ITR Rules 2026: There are many difficulties in filing income tax returns. Like every year, this time too the Income Tax Department has started online filing. The department has released Excel utilities for ITR-1 and ITR-4, allowing many taxpayers to start the process even before receiving Form 16, which usually comes by mid-June.

Interestingly, there are some important changes in the rules for filing taxes this year. Although the filing method may seem a little familiar at first glance, several changes to forms and reporting rules mean taxpayers may need to be more vigilant than before. From new disclosure requirements to changes in financial profit reporting, filing your return for assessment year (AY) 2026-27 may not be exactly like last year.

Moreover, even though the new Income Tax Act, 2025 has come into force, this will be the last round of return filing under the old Income Tax Act 1961. Since the tax for the financial year 2025-26 will be calculated under the old law, the taxpayer must pay attention while filing the return.

Reporting of income from two residential properties

A big relief this year is for those taxpayers who own more than one house. Earlier, employee individuals filing Income Tax-1 (Sahaj) and small business taxpayers filing Income Tax-4 (Sugam) had limited options for income reporting. But now, taxpayers can declare income from mostly two residential properties using these forms. In simple words, this means that salaried individuals and individuals owning two houses can continue to use simple income tax forms instead of complex income tax forms.

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New revelation regarding uncollectible rent

Another change that landlords may want to take note of is a new disclosure requirement related to uncollectible rent. In fact, the Income Tax Department has added a separate section called “Amount of Unrecoverable Rent” in the ITR forms, including ITR-1 and ITR-4. Talking about the first thing, earlier the taxpayers filling these forms did not have any separate place to give information about the uncollectible rent. The purpose of this change is to make the disclosure of rental income more comprehensive and cleaner.

ITR Filing: Attention taxpayers! Keep these important documents ready before filing income tax return

It is now necessary to provide information about bank balance

It has become necessary for taxpayers filing income tax return (ITR-4) to provide more information under the Presumptive Taxation Scheme. People covered under Section 44AD, 44ADA and 44AE will now have to declare the total closing balance of all their active bank accounts by March 31, 2026. This information is required to be given in field E21 of the Income Tax Return (ITR-4). Tax experts say that wrong reporting or non-disclosure of the outstanding amount can lead to tax notice or penalty.