Capital Gains Tax Calculator
India changed its capital gains law twice in two years. Rates and holding periods moved on 23 July 2024, and then the whole Income-tax Act was replaced on 1 April 2026. This works out which set of rules your sale falls under, and shows the arithmetic rather than just the answer.
What you sold
The exact date matters. It decides the holding period, and for property it decides whether the old-law cap is available.
This decides which Act governs. On or after 1 April 2026 the Income-tax Act 2025 applies.
Brokerage, stamp duty on the sale, legal fees.
Your other income
Needed for surcharge, which the shipped code of several Indian calculators leaves out entirely.
Surcharge starts above Rs 50,00,000 of total income.
Tax on this sale
₹35,100
- Your gain
- ₹3,95,000
- Holding
- Long term
- Rate applied
- 12.5%
- Effective on the gain
- 8.89%
You sold in 2026-27, so the Income-tax Act 2025 governs this sale. Held for more than 12 months, so it is a long-term gain under section 198. The old Act was repealed on 1 April 2026, so a sale either side of that date is governed by a different statute with different section numbers, even though every rate stayed the same.
| Gain | ₹3,95,000 |
|---|---|
| Exempt, first Rs 1,25,000 a year | ₹1,25,000 |
| Tax at 12.5% | ₹33,750 |
| Surcharge at 0% | ₹0 |
| Health and education cess at 4% | ₹1,350 |
| Total | ₹35,100 |
This covers the gain and the tax on it. It does not compute the reinvestment exemptions under sections 54, 54F and 54EC, losses carried forward, non-resident withholding, or marginal relief, and short-term gains outside equity are taxed at the rate you selected rather than a slab computation we would have to assume. Capital gains is the most fact-specific part of Indian personal tax, so a chartered accountant is the right person to confirm any of this before you file.
Cite this calculator
Using this in an article, a report or a class? Please credit it, and link back so readers can run the numbers themselves.
The Money Decoded. "Capital Gains Tax Calculator (India)." https://themoneydecoded.com/calculators/capital-gains
The embed drops this calculator straight into your page as a working tool. It is 2600px tall by default and full width, so change the height if your column is much wider or narrower than ours.
Why does it ask when you sold?
Because two different Income-tax Acts are live at the same time, and the date of sale decides which one governs. The Income-tax Act 1961 was repealed on 1 April 2026 and replaced by the Income-tax Act 2025.
CBDT's own transition FAQ draws the line: income earned in FY 2025-26 is governed by the 1961 Act and assessed in AY 2026-27, while income from 1 April 2026 onward falls under the 2025 Act. So the return being filed this season and the shares somebody sold last month are governed by different statutes.
Every rate survived the move. Long-term equity is still 12.5% above Rs 1,25,000, short-term equity is still 20%, everything else is still 12.5%. What changed is the numbering. Section 112A became 198, section 112 became 197, section 111A became 196, and sections 54, 54F and 54EC became 82, 86 and 85.
That is exactly why the change slipped past. The money looks identical, so nothing forces anyone to notice. Of sixteen Indian pages we fetched and read, three cite the 2025 numbering at all. quicko.com carries sections 198, 197 and 196 in its prose but does not branch on the sale date, so it now describes the wrong Act for a sale made last year. The other thirteen still cite the 1961 sections only.
Why does it ask for real dates?
Because three separate rules turn on an exact calendar date, and a holding period expressed in months cannot express any of them. The 23 July 2024 cutover, the 1 April 2026 change of Act, and the 31 January 2018 grandfathering for older equity all need the day, not the duration.
Four of the sixteen Indian pages we read collect a real calendar date. The rest take a coarse band, a financial year, a period in months, or nothing at all. ClearTax asks only whether the holding was "less than or equal to 1 year" against "more than 1 year", on a page whose own text says the rate "depends on the date of transfer". 5paisa asks for a bought value and a sold value and computes from those alone, with no date or holding period anywhere.
