15 October 2026

New Income-tax Act 2025 from April 2026: what changes for property sellers and landlords

The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the Income-tax Act, 1961 on 1 April 2026, as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman confirmed in her Budget speech. For people selling a house, plot or flat, or earning rent, the new law mostly renumbers familiar provisions rather than changing how property income is taxed. Here is what stays the same and what sellers and landlords need to relearn.

What stays the same for property sellers

12.5% rate: section 197 of the new Act taxes long-term capital gains at 12.5%, without indexation.
Older property: for resident individuals and HUFs selling land or buildings acquired before 23 July 2024, section 197(3) keeps the relief that limits tax to what it would have been at 20% with indexation.
Holding period: land and buildings held for more than 24 months continue to be treated as long-term assets.
Reinvestment exemptions: the house-to-house exemption, the exemption for gains reinvested in a house from other assets, and the specified-bond route all continue.

The new section numbers

According to the Act’s text and the correspondence table published by RSM India, the main provisions for property sellers now sit here:

Section 82 (old section 54): exemption when long-term gains from selling a residential house are reinvested in one residential house in India, bought within one year before or two years after the sale, or built within three years. Where gains do not exceed ₹2 crore, the once-in-a-lifetime option to buy two houses remains. Cost of the new house above ₹10 crore is not counted.
Section 86 (old section 54F): exemption when gains from a long-term asset other than a house, such as a plot, are reinvested in a residential house. The ₹10 crore ceiling applies here too, and the exemption is lost if the seller owns more than one other house on the date of transfer.
Section 85 (old section 54EC): exemption for gains from land or buildings invested in specified bonds.
Section 67 (old section 45): the charging section for capital gains.
Section 22 (old section 24): deductions from house property income, including the 30% standard deduction and home-loan interest, capped at ₹2 lakh a year for a self-occupied home.

Unused gains must still be parked in the Capital Gains Account Scheme before the return due date, now referenced to section 263 of the new Act.

Which law applies to your sale

A sale completed on or before 31 March 2026 falls in financial year 2025-26 and is governed by the 1961 Act. As the Institute of Chartered Accountants’ Eastern India Regional Council explains, returns for that year are filed in July 2026 on the old forms, while income from 1 April 2026 falls in “tax year” 2026-27 under the new Act, with returns due in 2027. The concept of “assessment year” has been replaced by “tax year”.

What landlords and sellers should do next

Update sale agreements, CA working papers and exemption claims to cite the new section numbers for transactions from 1 April 2026. Keep proof of purchase dates and costs, because the pre-July 2024 relief depends on them. Owners planning to sell or let out can list a property in Mumbai for free or in Pune on RealtyMandi. Given that individual facts vary, a chartered accountant should confirm the treatment of any specific sale.