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See which tax regimes section 115BAC(6) still leaves open to you in each assessment year, when Form 10-IEA is due, and whether the one-way door for business income has already shut.
This planner works out, assessment year by assessment year, which income tax regimes section 115BAC(6) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 still leaves legally available to you, when Form 10-IEA falls due under rule 21AGA, and whether the one-way door has already closed. Since section 115BAC(1A) made the new regime the default from AY 2024-25, the rules split sharply: with no business or professional income you re-choose every year inside the return itself, while with business or professional income you must file Form 10-IEA on or before the section 139(1) due date, you may come back to the new regime exactly once, and after that you can never opt out again. It is built for freelancers, professionals, traders and small business owners filing ITR-3 or ITR-4 who need to know what their past elections have already spent.
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Applies section 115BAC(6)(ii) to years with no business income and section 115BAC(6)(i) to years with it, because only the second one locks.
Counts the single opt-out and the single withdrawal the first proviso to section 115BAC(6) allows, and marks the year from which no further opt-out is possible.
Uses 31 July, the new 31 August for non-audit business filers from AY 2026-27, 31 October for section 44AB audit cases and 30 November for section 92E cases, and applies the CBDT extensions on record.
Marks any year where the old regime is claimed but the deadline in rule 21AGA(1) or section 115BAC(6)(ii) was missed, so section 115BAC(1A) applies instead.
Only if you have no income from business or profession. Section 115BAC(6)(ii) lets such a person exercise the option along with the return furnished under section 139(1) for each assessment year, with no Form 10-IEA and no lock. If you do have business or professional income, section 115BAC(6)(i) applies: the option is exercised once in Form 10-IEA, it carries forward to later years on its own, and the first proviso lets you withdraw it only once — after that you can never opt out again while the business income continues.
On or before the due date under section 139(1) for that assessment year, per rule 21AGA(1) of the Income-tax Rules, 1962. For AY 2026-27 that is 31 August 2026 for a business or professional assessee whose accounts are not audited — Explanation 2 to section 139(1) as amended by the Finance Act 2026 with effect from 1 March 2026 moved this bucket from 31 July — 31 October 2026 where section 44AB audit applies, and 30 November 2026 where a section 92E report is required. A CBDT extension of the section 139(1) due date moves the Form 10-IEA date with it, as it did for AY 2025-26 when Circular No. 06/2025 dated 27 May 2025 and a further one-day extension took the non-audit date to 16 September 2025.
If you have no business or professional income, no. Section 115BAC(6)(ii) lets the option travel only with a return "to be furnished under sub-section (1) of section 139", so a belated return under section 139(4) cannot carry it and the default new regime under section 115BAC(1A) applies for that year whatever the return claims. If you have business or professional income, what matters is the Form 10-IEA date rather than the return date: a Form 10-IEA filed after the section 139(1) due date is not a valid exercise of the option, while an option validly exercised in time keeps running even if the return itself goes in late.
Not if you have business or professional income. The first proviso to section 115BAC(6) says the option once exercised for any previous year "can be withdrawn only once for a previous year other than the year in which it was exercised and thereafter, the person shall never be eligible to exercise option under this sub-section". So the sequence is one opt-out, one return to the new regime, then a permanent bar. The single stated exception is where the person ceases to have any income from business or profession, in which case clause (ii) applies and the annual choice returns for those years. The Act does not say in terms what happens if business income later resumes; this planner applies the strict reading that the bar bites again and flags the year as unsettled.
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