ITR Filing 2026: Your Last Date and the Regime That Saves More

Tax season is open, and the single decision that moves your refund the most is no longer about how many investment receipts you can gather. For most people it now comes down to two things: filing before your deadline, and picking the right regime before you hit submit. Get the order wrong and the cost is real money.

This is the guide for ITR filing 2026 covering the income earned in FY 2025-26, which the tax department calls Assessment Year (AY) 2026-27. The rules below are the ones currently in force. Where a figure changes often or has a caveat, it is flagged.

The deadlines, by who you are

There is no longer a single July date for everyone. The window now depends on the kind of taxpayer you are.

• 31 July 2026 — salaried individuals, pensioners and anyone else whose accounts do not need an audit. This is the big one for most readers.
• 31 August 2026 — non-audit filers using ITR-3 or ITR-4, which covers small businesses, professionals and freelancers under presumptive taxation. The Finance Act gave this group a permanent extra month from this year onward, so it is no longer a one-off extension.
• 31 October 2026 — taxpayers whose accounts require a statutory audit.
• 30 November 2026 — those who have to file a transfer pricing report.

Miss your slot and you can still file a belated return up to 31 December 2026. A revised return, if you spot a mistake, is also allowed until 31 December 2026. Beyond that, your only route is an updated return (ITR-U), which now stays open for up to 48 months but comes with additional tax on top.

What it costs to be late

Late filing is not free, and the penalty is fixed by law rather than the officer's mood.

Under Section 234F, the fee is up to ₹5,000. If your total income is below ₹5 lakh, it drops to ₹1,000. On top of that, Section 234A charges 1% interest per month (or part of a month) on any unpaid tax, counted from the original due date until you actually pay.

The quieter cost hurts more. File late and most business losses and capital losses cannot be carried forward to set off against future gains. And, as the next section explains, a late return slams the door on the old regime entirely.

New is the default — and that changes the math

The most important shift to internalise: the new tax regime is now the default. If you do nothing, your return is computed under it. The old regime, with its familiar deductions, is something you have to actively opt into.

Under the new regime for FY 2025-26, the slabs run like this:

• Up to ₹4 lakh — nil
• ₹4-8 lakh — 5%
• ₹8-12 lakh — 10%
• ₹12-16 lakh — 15%
• ₹16-20 lakh — 20%
• ₹20-24 lakh — 25%
• Above ₹24 lakh — 30%

A Section 87A rebate then wipes out the tax entirely for taxable income up to ₹12 lakh. Add the ₹75,000 standard deduction available to the salaried, and a salaried person earning up to ₹12.75 lakh pays zero. There is also a marginal relief built in just above ₹12 lakh, so a few thousand rupees over the line does not trigger a sudden full tax bill.

The trade-off is that the new regime strips out almost everything: no 80C, no 80D, no HRA exemption, no home-loan interest deduction under Section 24(b). You get lower rates and a clean slate instead of a deductions checklist.

Old regime: still alive, still worth it for some

The old regime survives with its three-rate structure — nil up to ₹2.5 lakh, 5% to ₹5 lakh, 20% to ₹10 lakh, and 30% above — plus the full menu of deductions. Section 80C alone shelters up to ₹1.5 lakh, and that sits alongside 80D for health insurance, HRA, and home-loan interest of up to ₹2 lakh a year.

So who should still pick it? Run the numbers, but as a rough guide, the old regime tends to win once your total deductions cross roughly ₹3.5 to ₹4 lakh. That usually means someone paying significant rent in a metro, servicing a home loan, and maxing out 80C and health cover together. A typical salaried person with thin deductions almost always pays less under the new regime now.

The honest move is to compute your liability both ways before filing. The official e-filing portal and most filing apps have a built-in comparison tool, and it takes minutes once your numbers are in.

Switching regimes: the rule that trips people up

How you opt out of the new regime depends on your income type, and the two paths are very different.

Salaried, with no business income: you can switch every year. There is no separate form — you simply choose the old regime inside the ITR itself while filing. Next year you are free to switch back.

Business or professional income: you must file Form 10-IEA before your return, declaring that you want the old regime. The catch is severe — for this group the switch out of and back into the new regime is broadly a once-in-a-lifetime choice, so treat it as a long-term decision, not a yearly experiment.

In either case there is a hard condition: the choice only works if you file on time. A belated return is taxed under the new regime by default, with no way to claim the old one. If your tax planning depends on 80C, HRA or home-loan interest, missing the deadline can quietly add tens of thousands to your bill.

How to actually file, step by step

The process is fully online and, for a straightforward salary case, takes under an hour if your documents are ready.

1. Gather the basics — Form 16 from your employer, your Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Form 26AS (both downloadable from the portal), interest certificates from banks, and proofs for any deductions you plan to claim.
2. Reconcile against the AIS — this matters more each year. The AIS lists the income the department already knows about, from salary to dividends to interest. Mismatches are the leading cause of notices, so fix discrepancies before filing.
3. Log in at the income tax e-filing portal using your PAN and pick the correct form. Most salaried filers use ITR-1; those with capital gains or multiple properties use ITR-2.
4. Choose your regime — select the old regime in the form if you have run the comparison and it saves you money. Salaried filers do this here; business filers must have submitted Form 10-IEA first.
5. Verify the pre-filled data, add anything missing, pay any balance tax, and submit.
6. E-verify within 30 days — through Aadhaar OTP, net banking or a bank EVC. A return that is filed but not verified is treated as not filed at all, so this last step is not optional.

One more thing worth knowing this year: a new Income-tax Act is on the books and introduces the "Tax Year" concept, but it governs income earned from 1 April 2026 onward. Your AY 2026-27 return — for money earned in FY 2025-26 — is still filed under the existing law, so nothing about the process above changes for this filing.

The takeaway is simple. Decide your regime with a quick two-way calculation, square your numbers against the AIS, and file well before 31 July. Everything that saves you money depends on hitting that date first.