CBDT Issues Draft Income Tax Rules And Forms For New Act With 34% Fewer Rules [Read Draft Rules Here]
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has released the draft Income Tax Rules, 2026 along with the draft forms, in connection with the Income Tax Act, 2025, which is scheduled to come into force from April 1, 2026. The draft rules and forms have been placed in the public domain to invite comments and suggestions from stakeholders and the general public.
As per the CBDT, the draft Income Tax Rules, 2026 will remain open for public feedback for a period of 15 days, up to February 22, 2026.
The CBDT said the new rules and forms are built on the same thinking as the Income Tax Act, 2025, with a clear push to make the law easier to read and understand. The focus has been on cutting down repetition, tightening the language, and improving clarity. Wherever possible, complex provisions have been replaced with tables and formulas, and overlapping rules under the Income Tax Rules, 1962 have been cleaned up without changing the core policy intent.
The Board also pointed out that the draft forms have been redesigned to reduce the compliance load on taxpayers. Common information has been standardised across forms, and features such as pre-filled data and automated reconciliation have been built in to make return filing smoother and less prone to mistakes. These changes are also expected to support centralised processing and more data-driven tax administration.
The Income Tax Rules, 1962 run into 511 rules and 399 forms. Under the Draft Rules, this has been cut down to 333 rules and 190 forms through consolidation and removal of redundant provisions. To help taxpayers and professionals navigate the transition, the CBDT has released detailed navigators mapping the existing rules and forms to their counterparts in the new draft regime.