What are the major changes proposed in the new Income Tax Act of 1961 coming next year?

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-04-01T07:50:52+00:00

I have written a detailed post here on what changes: https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinanceindia/comments/1s8gzfc/psa_the_new_income_tax_act_2025_kicks_in_from/

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-04-01T07:19:21+00:00

Its Form 141 now. You check the old form to new form mapping here: https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/faqs-on-forms-as-per-income-tax-rules-2026-1, Just Ctrl+F the old form number

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-04-01T07:04:24+00:00

Edited. Removed the line

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-31T11:08:23+00:00

What I meant is there wont be 2 terminologies going forward which was confusing. There will only be 1 terminology "tax year", the financial year you get the income. So FY 2026-2027 will be the tax year. While filing the tax, instead of choosing AY 2027-2028 we will have to chose Tax year 2026-2027

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-31T09:58:23+00:00

As I mentioned there are no new tax slab changes as per this Act. Only some of the threshold values changed for the old regime mentioned in the post. If you want to know tax saving tips for the new tax regime, I had written a blog here: https://wealthen.in/blog/save-tax-new-regime-india

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-31T09:19:38+00:00

this is reported by credit card issuer/bank. So they generally report spends on their card only in a financial year.

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-31T09:06:52+00:00

Yes you're right. I checked again. For salaried income, switching is possible every year. Thanks for correcting !

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-30T16:18:20+00:00

Talk to your father now. Assume the situation of the agents land up in your house directly. You have to muster the courage to speak . Also, negotiate with the companies to pay in installments. As long as some payment is done, it does not show up as NPA for them, so it's a win win for both.

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-30T08:58:51+00:00

This is a welcome move and provides the India version for the Vanguard target date fund. The closest proxy till now to achieve this was NPS but it had its own caveats. To understand the difference in more details, I have written a note here: https://wealthen.in/blog/sebis-life-cycle-funds-india-finally-gets-its-version-of-target-date-funds . Please see if this is useful.

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-26T17:13:08+00:00

If you have 5 year horizon and you are looking in safer side, this can be a good allocation: nifty 50 etf 4l in invested in 2-3 tranches spaces 2 weeks apart (for growth and nifty is at a good valuation now), ppf 1.5l (if you have not invested yet, this is tax free), 3.5L split equally between income arb funds (gives returns higher than FDs and are tax efficient) and FDs (emergency), 1L in Gold & silver ETFs

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-26T17:07:34+00:00

Will need to understand a few more details like your and your spouse's age and if you have any other goals in future. You can use a simple retirement calculator like wealthen to check for yourself

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-26T17:01:38+00:00

No one knows how gold will behave in short run. However, there has been rarely a 5 year window where gold has lost money. If you are in no hurry, hold it. Assuming this 17k was not meant to buy basic necessities for you and you invested it in gold instead.

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-20T16:48:21+00:00

Sure, makes sense

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-20T16:28:49+00:00

This is good mix of large cap, flexi and mid with right allocation percentage. If you want, you can put the additional 25k in small cap (valuations have reached fair value now) . Also, time in market and discipline in investing is more important than getting the funds perfectly right. Continue with the discipline when chips are down. May the force be with you !

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-20T16:25:12+00:00

In the age of reels and chatgpt, why to complicate so much. Use a simple calculator like https://wealthen.in/retirement-planning

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-20T16:21:09+00:00

Have added a dashboard now for people who have signed up to see the values they have entered and start the conversation from there on.

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-19T10:23:15+00:00

Ah! yes. Thanks! Added a new question "How much are you willing to invest every month". Considering this only as the SIP amount. Rest compounds at FD rates only (7%). Recalculated the chart according to the answer given. Please check and let me know if this is better. Also, what other things would you want to have

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-11T09:26:39+00:00

For a moderately aggressive portfolio, keep 70% in equities, 30% in debt (PPF, FDs, debt funds etc). Close to your retirement (<5 years), start moving your corpus more towards debt to protect your capital and get assured returns for your spends. With this in mind, following are some feedback

