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Changelog · verified 2026-07-15

What actually changed — and when.

Indian home loan rules moved a lot in the last two years: a whole new Income-tax Act, a slab restructure that inverted the standard advice, and an RBI consolidation that withdrew 9,445 circulars. 6 of these 9 changes happened since January 2025. Each entry below is dated, sourced and verified.

Why this page exists. Most finance sites update their tax pages once a year, if that. So the internet's advice on Indian home loans is frequently a year or more out of date — and in a few cases, nine years. This is the record we keep for ourselves; it is public so you can check our work, and so you can see what your other sources have missed. Generated from data/sources.json — the same file our calculators read, so this page cannot disagree with our arithmetic.
Act

Income-tax Act, 2025 comes into force — the 1961 Act is repealed

800+ sections cut to 536 and renumbered throughout. "Assessment year" is discontinued; "tax year" replaces "previous year". Passed 12 Aug 2025, assented 21 Aug 2025; Income-tax Rules 2026 notified 20 Mar 2026.

What it means. No change to any amount. The Government was explicit that the new Act simplifies language and structure "without altering the underlying tax policy". Section numbers moved: s.24(b)→s.22(1)(b), 80C→s.123, 80EE→s.130, 80EEA→s.131, 80E→s.129, 115BAC→s.202, 87A→s.156, 2(28A)→s.2(59), 32→s.33.

The catch. BOTH Acts are live. The 1961 Act still governs FY 2025-26 — the return being filed this July. The 2025 Act governs FY 2026-27 onward. Citing only one is wrong half the time.
Still wrong in the market

In July 2026 most major finance sites still cite only the repealed 1961 Act, and several still use "AY 2027-28" — a term this Act abolished.

Source: PIB — Ministry of Finance · verified 2026-07-15

Tax

Finance Act 2026 pulls pre-construction interest inside the ₹2 lakh ceiling

s.22(2) amended to substitute "sub-section (1)(b) and (c)", w.e.f. 1 Apr 2026.

What it means. The ₹2,00,000 self-occupied cap now expressly covers current-year interest PLUS the five annual pre-construction instalments, together. Under the 1961 Act the pre-construction limb sat in the Explanation to s.24.

The catch. If a calculator stacks pre-construction interest on top of ₹2 lakh, it is now wrong. The amount did not change; the scope of what it caps did.

Source: Income-tax Act, 2025 — s.22(2), as amended · verified 2026-07-15

RBI

RBI withdraws 9,445 circulars and consolidates into 244 Master Directions

The standalone Lending Against Gold and Silver Collateral Directions, 2025 and the entire "Master Circular – Housing Finance" series were withdrawn and folded into per-lender-category Credit Facilities Directions.

What it means. No values changed. Housing LTV is still 90/80/75 — but it now lives in the Credit Facilities Directions 2025 (banks: para 111; HFCs: para 58), not the old Master Circular.

The catch. Withdrawn RBI pages STILL RENDER LIVE with no banner. RBI's own gold page reads "Updated as on September 29, 2025" while sitting on RBI's own withdrawn list. A citation that resolves is not a citation that is current. We re-pointed ours in July 2026.

Source: RBI/2025-26/100 · verified 2026-07-15

RBI

RBI prepayment charges ban extends to business loans and MSEs

RBI (Pre-payment Charges on Loans) Directions, 2025, issued 2 Jul 2025, effective for loans sanctioned or renewed on or after 1 Jan 2026.

What it means. Nil prepayment charges on floating-rate loans to individuals for non-business purposes — any amount, any source of funds, no lock-in. Now extended to floating-rate BUSINESS loans to individuals and Micro & Small Enterprises from commercial banks (excluding SFBs/RRBs/local area banks) and AIFIs.

The catch. Terms must be disclosed in the sanction letter, loan agreement and Key Facts Statement. No previously waived charge may be revived at prepayment. Fixed-rate loans may still carry 2–5%.

Source: RBI (Pre-payment Charges on Loans) Directions, 2025 · verified 2026-07-15

RBI

Gold loan LTV becomes tiered — 85% / 80% / 75%

Consumption gold loans: 85% up to ₹2.5L, 80% from ₹2.5–5L, 75% above ₹5L. Tiers apply to TOTAL consumption gold loan per borrower, not per loan. Compliance no later than 1 Apr 2026.

What it means. Small-ticket borrowers can draw more than the old flat 75%. Applies to banks, NBFCs, HFCs, SFBs, RRBs, UCBs, RCBs — not Payments Banks.

The catch. Two traps. (1) For BULLET loans the LTV is computed on the total amount repayable AT MATURITY, not the disbursal — so the real draw is smaller than LTV × gold value. (2) These caps apply to CONSUMPTION loans only; business gold loans have no RBI LTV cap at all. Consumption bullet tenor is capped at 12 months.

