Budget 2026 for the investor: Time to fix the flawed tax design on share buybacks
For high-income taxpayers, buyback proceeds may now be taxed at slab rates up to 35.88%, despite the fact that the shareholder is surrendering and extinguishing their rights in the shares. (AI image) When the Finance Act, 2024 rewired the tax treatment of share buybacks, it upended a long-standing system that had—with all its imperfections—at least…