Realtime Updates

*REALTIME Updates*

1. *Income Tax Act, 2025*: Starting April 1, 2026, several income tax forms like Form 26AS, Form 16, Form 13 and others will be renamed as the new Income Tax Act, 2025 will be effective from this date. Over time, names like Form 26AS, Form 16, and others became quite familiar to salaried employees, pensioners, senior citizens and others.

2. So, switching to the new form numbers under the Income-tax Act, 2025 might cause some initial hiccups, especially in the early days of the rollout. Some new names of tax forms The Income-tax Act, 2025 read with the Draft Income Tax Rules 2026 has updated the numbering of several statutory forms, with the corresponding changes notified under the Draft Income-tax Rules, 2026.

3. *Karnataka High Court* examined the validity of ex-parte assessment orders for assessment years 2018-19 and 2019-20 passed against the petitioner. The petitioner contended that it could not respond to the show cause notices because the notices were sent to the email ID of an employee who had left the company, and therefore it had no knowledge of the proceedings. The Revenue argued that the notices were sent to the email address furnished by the petitioner and that any internal employment changes could not invalidate service of notice.

4. *India’s global capability centres (GCCs)* continued to hire at scale in 2025 even as selective layoffs took place. Around 5,500–6,000 roles were cut across India’s GCC ecosystem in 2025, according to UnearthIQ data estimates. One large event at Technicolour alone accounted for more than 3,000 of those roles, while the remaining reductions were spread across roughly 20 GCCs. “Around 5,500 to 6,000 roles were laid off.

5. *UDIN Directorate* of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India announced implementation of field-level validation across all sub-categories under Section 44AB (clauses a to e) at the time of UDIN generation under the “GST and Tax Audit” category. The Council, at its 442nd meeting in May 2025, had approved a ceiling of 60 tax audits per member, effective April 1, 2026, with corresponding restrictions on UDIN generation for Forms 3CA and 3CB categories.

6. *In line with this decision, the UDIN portal* will enforce the ceiling from April 1, 2026. Additionally, field-level validations have been introduced immediately to ensure compliance with statutory thresholds such as turnover limits, gross receipts criteria, cash transaction percentages, presumptive taxation conditions, and applicability of Sections 44AD, 44ADA, 44AE, 44BB, and 44BBB. UDIN generation will proceed only upon satisfying specified validation logic. Members have been advised to take note and ensure accurate data entry while generating UDINs.

With best regards

*CA Prabina Kumar Moningi*
Founder REALTIME Updates
Platform of 21000+ Professionals
Hyderabad
📞9866431188

*REALTIME UPDATES*

Income Tax Update

1. Compare Old Act (1961) vs. New Act (2025) in One Click. As we transition to the Income-tax Act, 2025 (effective April 1, 2026), the biggest challenge for professionals is finding the new section numbers for old provisions.

2. To solve this, the Income Tax Department has launched a Section-to-Section Mapping Utility.

3. Features of the Utility:

4. Instant Mapping: Select a Section from the Old Act (1961), and it shows the corresponding Clause in the New Act (2025).

5. Reverse Search: You can also search from New Act to Old Act.

6. No Login Required: Open to all.

7. Access the Utility Here: https://incometaxindia.gov.in/Pages/income-tax-navigator-utility-2025.aspx


8. Income-tax Act, 2025 is to come into force from the 1st of April, 2026. Draft Income-tax Rules, 2026 and forms forming part of these Rules have been framed. These Rules are required to be notified shortly. Prior to the said notification, it has been decided to place the draft Income-tax Rules, 2026 (and Forms) in public domain so as to seek the feedback/comments from stakeholders and public.


9. The draft rules and forms shall remain in public domain for a period of 15 days i.e. upto 22nd of February, 2026. All stakeholders and members of public are requested to go through these draft rules and forms and provide considered feedback on the same so as to make the exercise of framing of subordinate legislation more participative and effective.

10. The drafting of new Income-tax Rules and forms has followed the same philosophy as that of the new Income-tax Act 2025. The language of the rules has been simplified to the extent possible. Formulas and tables have been provided wherever necessary. Redundancy in the Income-tax Rules, 1961 has been sought to be eliminated. While preserving the larger content of the policy, certain changes have been introduced in line with the changes in the Income-tax Act, 2025.

11. The forms which are part of the draft rules have also been simplified to a large extent for the ease of the taxpayers. Standardization of common information has been done across the forms with a view to reducing the compliance burden of the taxpayers. Forms have been designed in a smart way so as to provide for automated reconciliation and also prefill capabilities so as to make filing more intuitive and less error-prone.

12. These smart forms would considerably ease the filing and enhance the user experience. They would also enable centralised processing and data driven decision making so that the technology is used to provide better services to the taxpayers. The language of the forms has also been simplified so as to avoid any operational, administrative or legal ambiguity. Notes to forms have been simplified.

With best regards

*CA Prabina kumar Moningi*
Founder REALTIME Updates
Platform of 21000+ Professionals
Hyderabad
📞9866431188

income-tax-navigator-utility-2025 The Income Tax Department NEVER asks for your PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts through e-mail.

*REALTIME UPDATES*

1. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is likely to exempt companies with annual turnover of up to Rs 1 crore from mandatory statutory audit, marking a significant shift in the compliance framework under the Companies Act, people aware of the matter told ETCFO on condition of anonymity.

2. The exemption, expected to be introduced through an amendment to Section 139 during the Winter Session of Parliament, would be the first turnover-based relaxation to India’s statutory audit regime. At present, every company irrespective of size is required to appoint an auditor and undergo a statutory audit each year.

3. An official involved in the discussions said audits of micro-enterprises “rarely reveal material issues and add limited practical value,” noting that most reports for such companies “are positive and do not materially strengthen oversight, while increasing compliance costs.”

4. An email sent by ETCFO to the MCA seeking clarity remained unanswered till the time of publication.

5. Under the current law, statutory audit forms the basis for preparing financial statements, conducting annual general meetings and filing documents such as AOC-4 with the Registrar of Companies. The audit requirement applies uniformly to one-person companies, small companies and closely held private firms.

6. A former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) told ETCFO that extending the Rs 1 crore turnover threshold which already applies to tax-audit exemption under the Income-tax Act could create a compliance vacuum. “If companies up to Rs 1 crore are exempt from both tax audit and statutory audit, how will financial reporting integrity be monitored?” he said.

7. He added that removing statutory audit for micro-firms may reduce visibility on accounting accuracy and weaken compliance discipline at the lower end of the corporate sector.

8. The proposal remains under active consideration, with the draft amendment expected to draw significant attention once introduced in the Winter Session of Parliament.

With best regards

*CA Prabina Kumar Moningi*
Founder: REALTIME Updates
Platform of 21000+ professionals
Hyderabad
📞9866431188