Tax & ITR
Income Tax Act 2025: Old vs New Section Numbers (80C is now 123)
In short
The Income-tax Act, 2025 renumbers almost everything — Section 80C is now Section 123, the entire 194-series TDS is consolidated into Sections 392 (salary) and 393 (non-salary), and the Section 10 exemptions have moved to Schedule II. But the rates, limits and rules are unchanged — this is a structural rewrite, not a tax change. The single most important point: the new numbers apply from FY 2026-27 (Tax Year 2026-27) onward. Your FY 2025-26 return, filed in 2026, still uses the old 1961 numbers. For an exact section lookup, use the Income Tax Department's official old-vs-new utility.
From 1 April 2026 the six-decade-old Income-tax Act, 1961 is replaced by the Income-tax Act, 2025. The biggest day-to-day change for most people is not what the law says — it is what each provision is now called. Section numbers you have used for years have moved. This guide explains the renumbering, gives the common old-to-new mappings, and — crucially — tells you which numbers to use for which year.
What actually changed?
The new Act reorganises the law into roughly 536 sections across 23 chapters and 16 schedules, down from over 800 sections in the 1961 Act. The drafting language is simplified, redundant provisions are removed, and related rules are grouped together. Three structural shifts matter most:
- "Tax Year" replaces "Previous Year" and "Assessment Year". From FY 2026-27, income is earned and reported under a single Tax Year — FY 2026-27 income is filed as Tax Year 2026-27.
- Exemptions moved to a schedule. The many exemptions under Section 10 of the old Act are now consolidated in Schedule II of the 2025 Act.
- TDS consolidated. The scattered 194-series is collapsed into two umbrella sections (see below).
Importantly, the tax policy itself is preserved: rates, slabs and deduction limits are unchanged, and circulars and case law under the old Act continue to apply where they are not inconsistent with the new one.
The point that trips everyone up: which year uses which numbers
| Your return is for… | Filed in… | Use section numbers from… |
|---|---|---|
| FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27) | 2026 | Old Act, 1961 (e.g. 80C, 80D, 24(b)) |
| FY 2026-27 (Tax Year 2026-27) | 2027 | New Act, 2025 (e.g. 123, 126) |
So for the return you are filing this season, nothing on your forms changes — your Form 16 and ITR still carry the old numbers. The new numbering becomes relevant for income earned from 1 April 2026 onward.
Common old → new section mappings
These are the provisions referenced most often in everyday practice. The deduction limits and rates behind them are unchanged — only the number has moved. For anything outside this short list, confirm the exact section on the official tool (below) rather than relying on memory.
| Old (Act, 1961) | New (Act, 2025) | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Section 80C | Section 123 | Deductions — LIC, PPF, ELSS, tuition fees, home-loan principal (Rs. 1.5 lakh cap unchanged) |
| Section 80D | Section 126 | Health insurance premium deduction |
| Section 10 (exemptions) | Schedule II | HRA, gratuity, leave encashment and other exemptions |
| Section 44AB | Section 63 | Tax audit provisions |
| Section 192 (salary TDS) | Section 392 | TDS on salary |
| Sections 194A / 194C / 194H / 194I / 194J | Section 393 | Non-salary TDS, now table-driven sub-clauses |
Confirm specifics on the official utility before relying on them — deduction limits and rates are unchanged; only the section number has moved.
The TDS consolidation, in plain terms
This is the change businesses feel first. The Income Tax Department's own guidance confirms that all TDS sections from 192 to 194T are consolidated under just two sections: Section 392 for salary and Section 393 for everything else (contractors, professional fees, rent, interest, commission and more), presented in a single table-driven format. So from 1 April 2026, a contractor payment that you used to code as "194C" is reported under a sub-clause of Section 393, at the same 1% / 2% rate and the same Rs. 30,000 / Rs. 1,00,000 thresholds. See our Section 194C / 393 guide for the contractor specifics.
Note that some adjacent areas — non-resident TDS (the old Section 195), TCS, and the penalty and assessment provisions — were reorganised in ways that different commentaries describe inconsistently. For those, do not trust a number you saw on a random table; look it up on the official utility.
How to find the new number for any section
The Income Tax Department has published an official old-vs-new comparison utility on the e-filing portal that shows the 1961 provision and its 2025 equivalent side by side. This is the authoritative source — use it when you need certainty for a filing, a notice reply, or a client document. Several CA-built section mappers also exist, but where they disagree (and they do, especially on TDS, TCS and non-resident provisions), the department's utility wins.
For the wider picture of what the new Act changes beyond numbering, see our Income Tax Act 2025 overview, and for this year's filing, our ITR filing 2026 guide.
This article is general information, not tax advice. Section mappings, especially outside the common list above, can be reorganised in non-obvious ways — confirm on the official utility or with a qualified professional before relying on a specific number.
How Startup Advisory Can Help
Startup Advisory is a CA-led firm in Saket, New Delhi that helps businesses across Delhi NCR move cleanly from the 1961 Act to the 2025 Act — without filing errors or portal-validation failures:
- Mapping your deductions, TDS and reporting to the correct new sections for transactions from 1 April 2026.
- Updating bookkeeping and TDS software references to Sections 392/393 and the new challan codes.
- Correct ITR filing across the transition year, using the right Act for the right period.
- A named Chartered Accountant accountable for the numbers you rely on.
Call 9311972982 or book a free consultation for help with the transition.
