Two regimes, three years,
one table that settles it.

The new regime is the default in all three years covered here: under s.115BAC(1A) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26, and under s.202(1) of the Income-tax Act, 2025 for FY 2026-27. The old regime remains available as an option, and it is the only regime with age-based senior-citizen slabs and the classic deduction set.

Under the new regime, yes — via the rebate, not the slabs. The slabs themselves start charging 5% above ₹4 lakh, but s.87A (s.156 under the 2025 Act) rebates up to ₹60,000 of tax where total income is ≤ ₹12,00,000, which exactly covers the slab tax at ₹12L. Salaried taxpayers get to roughly ₹12.75L tax-free once the ₹75,000 standard deduction is counted. The rebate is not available against special-rate income such as s.111A STCG, s.112A LTCG or lottery winnings, and marginal relief tapers it out at roughly ₹12.75L of income.

No. Multiple independent sources — ClearTax, Axis Max Life, TaxGuru's summary of the Finance Bill 2026 memorandum, and BankBazaar — unanimously report that the Finance Act, 2026 made no change to slabs, rebate, surcharge or cess. FY 2026-27 mirrors FY 2025-26. What did change is the governing law: from 1 April 2026 the Income-tax Act, 2025 replaces the 1961 Act, the new-regime rates sit in s.202(1) of the Act itself, the rebate moves to s.156, and 'tax year' replaces the previous-year/assessment-year terminology. One honesty note: the gazette text of the Finance Act 2026 First Schedule could not be fetched directly, so this rests on unanimous secondary sources.

FY 2024-25 and FY 2025-26 are governed by the Income-tax Act, 1961 — new-regime rates in s.115BAC(1A), old-regime rates via the First Schedule to the relevant Finance Act. FY 2026-27 (from 1 April 2026) is the first year under the Income-tax Act, 2025, which carries the new-regime rates in s.202(1) and the rebate in s.156, with old-regime rates via the First Schedule to the Finance Act, 2026.

Only the old regime has age-based slabs, and they are unchanged across all three years: resident senior citizens (60–79) get a ₹3,00,000 basic exemption, and resident super seniors (80+) get ₹5,00,000 (then 20% to ₹10L and 30% above). The new regime has no age-based variation — the basic exemption is the same for everyone: ₹3L in FY 2024-25 and ₹4L in FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27.

A cap that stops a small income increase from causing a larger tax increase. It appears twice. First, at the rebate boundary in the new regime: where income marginally exceeds the rebate limit (₹7L in FY 2024-25, ₹12L in FY 2025-26 and FY 2026-27), the additional tax is capped at the income above the limit. Second, at every surcharge threshold in both regimes: the extra tax cannot exceed the income above the threshold. The old-regime ₹12,500 rebate has no marginal relief — at ₹5,00,001 it vanishes entirely.

In the new regime the ladder is 10% above ₹50L, 15% above ₹1cr, and 25% above ₹2cr — capped at 25%, so the maximum marginal rate is 39%. The old regime keeps the 37% band above ₹5cr, taking its maximum marginal rate to 42.744%. In both regimes the surcharge on s.111A/s.112A capital gains and dividend income is capped at 15%, and marginal relief applies at every threshold.

Not to s.112A LTCG in any year covered here. From FY 2025-26 the statute is explicit that the new-regime rebate is not available against any special-rate income — s.111A STCG, s.112A LTCG, or lottery winnings under s.115BB. For FY 2024-25 the position on s.111A STCG is contested: the CPC utility denied the rebate for transfers from 23 July 2024, while ITAT and Bombay High Court rulings went the other way, and the final position was not verified for this page.