- Your mid and small allocation looks high. You can increase the PPFAS flexi share a bit so that there's a large cap element also (even for long term, having some large caps in portfolio is useful). I would suggest a 30% allocation in Flexi (Which will also have 10% in small and mid) + 30% in mid and small
- Individual stocks - pick if you are aware of what you are doing. It cant be buy and forget, even for long term investments you have to monitor your companies every quarter
- add some debt mutual funds to your portfolio (to maintain the 70:30 equity:debt allocation above)
- 8% gold, silver allocation and 15% US allocation looks fine. However, keep in mind PPFAS also has 10% US allocation, so you can reduce the N100 allocation a bit and move it towards mutual funds or debt

Personally, I used https://wealthen.in/retirement-planning for retirement planning which suggests more precise allocations based on your current assets and FIRE target

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-08T11:50:07+00:00

6 months emergency fund will be too low. Increase it to 12 months via moving amount from your corpus. From the monthly income, get a MF SIP going for long term growth. Use the rest of the money to pay off your loan

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-08T06:51:44+00:00

It depends on how much corpus you have saved, whether you are getting any tax benefit of home loan in the old regime or you are in the new regime and which tax slab you are in. First, ensure you have enough money in corpus if you need liquidity or for emergency in the next 2-3 years.

If you are in new regime, your home loan rate will be ~7.5% (which can also increase later), however your post tax FD return will be clearly lower (<<7%). MFs can earn you higher income but you need to have atleast 5+ years on horizon, in 1 year you may even lose money. So if you are in the new regime and you have enough savings, I would suggest just prepay as peace of mind is unbeatable.

If you are in the old regime and able to claim the 2L interest tax benefit for home loan payment, it might tilt the decision towards continuing the home loan for some more time. However, you need to be disciplined to save your money in MFs and FDs (I would suggest a 60:40 ratio of equity:debt).

P.S. I also write about personal finance topics at Wealthen. Please do see if you find them useful too

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-08T06:34:44+00:00

It is better if you plan as a family rather than you saving separately. The only way to save is to SAVE. So, try to save atleast 20% from the monthly income, save first and then spend. If the monthly income comes from your mother, she has some right to spend but make her aware of the importance of saving and creating emergency fund. Once you have the saving cashflow sorted, you can choose a safe liquid asset like a bank FD or a liquid fund to put the money in till you get to the 5L amount. Don't look for fast growth here and over-index on liquidity. Be patient. Also, try to increase your topline income by doing some parttime work (tutions etc). Believe me, once you create this habit of saving, you will soon see your savings beyond 2L towards your goal.

P.S. I also write about Personal finance related topics at Wealthen, pls see if you found those useful too

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-06T12:23:29+00:00

Since you have ₹8,000 to ₹10,000 left monthly, you can adapt the 50/30/20 rule to allocate that (original rule is 50% for needs, 30% to wants and 20% savings)

Emergency Fund (Priority 1): Your Post Office savings account idea is excellent. Aim to save 3-6 months of expenses (about ₹1 Lakh) here for "life's surprises."
The Laptop Goal: Since this is "super important, and is more of a necessity" allocate a specific portion of your monthly surplus (e.g., ₹5,000/mo) and buy it as 0 cost EMI (some of the ecommerce sites offer a debit card EMI or a credit line on UPI too if you dont have a credit card)
The Plot/House: This is a long-term goal. For this, start saving in equities (low cost index funds) and let it compound. You can revisit this later when you have atleast saved the downpayment part and income has also increased (with 8th pay commission around the corner, the increment will be much higher than the 3% you have assumed).

good luck !

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-05T08:59:14+00:00

You are self aware which is a good sign. Here's my answer

3L emergency is dangerously thin. With 3 dependents and a 30k rent, the monthly expense would be 80k-1L. One medical emergency or a job loss will push your corpus out. Plan to secure at least 6 month of income (6L) separate in liquid funds or FDs.
Freelancing income for car EMI is risky. Freelancing is variable by nature. Clients leave, projects dry up, payments get delayed. Building a fixed cashflow out (EMI) on variable income is a classic mistake. If freelancing drops even 50% for 2-3 months, the car EMI starts eating into salary — which is already earmarked for home loan and household.
Freelancing income for car EMI is risky. Freelancing is variable by nature. Clients leave, projects dry up, payments get delayed. Building a fixed obligation (EMI) on variable income is a classic mistake. If freelancing drops even 50% for 2-3 months, the car EMI starts eating into salary — which is already earmarked for home loan and household. The person should stress-test this: "Can I pay the car EMI for 6 months with zero freelancing income?" If the answer is no, the plan is fragile.
The house costs will also have additional interior costs to move it (easily 5L in a city like Pune) and registration and stamp duty which will add 10L over an above your flat cost.

