a busy year.
If a restructuring of your business is on the table, see tax on converting a firm into a company.
Founders: salary, dividend or fees
If you own and run a company, how you take money out of it is a planning decision in its own right. There are three levers, and they are not comparable rupee for rupee, because a salary is an expense of the company and a dividend is paid out of profit that has already been taxed.
| Lever | For the company | For you |
|---|---|---|
| Salary | Fully deductible as an expense | Taxed as salary at slab rates. Standard deduction of ₹75,000 in the new regime and ₹50,000 in the old for FY 2025-26; HRA exemption only in the old regime |
| Dividend | Paid out of post-tax profit, not deductible | Dividend distribution tax is abolished, so dividends are taxed in your hands as your income |
| Sitting fees or consulting | Sitting fees carry no PF, ESI or gratuity cost for the company, but are capped per board meeting under section 197 of the Companies Act, 2013 and attract TDS | Taxed as your income |
A consulting arrangement has to be real. If you bill your own company as a consultant, the fees must reflect services actually rendered, and they must pass the related-party test in section 40A(2)(b) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for FY 2025-26. An excessive payment to a related person can be disallowed in the company's hands.
The decision rule we use: dividends usually make sense only when the alternative is leaving cash idle inside the company. Salary sets your regime choice, so we model the salary and the regime together. See payroll services for running the salary through payroll, and our guide to the new vs old tax regime.
Tax planning fee
Our professional fee for tax planning is from ₹4,999. There is no government fee.
| Fee | Amount |
|---|---|
| Regikart professional fee, tax planning for one individual (regime model, action plan, advance tax schedule) | From ₹4,999 |
| Government fee | No government fee |
| Return filing, if you want us to file too | See income-tax return filing, from ₹999 |
Professional fees exclude GST at 18%. Government fees, where they apply, are paid at actuals to the department and are shown separately. Fees verified on 22 September 2026.
The fee depends on your income sources: salary only, business income, capital gains or NRI status. We confirm it in writing before we start.
What we need from you
Your last two income-tax returns and computations, Form 16 or Form 130 from your employer, Form 26AS and AIS, investment statements, loan statements and insurance premium receipts. If you run a business, add your profit and loss account. We review these before the planning call so the call is spent on decisions.
Related: income tax return filing · ITR for business income · NRI ITR filing · tax audit