Tax

STCG (Equity)

Short-Term Capital Gains on equity sold within 12 months of purchase — taxed at flat 20% (post-July 2024).

Definition

STCG on listed equity and equity mutual funds applies when you sell within 12 months of purchase. Post-July 2024 rate is 20% on the gain — up from 15% pre-Finance-Act-2024. No exemption applies; the full gain is taxed.

Section 111A governs equity STCG. The flat 20% rate applies regardless of your overall slab. Short-term capital losses can be set off against any capital gain (short or long term) in the same year, and carried forward 8 years.

Example

₹5L purchase, ₹6L sale after 8 months → gain ₹1L. STCG tax = 20% × ₹1L × 1.04 cess = ₹20,800.

Calculators that use this

Related terms

More Tax terms

See all 30 glossary terms or read our Methodology for how we source these definitions.