Five of the sixteen carry no calculator at all, while ranking for calculator searches. On bankbazaar the only input on the page is the navigation menu toggle; on tax2win the fifteen inputs are hidden fields and an email capture form; on karnanica the single form is a contact form.
The best handling in the field belongs to a small independent site that demands an exact purchase date only when you pick FY 2024-25, the single year that straddles the cutover. That is a genuinely elegant piece of design, and it is on a page most readers will never find.
The property rule is a cap, not a choice
For land or building acquired before 23 July 2024, the law caps the bill at whichever computation produces less tax, and the taxpayer chooses nothing. The statute says the excess "shall be ignored".
Almost every page covering this describes it as an option: you can choose 12.5% without indexation, or 20% with it. That is not what the provision does. There is no election, no form, and no decision to make. The lower figure is simply what you owe.
Three conditions get dropped in most descriptions, and all three narrow it sharply. It applies only to land or building, not to gold or unlisted shares. It requires the property to have been acquired before 23 July 2024 and sold on or after it, so both legs matter and the field disagrees about which one does. And it reaches only a resident individual or Hindu undivided family, not companies, firms, LLPs or non-residents.
The calculator computes both limbs whenever those conditions are met and shows them side by side, because the result is often the opposite of what people expect. Indexation only wins when the gain is modest relative to inflation over the holding period. On a property that tripled in value, the flat 12.5% usually costs less, and the comparison still has to be run to know that.
The surcharge cap that is easy to miss
Surcharge on the tax attributable to capital gains is capped at 15%, however high your total income goes. The 25% and 37% bands apply to the rest of your income, not to this slice.
The cap is explicit in the Finance Act 2026, and it survives in both the part governing 1961-Act income and the part governing 2025-Act income. It is not obscure. It is just missing from the tools.
Cess is the other thing that goes missing, and it compounds the error, because the 4% applies to tax plus surcharge rather than to tax alone. A tool that models neither understates the bill twice over.
What this calculator does not do
It does not compute the reinvestment exemptions under sections 54, 54F and 54EC, renumbered 82, 86 and 85 in the 2025 Act. Those depend on what you buy next and when, and they carry caps and lock-ins that a single-screen tool would misrepresent. One worth knowing regardless: the 54EC bond lock-in is five years, not the three that the old sub-section states on its face, because a proviso overrides it for every bond issued since April 2018. The 2025 Act fixed that drafting and now says five outright.
It also does not handle losses set off or carried forward, non-resident withholding, specified mutual funds, or marginal relief. Short-term gains outside equity are charged at the rate you pick rather than through a slab computation, because that would mean assuming a tax regime you have not told us about.
Capital gains is the most fact-specific part of Indian personal tax, and small details in how an asset was acquired change the answer. A chartered accountant is the right person to confirm any of this before you file.
Pair this with the guide
Capital Gains Tax: Short-Term vs Long-Term, India and US covers what separates a short-term gain from a long-term one in both India and the US, and why the distinction drives the whole bill. For the tax system around it, our guide to Indian tax concepts maps how the pieces fit together, and the income tax slabs matter here because short-term gains outside equity are taxed at them.
Frequently asked questions
Which Income-tax Act applies to my sale?
It depends on the date you sold. The Income-tax Act 1961 was repealed on 1 April 2026 and replaced by the Income-tax Act 2025, and CBDT's transition FAQ confirms that income earned in FY 2025-26 stays with the old Act while income from 1 April 2026 onward falls under the new one. So a sale on 31 March 2026 is governed by sections 111A, 112 and 112A, and a sale on 1 April 2026 by sections 196, 197 and 198. No rate changed in the move. Only the section numbers did, which is why the change went largely unnoticed.
What are the current capital gains rates in India?
Long-term gains on India-listed shares and equity mutual funds are taxed at 12.5%, with the first Rs 1,25,000 of such gains each year exempt. Short-term gains on the same assets are taxed at 20%. Long-term gains on everything else, including property, gold and unlisted shares, are taxed at 12.5% without indexation. Short-term gains outside equity are added to income and taxed at slab rates. Those figures took effect on 23 July 2024 and carried into the Income-tax Act 2025 unchanged.
