Learn About Taxation of Mutual Funds From Mutual Fund Course

8.1 Capital Gain Taxation

8.1 Capital Gains Taxation

Anand: Ridhima, how do mutual funds get taxed?

Ridhima: Mainly through capital gains. When you sell  or redeem your fund units at a profit, the profit is taxed as either a short-term or a long-term capital gain.

Anand: What are equity-oriented funds?

Ridhima: Any scheme with at least 65% invested in listed Indian companies is an equity-oriented fund. Aggressive hybrid funds also qualify. Debt funds, gold funds and international funds do not.

Anand: What is the difference between short-term and long-term gains?

Ridhima: For equity funds, if you hold for 12 months or less, the gain is short-term and taxed at 20%. If you hold for more than 12 months, the gain is long-term and taxed at 12.5% on the part above ₹1.25 lakh in a year. Debt funds bought on or after 1 April 2023 are different. Their gains are always taxed at your income slab rate, however long you hold them.

Anand: What about losses?

Ridhima: Short-term losses can be set off against both short-term and long-term gains. Long-term losses can only be set off against long-term gains, not the other way around. Unused losses can be carried forward for 8 years.

Anand: How are dividends taxed?

Ridhima: Dividends (now called IDCW) are added to your income and taxed at your slab rate. The fund house deducts 10% TDS if your dividends from that fund house exceed ₹10,000 in a year.

Under the Income-tax Act, any profit from selling or transferring a capital asset during the tax year is taxable as capital gains. Three things must be present: a capital asset, a transfer of that asset, and a profit or gain arising from the transfer. The Income Tax Act, 2025 is in force from 1 April 2026. It replaces the 1961 Act, and the old “previous year” is now called the “tax year”.

For capital gains tax, mutual fund schemes now fall into three groups:

1. Equity-oriented schemes.Units become long-term after 12 months.
2. Specified mutual funds (mainly debt funds).For units bought on or after 1 April 2023, gains are always taxed at your slab rate. The definition of a specified mutual fund was narrowed to funds with more than 65% in debt and money market instruments, and certain FoFs investing in such funds.
3. Other schemes.These include gold funds, international funds and some hybrid funds. They become long-term after 24 months, or 12 months for listed units such as ETFs.

What is considered an equity-oriented mutual fund?

A scheme is equity-oriented if it keeps at least 65% of its corpus in equity shares of companies listed on a recognised Indian stock exchange.

A fund of funds also counts as equity-oriented if it invests at least 90% of its corpus in ETFs, and those ETFs in turn invest at least 90% of their corpus in such listed shares.

Aggressive hybrid funds that keep at least 65% in such shares are therefore equity-oriented. Conservative hybrid funds, debt funds, gold ETFs, gold funds and international funds are not.

Understanding Long-Term and Short-Term Capital Gains Tax

Long-term capital gains (LTCG). A long-term gain is the profit when you sell an asset after holding it for the required period. Qualifying equity-oriented mutual fund LTCG is taxed at 12.5% on aggregate eligible long-term gains exceeding ₹1.25 lakh during the tax year. The units generally need to be held for more than 12 months. Gains up to ₹1.25 lakh a year are tax-free.

For example, suppose your long-term gain is ₹2 lakh. The tax is 12.5% on ₹75,000, which is ₹9,375.

Indexation is no longer available on any mutual fund. A uniform 12.5% LTCG rate was introduced across almost all asset classes, and indexation benefit was removed for most assets from July 23, 2024. Debt fund units bought before 1 April 2023 and held for more than 24 months are taxed at 12.5% without indexation.

Short-term capital gains (STCG). A short-term gain arises when you sell before completing the long-term holding period. For equity funds, that means selling within 12 months, and the rate is 20%.

For example, a short-term gain of ₹1 lakh attracts tax of ₹20,000. That is up from ₹15,000 before Budget 2024.

For debt funds bought on or after 1 April 2023, gains are taxed at your income tax slab rate, regardless of the holding period. Short-term gains on gold and international funds are also taxed at your slab rate.

Budget 2026, presented in February 2026, made no changes to mutual fund capital gains tax rates. The rates above exclude surcharge and the 4% health and education cess.

