Which ITR form should you file for AY 2026-27?

ITR-1 is the simplest form and the one most often filed wrongly. You can use it only if you are a resident and ordinarily resident, your total income is up to ₹50 lakh, and your income is limited to salary or pension, one house property, other sources such as interest and dividends, and agricultural income of at most ₹5,000.

Since assessment year 2025-26 you may also report long-term capital gains under section 112A — listed shares and equity-oriented funds — in ITR-1, but only up to ₹1.25 lakh in total and only if you have no capital loss to carry forward or set off. Any short-term gain, any other long-term gain, or any loss under the capital gains head sends you to ITR-2.

You are also out of ITR-1 if you are a director in a company, hold unlisted equity shares, own any foreign asset or have foreign income, have income from lottery or racehorses, have tax deferred on ESOPs from an eligible start-up, or have income on which tax was deducted in another person’s hands. A second house property, even a vacant one, rules it out too.

ITR-2 takes over wherever ITR-1 stops, as long as you have no income from business or profession. Capital gains of any kind, more than one house property, income above ₹50 lakh, foreign assets and Schedule FA, directorships and unlisted shares, and every non-resident and not-ordinarily-resident individual file ITR-2.

It carries the schedules that make it longer: capital gains by asset class and holding period, Schedule AL for assets and liabilities where total income exceeds ₹1 crore, Schedule FA for foreign holdings, and the residential-status determination that non-residents must get right before anything else.

If you run a business or practise a profession and keep regular books, or you are a partner in a firm, you file ITR-3. It is the longest individual form because it carries the balance sheet, the profit and loss account and the tax audit details where section 44AB applies.

ITR-4 is the short route for presumptive taxation: business income under section 44AD (turnover up to ₹2 crore, or ₹3 crore where cash receipts are under 5%), professional income under 44ADA (gross receipts up to ₹50 lakh, or ₹75 lakh with the same cash test), and goods carriages under 44AE. It is available only to residents whose total income is up to ₹50 lakh, and it is closed off by the same special items that close ITR-1: directorships, unlisted shares, foreign assets, more than one house property, and capital gains beyond the small 112A window.

The 44AD and 44ADA thresholds in this paragraph are those in force for FY 2025-26. Freelancers billing overseas clients should also check whether GST and a letter of undertaking apply; see our business and freelancer ITR page.

• Long-term gains under section 112A up to ₹1.25 lakh can be reported in ITR-1 and ITR-4, provided there is no capital loss to carry forward or set off.
• The asset-and-liability schedule applies where total income exceeds ₹1 crore, up from ₹50 lakh in earlier years.
• Deductions and TDS must be reported with more granularity: the section under which tax was deducted, and the specific clause for each deduction claimed.
• The new regime is the default. Individuals with business income who want the old regime must file Form 10-IEA before the due date, and they get essentially one switch back.
• Returns for FY 2025-26 are filed under the Income-tax Act, 1961. The Income-tax Act, 2025 applies to income earned from 1 April 2026, so next year’s forms will carry new section numbers even where the rules are unchanged.

A return filed on the wrong form is a defective return under section 139(9). The department issues a notice, you get 15 days to respond by filing the correct form, and if you do not, the return is treated as never having been filed — with the late-filing consequences that follow.

The more expensive version is the silent one: an ITR-1 that omitted the second house property or the foreign bank account is not defective, it is inaccurate, and the department’s data-matching against the Annual Information Statement finds it. Our due-date guide covers what late and revised filing costs; the safer route is to get the form right first.