Next: Tax
TDS, Form 16 and AIS: where your tax went
Tax leaves your pay before you ever see it. Read Form 16, match it against 26AS and the AIS, and settle any mismatch before you file, not after a notice.
18 min
beginner
Old regime vs new regime
The one tax choice a salaried person makes every year: which deductions survive where, the break-even arithmetic, and how switching actually works.
3 lessons · about 21 minutes · written for reading age 13 · last checked 2026-08-11
Two rulebooks, one choice
The new regime is the default: lower rates, almost no deductions. The old regime holds on to the deductions and charges more inside every slab.
7 min
The break-even intuition
The choice is pure arithmetic: add up the deductions you genuinely claim, then see whether they clear the break-even level that goes with your salary.
8 min
Default, switching, and the fine print
What you tell your employer in April is not final. A salaried person re-chooses every year, while business income makes the choice far stickier.
6 min
Check yourself
4 questions at the end. Every wrong answer explains itself.
Tools for this
What changed recently
Dated commentary on this topic — a Budget change, a new rule, a scam pattern.
2026-04-08 · 7 min read
Income-tax Act 2025: new section numbers
From 1 April 2026 the Act that governed Indian income tax for 65 years is replaced. The tax you pay is largely the same. Almost every section number is not.
2026-03-14 · 5 min read
₹12,10,000 does not cost you ₹61,500 in tax
The ₹12 lakh rebate looks like a cliff — one rupee over and a large tax bill appears. Marginal relief exists to stop that, and almost nobody has heard of it.
2026-02-04 · 6 min read
Budget 2026: what changed for a salaried person
Slabs unchanged, standard deduction unchanged, rebate unchanged. For most salaried taxpayers this Budget was a year of stability — which is worth understanding.
Sources
- Income Tax Department — official portal — Income Tax Department · checked 2026-08-11
- Union Budget 2026-27 — tax proposals — Ministry of Finance · checked 2026-08-11