Source: now in Credit Facilities Directions 2025, para 44 · verified 2026-07-15

Tax

Budget 2025 restructures the new regime — and inverts the old-vs-new advice

New slabs: nil to ₹4L, 5% to ₹8L, 10% to ₹12L, 15% to ₹16L, 20% to ₹20L, 25% to ₹24L, 30% above. s.87A rebate raised to ₹60,000, wiping tax to nil up to ₹12,00,000 taxable. Standard deduction ₹75,000.

What it means. For most salaried home loan borrowers the NEW regime now wins — the opposite of the advice that circulated before. At ₹15L gross with a ₹50L loan the new regime wins by ₹66,300; at ₹25L, by ₹1,40,400.

The catch. A bigger loan does not rescue the old regime, because s.24(b) is capped at ₹2 lakh — a ₹2 crore loan buys the same deduction as a ₹50 lakh one. The old regime now needs roughly ₹8 lakh of total deductions to win at ₹25L+ income, which realistically means large HRA.
Still wrong in the market

Many sites still carry the pre-2025 conclusion that a larger loan tips the balance to the old regime.

Source: Income Tax Department — slabs · verified 2026-07-15

Tax

Equity LTCG raised from 10% to 12.5%; exemption raised to ₹1.25 lakh

Finance (No.2) Act, 2024. Annual exemption raised from ₹1,00,000 to ₹1,25,000.

What it means. Changes every prepay-vs-invest comparison. Equity at 12% gross now nets ~10.5% after LTCG, not 10.8%.

The catch. Sites still applying 10% overstate the case for investing over prepaying.

Source: Finance (No.2) Act, 2024 · verified 2026-07-15

Tax

Section 80EEA closes to new loans

The ₹1.5 lakh additional interest deduction applied only to loans sanctioned between 1 Apr 2019 and 31 Mar 2022. It was NOT extended.

What it means. No loan sanctioned after 31 Mar 2022 qualifies. Borrowers inside the window may keep claiming until the loan is repaid.

The catch. It was re-enacted verbatim as s.131 of the 2025 Act, which makes it LOOK current in a section list. Re-enactment is not revival — the window is historic.
Still wrong in the market

Still offered to new buyers by several major sites in July 2026 — four years after it closed. One publishes a fabricated "extended until 31 March 2026" claim. No such extension exists.

Source: Income-tax Act, 1961 — s.80EEA(3)(i) · verified 2026-07-15

Tax

Section 80EE closes to new loans

The ₹50,000 additional interest deduction applied only to loans sanctioned between 1 Apr 2016 and 31 Mar 2017, on loans ≤ ₹35L and property ≤ ₹50L.

What it means. No loan sanctioned after 31 Mar 2017 qualifies.

The catch. Re-enacted verbatim as s.130 of the 2025 Act. Its text reads "for the tax year beginning on the 1st April, 2016" — using the new Act's vocabulary for a nine-year-old window.
Still wrong in the market

Still advertised to FY 2026-27 buyers — off by nine years.

Source: Income-tax Act, 1961 — s.80EE(3)(i) · verified 2026-07-15

What has not changed

Worth saying plainly, because the volume of change above makes people assume everything moved:

  • ₹2,00,000 — the Section 24(b) interest cap on a self-occupied property. Unchanged.
  • ₹1,50,000 — the 80C principal cap, still shared with EPF, PPF, ELSS and insurance.
  • ₹30,000 — the fallback if construction overruns five years.
  • 90% / 80% / 75% — housing LTV by loan size. The instrument moved; the numbers did not.
  • 4% — health and education cess.

The Income-tax Act, 2025 was explicitly passed “without altering the underlying tax policy”. If your tax bill changed this year, it was Budget 2025's slabs, not the new Act.

How we keep this honest

Every figure lives in one file that the calculators read directly, so a citation cannot drift from the arithmetic. Each entry carries a review date, and a checker fails the build when one passes — a Budget cannot quietly rot the site. Prose is scanned against the same file and fails if a sentence contradicts it.

One lesson from building this: a link that resolves is not a source that is current. RBI's withdrawn circulars still render live with no banner — RBI's own gold page reads “Updated as on September 29, 2025” while sitting on RBI's own withdrawn list. We check against the instrument, not the URL.

Spotted something we have missed or got wrong? That is a real bug — tell us and we will fix it and re-date it. See also Sources & Standards and the Income-tax Act 2025 mapping.

Not tax or legal advice. This is a record of what changed, with sources, so you can verify it yourself. For your own position, confirm with a CA.

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