Joint filing of Income-tax Returns for married couples: Issue proposed in Parliament

Rajya Sabha member Raghav Chadha on Monday, March 16, 2026, urged the government to introduce an optional joint filing of income tax return facility for married couples.

Speaking in the Upper House of the Parliament, Chaddha said the joint filing facility will ensure families with uneven incomes are not unfairly penalised.

Chaddha explained the concept of joint filing of ITR for married couples with the following example:

Family A: Both spouses earn ₹10 lakh each.

Tax: zero as income up to ₹12 lakh is tax-free for salaried employees under the new tax regime.

Family B: One spouse earns ₹20 lakh. The other stays home to raise their child.

Tax: ₹1.92 lakh

He said, in both examples above, the only difference is how the salary is split between the two spouses.

"One roof. One kitchen. One household budget. But when tax time comes, the family disappears. The tax system sees two individuals. A husband and wife become strangers. No clubbing of income or rebates," Chadha wrote in a post on X.

He said if implemented, joint filing will enable both Family A and Family B to pay zero tax.

Not a new proposal

The joint taxation proposal for married couples is not new. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has been urging the government to introduce the joint filing facility in its last two pre-budget memorandums. The ICAI proposed the joint taxation facility in its pre-budget memorandum for Budget 2026 as well.

In the lead-up to Budget 2026, several other experts had also urged the government to introduce joint taxation for married couples.

In the last two years, we have covered the joint taxation idea in detail in some of our previous articles. Have a look:

It seems joint taxation of married couples is an idea whose time has not yet come.

The government did not announce any provision related to joint taxation in Budget 2026 or Finance Bill 2026. There is no such proposal in the draft Income-tax Rules 2026 or Income-tax Act 2025 as well.