Capital Gains Tax Filing: Stocks, MF, Property (2026)

Capital gains are the income head where filers lose the most money to confusion — not to tax itself, but to wrong forms, missed exemptions and losses that expire unclaimed. The rates are settled since the July 2024 rewrite: 12.5% long-term on most assets, 20% short-term on listed equity, a ₹1.25 lakh annual exemption on equity gains, and crypto pinned at a flat 30%. This post assembles the filing picture — rates per asset, the right ITR form, the schedules that actually matter — from the department's own material and the verified taxation posts on this site.

The rate table, per asset

Sources: Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024, as verified across our mutual-fund, gold, US-stocks and crypto taxation posts, November 2026. Under the Income-tax Act, 2025 the listed-equity rates sit in sections 196 (short-term, STT-paid) and 198 (long-term) — the numbers our ESOP guide cites; for AY 2026-27 filings the 1961 Act's 111A/112 labels still appear on forms.

Equity and equity-fund gains carry the ₹1.25 lakh annual exemption — long-term gains up to that amount are tax-free, and it resets every financial year, which is why our harvesting checklist runs every March. Debt funds bought on or after April 1, 2023 are taxed at slab regardless of holding. Crypto sits outside the ladder entirely: a flat 30% plus cess, only cost of acquisition deductible, no loss set-off in any direction — Section 115BBH of the 1961 Act, restated as Section 194(1) of the 2025 Act from April 1, 2026, as our crypto guide verifies.

Property: the indexation fork

Property sold after a 24-month hold is long-term at 12.5% without indexation for transfers on or after July 23, 2024. The grandfathering fork matters for older holdings: for property acquired before July 23, 2024, a resident individual can choose between the 12.5% no-indexation rate and 20% with indexation — whichever is lower. Source: Finance (No. 2) Act, 2024. Run both numbers when the property is a pre-2024 purchase: long holding periods with high inflation can still make the indexed 20% cheaper, but for most post-2010 purchases the 12.5% route wins. Reinvestment exemptions (Section 54-type routes into a new house or bonds) survive and apply before the rate choice — our home-loan and gold guides touch the mechanics.

The worked example, checked

One investor, one year: equity mutual funds sold at a ₹2,00,000 long-term gain and ₹50,000 short-term gain; gold jewellery sold at ₹3,00,000 long-term gain (bought 36 months ago, post-July-2024 rules).

• Equity LTCG: ₹2,00,000 minus the ₹1,25,000 exemption = ₹75,000 at 12.5% = ₹9,375.
• Equity STCG: ₹50,000 at 20% = ₹10,000.
• Gold LTCG: ₹3,00,000 at 12.5%, no indexation = ₹37,500.
• Total special-rate tax: ₹56,875, plus cess. None of it is covered by the new regime's 87A rebate — special-rate tax applies first, which is exactly the trap our salaried guide flags for modest salaries with large gains. And all of it belongs in the advance-tax quarter when sold — our advance-tax guide covers the calendar, because brokers deduct nothing at source.

Which ITR form: the department's own lines

The department's filing instructions draw the map. ITR-1 — for individuals and HUFs with no business or professional income — now admits long-term gains under Section 112A up to ₹1.25 lakh, provided there are no brought-forward or carried-forward losses. Beyond that, or with any capital loss to carry, capital gains move you to ITR-2 (individuals and HUFs without business income — it handles capital gains, foreign assets and more). ITR-3 is for individuals and HUFs with business or professional income, and it carries capital gains alongside. ITR-4 (Sugam) serves presumptive taxpayers under sections 44AD/44ADA/44AE — and it, too, accepts 112A gains up to ₹1.25 lakh with no losses to carry. Source: incometaxindia.gov.in, filing-the-return-of-income, November 2026.

The selection logic in one pass: salary plus small equity gains → ITR-1. Salary plus larger gains, or losses to carry, or foreign assets → ITR-2. Any business or professional income (including F&O trading, which is business income) → ITR-3, or ITR-4 if presumptive. Crypto income requires transaction-wise Schedule VDA disclosure in ITR-2 or ITR-3 — ITR-1 and ITR-4 have no VDA schedule, as our crypto guide verifies.