Set-Off of Capital Losses on Mutual Funds

Short-term and long-term capital gains are aggregated separately.

• Short-term capital losses can generally be set off against short-term or long-term capital gains.
• Long-term capital losses can be set off only against long-term capital gains.
• A loss under the head “Capital Gains” cannot be set off against income under any other head, such as salary.
• Unadjusted capital losses can generally be carried forward for up to eight tax years.

How Dividends (IDCW) from Mutual Funds Are Taxed

Dividends are added to your regular income under the head “Income from other sources” and taxed at your slab rate.

From FY 2025-26, TDS applies only when the total IDCW received from one AMC exceeds ₹10,000 during a financial year. Earlier, the threshold was ₹5,000. The TDS rate is 10%, or 20% if you have not provided your PAN.

The old rule that let you claim interest on money borrowed to invest, up to 20% of your dividend income, has been withdrawn by Budget 2026. Investors can no longer deduct any interest expenditure incurred to earn dividend income or income from mutual fund units.

8.2 Indexation And Its Benefits

Anand: What is indexation?

Ridhima: Indexation means raising the purchase price of an asset to account for inflation, using the Cost Inflation Index. A higher purchase price means a smaller taxable gain.

Anand: Can you give an example?

Ridhima: Suppose I invested ₹1 lakh in a debt fund in 2015-16 and redeemed it for ₹1.35 lakh in 2020-21. Without indexation, the gain is ₹35,000. With indexation, the cost becomes about ₹1.185 lakh, so the taxable gain is only about ₹16,500.

Anand: So the tax goes down?

Ridhima: Exactly. At 20%, I paid about ₹3,300 instead of ₹7,000. The effective tax rate fell to about 9.4%. That is how indexation used to boost post-tax returns on debt funds. But indexation no longer applies to mutual funds. If I redeemed the same investment today, I would pay 12.5% on the full ₹35,000, which is ₹4,375.

Indexation adjusts the purchase price of an asset using a price index, so that you are taxed only on the real gain rather than the gain caused by inflation. It accounts for inflation from the time you buy the asset to the time you sell it. By inflating the purchase price, it lowers your tax liability.

Inflation erodes the value of money over time. Take ₹5,000. At 5% annual inflation, its purchasing power after 5 years falls to about ₹3,918. This is why inflation matters when you calculate tax on the difference between the buying and selling price.

For this purpose, the government publishes the Cost Inflation Index (CII). The CBDT notifies a new value every year to reflect inflation. The base year is 2001-02, with an index value of 100. The CBDT notified the CII for 2026-27 as 384, up from 376 in the previous financial year (an increase of about 2.1%).

Indexed cost = (CII of the year of sale ÷ CII of the year of purchase) × Purchase cost

Illustration under the old rules (for sales made before 23 July 2024)

Ms Ankita invested ₹1 lakh in a debt fund in 2015-16 and redeemed it for ₹1.35 lakh in 2020-21. Her absolute return was ₹35,000. She held the investment for about five years, so she was eligible for indexation.

• Indexed cost: ₹1,00,000 × 301 ÷ 254 = ₹1,18,504, or about ₹1.19 lakh.
• Taxable LTCG: ₹1,35,000 − ₹1,18,504 = ₹16,496, or about ₹16,500.
• Tax at 20%: about ₹3,299.
• Effective tax rate: about 9.4% of her ₹35,000 return.

This is how indexation lowered the tax on non-equity funds such as debt funds and increased post-tax returns.

Note: 301 and 254 are the Cost Inflation Index values published by the government for 2020-21 and 2015-16 respectively.

Position today

Indexation is no longer available for any mutual fund.

• If Ms Ankita sold the same units today, the gain would be long-term, because she bought before 1 April 2023 and has held for more than 24 months. She would pay 12.5% on ₹35,000, which is ₹4,375.
• A debt fund bought today would have its entire gain taxed at her slab rate.

Indexation now survives only for land or buildings acquired before 23 July 2024 and sold by resident individuals or HUFs, where there is a transitional option of 12.5% without indexation or 20% with indexation.