New Delhi, Sept. 22 -- The Income-tax Act, 2025, came into force on 1 April 2026, bringing new section numbers for several familiar tax provisions. With this development, the decades-old Income Tax Act, 1961, has been successfully phased out.

For futures and options (F&O) traders, however, the broad tax treatment continues to remain largely unchanged. All eligible exchange-traded derivative transactions continue to be treated as non-speculative business transactions, rather than capital gains or speculative transactions.

Says Nishant Shanker, Tax Controversy & Dispute Resolution, Navraj Global Advisors, "F&O transactions are not treated as speculative transactions and are generally taxable under Profits and Gains of Business or Professi...