The grandfathering line inside Schedule 112A

For units bought before January 31, 2018, Schedule 112A computes gains with the fair market value as on that date as the deemed cost — capped at the actual sale price. The mechanics are the 2018 grandfathering that survived every subsequent rewrite: a unit bought at ₹100 in 2015, worth ₹60 on January 31, 2018 and sold at ₹150 today, is taxed on ₹150 − ₹60 = ₹90 of gain, because the interim dip below purchase price never becomes taxable. Your broker's capital-gains statement carries the January 2018 FMV for each ISIN — verify the big ones against the exchange data, because the number flows straight into your tax. Units bought after that date use the plain purchase cost. The ₹1.25 lakh annual exemption then applies across all your 112A rows together, which is why the schedule must list every ISIN, not just the profitable ones.

Property: the TDS and reinvestment chain

Two more property-specific mechanics decide the final number. First, the buyer's side: on consideration above ₹50 lakh, the buyer must deduct 1% TDS and deposit it against your PAN — it arrives in your Form 26AS and credits at filing, so collect the buyer's challan details at registration rather than reconstructing them next July. Second, the reinvestment family: the Section 54-type exemptions can defer or extinguish the gain when sale proceeds are redeployed — into another residential house within the prescribed windows, or into notified capital-gain bonds within six months, subject to the caps each section carries. The exemptions apply before the rate choice is made: a gain fully sheltered under Section 54 pays nothing at either 12.5% or 20%. These are provisions to plan before the sale, not at filing time — the deadlines run from the transfer date.

The schedules that decide your tax

• Schedule 112A — equity and equity-MF long-term gains, listed ISIN-wise: sale value, the January 31, 2018 fair market value for pre-2018 holdings (the grandfathering line), and the ₹1.25 lakh exemption applied once across all ISINs. Broker P&L statements map to it almost line for line; the platforms in our filing-platforms guide import them directly.
• Schedule CG — every other asset: full particulars of the transfer, cost, and the computation. Property sales need the deed dates and costs; the indexation fork above runs here.
• Schedule VDA — crypto, transaction-wise, with losses reported as nil since they cannot set off anything.
• Carry-forward losses — only if you file by the due date. An unfiled return converts this year's losses into nothing; the ₹1.25 lakh equity exemption, by contrast, needs no claim — it applies automatically.

Deadlines and the transition year

For AY 2026-27 (income through March 31, 2026), our ITR guide's calendar holds: ITR-1/ITR-2 were due July 31, 2026, non-audit ITR-3/ITR-4 at the new later date of August 31, 2026, audit cases to November 21, 2026, and belated or revised returns to December 31, 2026 with the section 234F fee of ₹5,000 (₹1,000 at income up to ₹5 lakh). From the next season the Income-tax Act, 2025 governs — same rates, renumbered sections — and forms carry new numbers (Form 16 becomes Form 130, Form 26AS becomes Form 168), as our critical-changes guide documents.

What goes wrong

• Filing ITR-1 with gains that outgrew it. 112A gains above ₹1.25 lakh in ITR-1 invite a defective-return notice. The form's eligibility lines are printed in the department's instructions — check before filing, not after.
• Wasting the exemption twice. The ₹1.25 lakh is annual and shared: two redemptions of ₹1 lakh each in one year means ₹75,000 of the second is taxable. Time redemptions across financial years when the calendar allows — the harvesting checklist runs on this.
• Letting losses die unfiled. Short-term losses offset short-term gains (20% saved per rupee), long-term losses offset long-term (12.5%) — but only if the return is filed on time and the losses are entered. Unreported losses are donated to the department.
• Treating crypto as a footnote. The 30% rate with no set-off means crypto losses cannot even reduce crypto gains; hiding a small VDA line while the exchange's data sits in your AIS is the most detectable omission in modern filing.
• Forgetting the buyer's TDS on property. A property buyer must deduct 1% TDS on consideration above ₹50 lakh — it lands in your 26AS and reconciles at filing. Miss it and the buyer has their own compliance problem; confirm it before registration.

The verdict

Capital-gains filing is three moves: classify every gain by the rate table above, pick the form by the department's own lines, and enter the schedules from your broker and deed paperwork before the December 31 belated window closes. The ₹1.25 lakh exemption harvests itself if you plan redemptions across financial years; losses are worth filing for; and crypto's 30% with no set-off makes position-sizing a tax decision, not just a portfolio one. The asset-level detail lives in our mutual-fund, gold, US-stocks and crypto taxation guides — this page is the filing map that stitches them to your ITR.

This is educational content, not investment advice. Consult a SEBI-registered advisor for decisions specific to your situation.