Cost Inflation Index 2026: Full Table and How to Apply It

Cost Inflation Index 2026 is set at 384, notified by CBDT for FY 2026-27. Cost Inflation Index numbers like this one get quoted constantly around tax season, and most explanations stop at "here's the table, plug in the numbers." CII 2026 deserves a more honest starting point: whether this figure does anything for your tax bill at all depends entirely on one date, not on the number itself. Cost Inflation Index Table lookups are only useful once you know whether you actually qualify to use indexation in the first place, and since July 2024, a large share of property sellers don't.

Here's the full table, the one date that decides whether any of it applies to you, and the actual calculation once it does.

What the Cost Inflation Index Actually Does

Think of CII as a currency converter for time. ₹25 lakh in 2010 doesn't buy what ₹25 lakh buys today, and taxing someone on the full difference between their old purchase price and today's sale price would tax them partly on inflation, not on real gain. CII converts your old purchase price into "today's rupees" before the tax department calculates what you actually profited, so you're taxed on genuine appreciation, not on the fact that money was worth more a decade ago.

Cost Inflation Index Table: FY 2001-02 to FY 2026-27

Financial Year	CII
2001-02	100
2002-03	105
2003-04	109
2004-05	113
2005-06	117
2006-07	122
2007-08	129
2008-09	137
2009-10	148
2010-11	167
2011-12	184
2012-13	200
2013-14	220
2014-15	240
2015-16	254
2016-17	264
2017-18	272
2018-19	280
2019-20	289
2020-21	301
2021-22	317
2022-23	331
2023-24	348
2024-25	363
2025-26	376
2026-27	384

2001-02 (index 100) is the base year for all calculations. If you acquired a property before 1 April 2001, you're allowed to use its fair market value as on that date as the cost of acquisition, rather than the original purchase price, whichever works out more favourably for you.

The Date That Decides Whether Any of This Applies to You

This is the part most CII explainers skip, and it's the single most important thing in this entire article. Budget 2024 changed how long-term capital gains on land and buildings are taxed, and the cutoff is 23 July 2024.

In other words, if you bought your flat, plot, or house after that date, you can stop reading the rest of this table with any expectation it'll lower your tax bill, it won't, because indexation simply isn't available to you anymore. If you bought before that date, the rest of this is genuinely useful, and worth calculating both ways before you file.

How to Calculate Indexed Cost of Acquisition

For those who do have the indexation option, the formula is straightforward:

Indexed Cost of Acquisition = Original Cost of Acquisition × (CII of Year of Sale ÷ CII of Year of Purchase)

Worked example: Say you bought a flat in FY 2010-11 for ₹25,00,000, and you're selling it in FY 2026-27.

Indexed Cost = ₹25,00,000 × (384 ÷ 167) = ₹25,00,000 × 2.2994 = approximately ₹57,48,503

That ₹57.48 lakh, not your original ₹25 lakh, is what gets subtracted from your sale price to arrive at your taxable long-term capital gain, if you choose the 20%-with-indexation option. Compare that resulting tax figure against the flat 12.5%-without-indexation alternative, and file whichever comes out lower.

Indexed Cost of Improvement Works the Same Way

Any capital improvement you made to the property, a major renovation, an extension, not routine repairs, can also be indexed, using the CII of the year the improvement was actually carried out, not the year you bought the property. The formula mirrors the acquisition cost calculation, just applied to the improvement expense and its own purchase-year CII.

The Mistake People Actually Make With CII

It's rarely a calculation error. It's applying indexation to a transaction that no longer qualifies for it, either because the property was bought after 23 July 2024, or because the asset class itself, listed shares and equity mutual funds, for instance, was already excluded from indexation benefits well before this. Before you touch the CII table at all, confirm two things: what you're selling, and when you acquired it. The table is only step two.

The Bottom Line

CII for FY 2026-27 is 384, up from 376 the year before, a fact that will matter enormously to some sellers and not at all to others, depending entirely on when they bought. If you're planning a property sale this year, the number worth writing down first isn't 384, it's your own acquisition date against 23 July 2024. Everything else follows from that.