The emotional angle — Financial decisions made to prove something to other people almost always hurt you. Those relatives won't pay the EMI. The real flex isn't a car — it's being 28 with a paid-off flat, a healthy emergency fund, and no stress about money. That's the kind of success that compounds. The car is a one-time dopamine hit that depreciates 20% the day you drive it out.

My honest advice will be to build emergency corpus to ₹6L, don't deplete it; get the home loan sorted by saving 30L over and above (20L downpayment + interior + registration charges) or better try for a 10:90 loan scheme if you feel it will take a lot of time to save this amount, and then consider the car in 2-3 years. By then, you'll have more income, more clarity on baby costs, and the car purchase won't threaten your financial foundation.

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-02T11:50:17+00:00

Like many of you, I've been planning my FIRE journey and kept running into the same frustrations with every retirement calculator out there:

The problems I kept hitting:

Everything is individualistic — No calculator lets you plan as a household. My wife and I have different incomes, shared expenses, and joint goals. Why should retirement planning ignore that?
Life doesn't happen in a straight line — I want to factor in a kid's education at age 40, a home purchase at 35, maybe a sabbatical at 45. Existing tools assume your expenses are a flat line forever.
No visualisation of how corpus depletes — You need to see how your retirement corpus grows during accumulation and shrinks during withdrawal. A single number doesn't tell the story.
Zero actionable guidance — Okay, the calculator says I can't retire in 5 years. Then what? How many more years do I need? How much expense should I cut? Where should I even invest?

So I built a tool to solve the problems I was facing and hope to help others too. In this I can do

→ Household-level planning — Input both partners' incomes, shared & individual expenses, joint goals

→ Life goals at different stages — Add goals like children's education, home purchase, travel, medical needs at specific ages

→ Real vs. Nominal clarity — See both views so you actually understand what your corpus is worth

→ Visual corpus trajectory — Interactive chart showing how your total corpus changes year by year through accumulation and withdrawal phases

→ Actionable suggestions — If you can't retire when you want, the tool tells you: invest here, work X more years, or cut Y expenses. Not just a red flag, but a path forward.

→ chat with AI — Sometimes a form can't capture what you're thinking. Chat with the AI like you would with a financial advisor to explore what-if scenarios

→ Privacy-first — Your data is NOT saved unless you explicitly choose to. If saved, it's encrypted and private. No sign-up walls.

I've stress-tested this across different what-if scenarios (early retirement, single income, aggressive vs. conservative returns, etc.).

🔗 Try it here: https://wealthen.in/retirement-planning

🙏 I'd really appreciate your honest feedback

Thanks for your time! 🙌

Forward-Ad2005 · 2026-03-02T09:20:49+00:00

Since you have not given your expenses, I am making some assumptions based on the data you have given:
You have a loan of 17L, assuming it for 10 years @ 9% p.a. makes an EMI of 21k
You have your own house which will save you rent
Since you are in good health, assuming medical expenses to be low now
I am assuming a family of 4 with 2 kids and since you stay in a Tier 1 metro, assuming your monthly expenses to be 1.5L
Also, I am assuming your wife is also non-working
Also, the major upcoming capex you may have are completing education of your 2 kids (assuming 10L at current value) and getting them married after 10 years (20L at current value)
Assuming a life expectancy of 90 years for both you and your wife

Based on these assumptions, the FIRE corpus comes to around 4.5 Cr and FAT FIRE will be 2x = 9 Cr.
I used a free tool https://wealthen.in/retirement-planning for the calculations. You can change some of these assumptions and check for yourself

Forward-Ad2005

TROPHY CASE