13 Statutory Forms Under Income Tax Rules 2026: What Tax Teams Should Check
Updated 22 September 2026. The Income Tax e-Filing ecosystem is continuing its phased transition to the Income-tax Act, 2025 and Income Tax Rules, 2026. A second set of 13 statutory forms, including quarterly forms, has been enabled on the e-Filing portal. For CAs, finance teams, deductors and other reporting persons, the practical task is not to guess the new form number from an old workflow, but to identify the applicable law, reporting period, rule and live portal form before filing.
Quick answer
- The second rollout adds 13 statutory forms on the e-Filing portal.
- The rollout includes quarterly compliance forms.
- Users should select forms under the Income Tax Act, 2025 area of the portal.
- The portal announcement does not itself provide a complete form-by-form applicability table, so the Navigator and Income Tax Rules, 2026 should be checked before filing.
- Old Act form numbers should not be mechanically mapped to new forms without verification.
Where are the new forms available?
The portal route communicated for the new-law forms is: e-File → Income Tax Forms → File Income Tax Forms → Forms as per Income Tax Act, 2025. From there, the user should select the form that actually applies to the transaction or reporting obligation.
This matters because 2026 is a transition year. Compliance teams may simultaneously deal with AY 2026-27 matters relating to FY 2025-26 under the earlier framework and Tax Year 2026-27 matters under the Income-tax Act, 2025. A familiar form name, saved bookmark or prior-year SOP is therefore not enough evidence that the same filing route applies.
What should a tax team verify before filing?
| Check | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Applicable period | First determine whether the compliance belongs to the old Act period or Tax Year 2026-27 under the new Act. |
| Legal provision | Verify the current section/table item and the relevant Income Tax Rules, 2026 rule. |
| Form | Select the live statutory form shown for the applicable new-law compliance; do not infer a one-to-one renumbering. |
| Frequency | Confirm whether the obligation is quarterly, event-based, annual or otherwise prescribed. |
| Due date | Check the rule and current portal guidance instead of copying an old calendar date. |
| Validation | Review mandatory fields, PAN/TAN requirements, verification method and portal validation errors before final submission. |
| Acknowledgement | Retain the successful filing acknowledgement and working papers after submission. |
Why the 13-form rollout matters
A statutory form can exist in the rules before the corresponding electronic filing workflow is practically available. Portal enablement is therefore an operational milestone. It allows tax teams to move from legal mapping and data preparation to actual electronic filing for the forms that have gone live.
The rollout is especially relevant for recurring quarterly compliance because businesses often connect these filings with payroll, vendor accounting, TDS/TCS reconciliations, ERP reports and maker-checker controls. A changed form or validation rule can require changes to data extraction even when the underlying commercial transaction has not changed.
Do not assume every old form has a direct new counterpart
The safest migration method is a controlled mapping table. For every recurring compliance, record the old provision/form, new provision/form, governing rule, effective period, portal availability, filing frequency and verification status. Mark uncertain mappings as RESEARCH REQUIRED rather than forcing a match.
This is particularly important because the Income Tax Department’s transition guidance already shows that new-law filing can require current section 393 or section 394 references for TDS/TCS transactions from 1 April 2026 onward. The Department has also introduced new-law forms and consolidated workflows in stages. The legal event date and reporting period should therefore be established first.
Practical SOP for finance and tax teams
- Identify every quarterly or recurring income-tax compliance in the client/entity calendar.
- Tag each item as old-law period, new-law period or transition item.
- Open the current e-Filing portal instead of relying on a saved offline utility.
- Use the Income Tax Act, 2025 forms menu and the Department’s Navigator.
- Cross-check the applicable Income Tax Rules, 2026 provision.
- Document the selected form and why it applies.
- Run a maker-checker review of PAN/TAN, period, amounts and statutory references.
- Resolve validation errors before the due date rather than on the last filing day.
- Save the acknowledgement and update the compliance tracker.
What about existing TDS return guides?
TaxQueries already maintains separate guides for the new TDS statement forms. Those pages should remain the detailed filing resources. This article serves a different search intent: it explains the broader second-wave portal rollout and the migration controls a tax team should apply before selecting any newly enabled form.
Official sources to use
Frequently asked questions
How many forms are in the second rollout?
The portal rollout covers 13 additional statutory forms, including quarterly forms.
Should I use the old form number if I know the old compliance?
No. Verify the applicable new-law form through the portal, Navigator and Income Tax Rules, 2026. Do not assume one-to-one renumbering.
Does portal availability itself prove that a form applies to me?
No. Availability means the filing facility exists. Applicability still depends on the law, rule, reporting period and taxpayer or transaction facts.
Why should ERP and payroll teams care?
Quarterly forms may depend on data extracted from payroll, vendor ledgers, TDS/TCS records and other systems. New validations can require changes to reports and review controls.
Last reviewed: 22 September 2026. This article is a portal-transition guide; verify the exact form, rule and due date on the official portal before filing.
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