Old vs New Income Tax Section Numbers: Complete Mapping Table (2025 Act)

How to use this table

The Income Tax Act 2025 keeps the substance of the old law but renumbers almost everything. Your deductions, rates and thresholds are unchanged, only the section addresses have moved. This page maps the provisions most people actually deal with, from the old 1961 Act numbers to the new 2025 Act numbers.

One rule before you read: the new numbers apply to income from Tax Year 2026-27 onward, filed from July 2027. For the return you file in July 2026 (covering FY 2025-26), you still use the old numbers. Keep that straight and the rest is a lookup.

Deductions (the 80-series)

The Chapter VI-A deductions everyone knows have been reorganised into a new chapter. The limits and eligibility are identical; the section numbers changed.

Remember these deductions remain available only under the old tax regime. If you are on the new regime, the only ones that survive are the ₹75,000 standard deduction and the employer NPS contribution. Our old vs new regime guide explains which side you should be on.

TDS sections: the biggest change

This is the change professionals feel most. Under the old Act, TDS was scattered across more than forty sections, 192, 194A, 194C, 194H, 194-I, 194J, 194-O, 194Q and so on, each with its own threshold and rate. The 2025 Act collapses almost all of them into just two parent sections, using payment codes to distinguish the type.

Capital gains, audit and presumptive

The provisions businesses and investors rely on also moved:

The audit thresholds under the renumbered Section 63 are the same as the old 44AB, ₹1 crore for business (₹10 crore where 95%+ is digital) and ₹75 lakh for professions. If you are unsure whether an audit applies, our audit applicability guide walks through it.

Assessment, notices and penalties

The assessment and penalty machinery was renumbered too, which matters because notices issued from April 2026 will quote the new numbers. A few high-frequency ones:

• Return filing (old 139) and its belated and revised variants continue under renumbered provisions with the same deadlines.
• Intimation and processing (old 143(1)) and scrutiny (old 143(3)) carry over under new numbers.
• Reassessment (old 147 / 148) is renumbered, so a notice quoting a new section may be the equivalent of the old 148. Always check the date of issue and which Act the heading names.
• Penalty provisions (old 234A-C interest, 270A, 271) continue with the same logic under new numbers.

Forms that changed too

It is not only sections. A few familiar forms have new names under the Income Tax Rules, 2026:

• Form 16 (salary TDS certificate) becomes Form 130.
• Forms 15CA and 15CB (foreign remittance reporting) are replaced by new Forms 145 and 146.
• Form 3CD (tax audit report) clause numbers change to reflect the new Act.

The purpose of each form is unchanged, only the reference and some field labels move. Payroll and audit teams should update templates for periods from April 2026.

Which numbers to use, and when

The single most common mistake in this transition year is quoting the wrong set of numbers. The rule is simple and worth repeating:

• For income up to 31 March 2026 (FY 2025-26, filed July 2026): use the old 1961 numbers. Your Form 16 for this year still shows them.
• For income from 1 April 2026 (Tax Year 2026-27, filed July 2027): use the new 2025 numbers and Form 130.

For the changeover, keep this mapping handy, or hand the transition-year compliance to a professional who already works to both sets. Getting the reference right is exactly the kind of detail that avoids a rejected return or a misread notice.

Quick answers

What is 80C now? Section 123. What is 80D now? Section 126. What is 44AB now? Section 63. What happened to the TDS sections? Merged into 392 (salary) and 393 (everything else) with payment codes. Where did Section 10 go? Into Schedule II. Do these apply to my July 2026 filing? No, that still uses the old numbers. If tracking this is not how you want to spend your time, our income tax service handles the right references for whichever year applies.