How to file ITR-2 with Zerodha capital gains

ITR-2 is the income tax return form for resident individuals and Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) who have capital gains from equity, debt, or other securities but do not carry on any business or profession. If your Zerodha account has only equity delivery trades and no F&O activity classified as business income, ITR-2 is typically the correct form. This guide walks through the end-to-end filing process for Assessment Year 2025-26 (Financial Year 2024-25) using the capital gains report downloaded from Zerodha Console.

Who should file ITR-2

Use ITR-2 if you:

• Have income from salary, pension, or house property.
• Have capital gains from listed equity, equity mutual funds, debt mutual funds, bonds, or other assets.
• Do not have income from any business or profession (including F&O trading, which the Income Tax Department treats as business income).
• Have income from more than one house property.
• Have foreign assets or foreign income.

If you also have F&O income or losses, or if your intraday equity trading volume is so large that the department would treat it as a business, you must file ITR-3 instead. See How to file ITR-3 with Zerodha F&O turnover for that procedure.

Prerequisites

• The capital gains CSV downloaded from Zerodha Console (see How to download the capital gains statement on Zerodha).
• The Tax P&L statement for any additional dividend income details.
• Access to incometax.gov.in with your PAN-linked login.
• Your Annual Information Statement (AIS) and Form 26AS downloaded from the e-filing portal for cross-verification.
• Form 16 (if salaried), bank interest certificates, and any other income documents.
• For pre-2018 holdings, the fair market value as on 31 January 2018. See How to compute LTCG with grandfathering on Zerodha.

Step-by-step procedure

Download the capital gains statement from Console

Follow the procedure in How to download the capital gains statement on Zerodha. Save the CSV locally. Also note the total intraday speculative profit or loss from the Tax P&L page, even if you are filing ITR-2, because a small volume of intraday equity trades is reportable under the income from other sources schedule in some readings; consult your CA.

Download and open the ITR-2 utility

Navigate to incometax.gov.in. Log in with your PAN as the user ID. Go to e-File → Income Tax Returns → File Income Tax Return. Select Assessment Year 2025-26 and ITR-2. You can use:

• Online mode, the guided wizard on the portal (best for straightforward cases).
• Offline utility, download the ITR-2 JSON offline utility from the Downloads section for more control.

For returns with many scrip entries in Schedule 112A, the offline utility or the Quicko integration (see How to use the Quicko integration on Console) is more practical because the portal’s online mode requires entering each scrip individually.

Verify figures against AIS

Before entering any figures, open the AIS on the portal (e-File → AIS) and compare:

• AIS Sale of Securities or Capital Gain section vs the total sell value in the Zerodha CSV.
• AIS Dividend section vs the dividend figure on the Zerodha Tax P&L.
• AIS Interest from savings/FD vs your bank statements.

If the AIS shows higher sale consideration than Console, the difference is likely from non-Zerodha brokers or demat-level transactions (e.g., off-market transfers, rights renunciation). Reconcile before proceeding. You can submit feedback on incorrect AIS entries directly on the portal.

Fill in personal and income details

Complete Part A General (PAN, name, address, filing status, tax regime). Select whether you are filing under the old tax regime (with deductions) or the new tax regime. Note that the new tax regime, as amended by the Finance Act 2024 effective from AY 2025-26, is now the default.

Fill in income from salary (from Form 16), house property, and other sources (interest, dividends) in the respective schedules before reaching Schedule CG.

Populate Schedule CG

Navigate to Schedule CG (Capital Gains) in the utility. The schedule is divided into several sub-sections:

Short-term capital gains (STCG):

• Section 111A, STCG on listed equity shares, equity-oriented mutual fund units sold on a recognised stock exchange (STT paid). From the Zerodha capital gains CSV, sum the column for STCG under section 111A. For FY 2024-25 enter the pre-23 July 2024 portion at 15% and the post-23 July 2024 portion at 20% in the respective sub-fields if the utility separates them.
• Other STCG, STCG not covered by section 111A (e.g., debt mutual funds sold after 1 April 2023 at slab rates), unlisted shares. These are at normal slab rates.

Long-term capital gains (LTCG):

• Section 112A, LTCG on listed equity shares and equity-oriented mutual fund units. This requires scrip-level entry (covered in the next step).
• Other LTCG, LTCG on debt mutual funds, bonds, property, etc., taxed under section 112 at 20% with indexation (pre-23 July 2024 sales) or at 12.5% without indexation (post-23 July 2024 sales) as amended.