How long must I hold an asset for a long-term gain?
Twelve months for securities listed on a recognised stock exchange in India, for equity-oriented mutual fund units and for zero coupon bonds. Twenty-four months for everything else, including unlisted shares, property and gold. The old 36-month category was removed on 23 July 2024. One detail that trips people up: the statute says listed in India, so a share listed on a foreign exchange needs 24 months, not 12.
Can I choose between 12.5% without indexation and 20% with it?
No, and that framing is wrong even though it appears on most pages covering this. The statute does not create a choice. It says that where the 12.5% figure exceeds what the old law would have charged, the excess shall be ignored, which is an automatic cap rather than an election. There is no form to file and nothing to opt into. The cap is also narrower than usually described: it applies only to land or building, only where the property was acquired before 23 July 2024 and sold on or after that date, and only for a resident individual or Hindu undivided family.
Is surcharge on capital gains capped?
Yes, at 15%. The surcharge bands run to 25% and 37% on high total incomes, but the Finance Act 2026 caps the rate applied to the tax on capital gains at 15% however high income goes. The cap sits in the First Schedule rather than in the capital gains sections themselves, which is an easy place to miss it, and missing it overstates the bill for anyone with a large gain.
What is the Cost Inflation Index for 2026-27?
384, notified by Notification 85/2026, S.O. 3889(E) dated 15 July 2026. That figure is unusual: it is the first Cost Inflation Index notified under section 72(8)(a) of the Income-tax Act 2025, where every earlier value was notified under section 48, Explanation (v) of the 1961 Act. The income tax department's own index page still carries a blanket line attributing the whole table to Notification 70/2025, which inserted only the 376 figure for 2025-26, so citing section 48 for 384 repeats an error present on the source page.
Does indexation always reduce the bill on old property?
No, and this surprises people. Indexation only wins when the gain is modest relative to inflation over the holding period. On a property bought for Rs 30,00,000 in 2015-16 and sold for Rs 90,00,000, the 20% indexed computation comes to more than the flat 12.5% one, because the price grew faster than the index did. The cap still has to be computed to establish that, which is the point of showing both.
Sources
Every figure here was read from the statute or an official notification, not from a tax-industry summary. The full sourcing record, including the section-by-section mapping between the two Acts, is kept in the repository as a working document.
- Central Board of Direct Taxes, FAQs on Interplay and Transition, Income-tax Act 2025, Q1.12 and Q3.5, for which Act governs which period
- Income-tax Act, 2025 (30 of 2025), as amended by the Finance Act 2026: sections 196, 197 and 198 for the rates, 2(101) for holding periods, 197(3) for the land and building cap, 90(7) and 90(8) for the 31 January 2018 rule
- Income-tax Act, 1961, current editions of section 112A, section 111A and section 112. Note that the department serves archival editions at neighbouring URLs, so the year metadata has to be checked on every page
- Ministry of Finance, CBDT FAQs on the new capital gains tax regime, 24 July 2024, for the 23 July 2024 effective date
- Notification 85/2026, S.O. 3889(E) of 15 July 2026, setting the Cost Inflation Index for 2026-27 at 384 under section 72(8)(a) of the Income-tax Act 2025, and Notification 70/2025, S.O. 2954(E) of 1 July 2025, setting 2025-26 at 376 under section 48 of the 1961 Act
- Finance Act, 2026 (No. 4 of 2026), First Schedule, for the surcharge bands, the 15% cap on the capital gains slice, and the 4% health and education cess
- Observations about how other capital gains calculators present inputs, rates and workings come from a live review in August 2026, reading served markup and calculator scripts rather than marketing copy. The India counts cover sixteen domains fetched and confirmed directly: cleartax, 5paisa, quicko, scripbox, eztax, policybazaar, tax2win, bankbazaar, savetaxs, arthgyaan, karnanica, toolisky, inflationcalculator, alltaxcalculator, dealplexus and calcwise