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Searchable plain-language glossary of Indian income tax, GST, investing and banking terms, each with the section it comes from.
This is a searchable glossary of the terms that appear on Indian tax notices, GST invoices, fund factsheets and loan sanction letters, written in plain language with the governing section named against each one. It covers income tax vocabulary from gross total income to updated returns, GST from input tax credit to place of supply, and the investing and banking terms that get used interchangeably but do not mean the same thing. Searching works on the word, the abbreviation or the section number, so typing 87A, ITC or XIRR gets you straight to the entry.
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Each definition names the Act, section or regulation it comes from so you can verify it.
TDS, ITC, DTAA, CAGR and section numbers all resolve to the right entry.
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The financial year, called the previous year in the Act, is when the income is earned — 1 April to 31 March. The assessment year is the following year, when that income is taxed. Income of FY 2025-26 is assessed in AY 2026-27, which is why return forms carry the later year.
Form 26AS is a tax credit statement: TDS and TCS deposited against your PAN, plus advance and self-assessment tax paid. The Annual Information Statement under section 285BB is wider, listing reported financial transactions such as dividends, securities trades and property deals, and it lets you file feedback on entries that are wrong.
It is credit for the GST you paid on business purchases, set against the GST you collect on sales, so tax is charged only on value added. Section 16 of the CGST Act requires a valid tax invoice, actual receipt of the goods or services, and the supplier having filed and paid; section 17(5) blocks credit on items such as personal motor cars.
No. CAGR assumes one lump sum invested at the start, so it is meaningless when money went in on many different dates. XIRR is the correct measure for an SIP because it accounts for the amount and the date of every instalment and returns a single annualised rate.