Fill Schedule 112A scrip-level details

Schedule 112A requires entering each scrip (ISIN-level) separately for LTCG on listed equities. For each row in the Zerodha capital gains CSV that is classified as LTCG under section 112A, enter:

The utility computes the gain row by row and aggregates to arrive at the net LTCG. If you have many rows, use the import function (CSV upload) in the offline utility, which accepts a template downloadable from the portal.

For holdings with a grandfathered FMV, the effective cost of acquisition for LTCG is max(actual cost, FMV as on 31.01.2018, but capped at the sale price if less). See How to compute LTCG with grandfathering on Zerodha for the worked calculation.

Claim the LTCG exemption of Rs 1.25 lakh

After all Schedule 112A entries are entered, the ITR utility automatically computes the net LTCG and subtracts the Rs 1.25 lakh exemption under the first proviso to section 112A. Only the excess is taxable at 12.5%. You do not need to manually deduct the exemption. Verify the computed figure before proceeding.

Complete remaining schedules

Before finalising:

• Schedule AL (assets and liabilities), mandatory if total income exceeds Rs 50 lakh.
• Schedule VIA, deductions under Chapter VI-A (80C, 80D, 80TTA, etc.) if you are under the old tax regime.
• Schedule SI, special income; the capital gains figures flow here automatically from Schedule CG.

Compute tax and verify

Use the Compute Tax or Preview function in the utility. Verify that the total tax liability matches your manual computation:

1. STCG under section 111A × applicable rate.
2. LTCG under section 112A × 12.5% on the excess over Rs 1.25 lakh.
3. Slab-rate income at applicable slab.
4. Less: TDS as per Form 26AS / AIS.
5. Less: advance tax paid (if any).
6. Add: interest under sections 234A, 234B, 234C if applicable.

Upload and e-verify the return

In the offline utility, generate the JSON file and upload it to the portal via e-File → Income Tax Return → Upload Return. Alternatively, use the online mode where submission and verification happen on the same session. E-verify the return:

• Aadhaar OTP, sent to the mobile number linked to your Aadhaar.
• Electronic Verification Code (EVC), via net banking, demat, or bank account.
• Digital Signature Certificate (DSC), for cases where mandatory.

Save the ITR-V acknowledgement PDF and the 15-digit acknowledgement number. If you are unable to e-verify, send a signed physical ITR-V to CPC Bengaluru within 30 days.

What can go wrong

• Intraday gains in ITR-2. Equity intraday profit is technically speculative business income and should be reported in ITR-3, not ITR-2. If you had material intraday volume, reconsider the applicable form.
• Scrip count too large for online portal. Schedule 112A with hundreds of scrips is impractical through the online portal’s row-by-row interface. Use the offline utility’s CSV import or the Quicko integration.
• Rate applied incorrectly for pre-23 July 2024 trades in FY 2024-25. The ITR utility for AY 2025-26 should handle the split automatically. If it does not, consult a CA or use tax-filing software that explicitly handles the Finance Act 2024 cutoff date.
• LTCG exemption incorrectly applied. The Rs 1.25 lakh exemption is a per-year, per-assessee limit across all section 112A gains. It cannot be split between spouses or carried forward.
• Missed dividend income. Dividends from equity shares and mutual funds are taxable at slab rates since FY 2020-21. The Zerodha Tax P&L report includes dividends credited via Console; verify against AIS.

Related guides

• How to download the capital gains statement on Zerodha
• How to download the Tax P&L statement from Zerodha Console
• How to file ITR-3 with Zerodha F&O turnover
• How to compute LTCG with grandfathering on Zerodha
• How to use the Quicko integration on Console
• How to report intraday speculative income

References

1. Income Tax Act, 1961, sections 111A and 112A, as amended by Finance Act 2024.
2. Finance Act 2024, clause 2, capital gains rate revisions effective 23 July 2024.
3. CBDT Circular No. 7 of 2024, FAQ on revised capital gains provisions.
4. ITR-2 form and instructions for AY 2025-26, incometax.gov.in.
5. Zerodha Console Tax P&L documentation, support.zerodha.com (accessed May 2026).
6. ITR-2, webnotes encyclopedic reference.
7. Capital gains tax in India, webnotes encyclopedic reference.
8. Section 111A, webnotes encyclopedic reference.
9. Section 112A, webnotes encyclopedic reference.
10. Annual Information Statement (AIS), webnotes encyclopedic reference.