CA Final DT Paper Analysis November 2026: Tough or Easy?

CA Final Paper 4, Direct Tax Laws and International Taxation, on 9 November 2026 was a lengthy, calculation-heavy paper on familiar topics. Part I had 23 MCQs instead of May's 15, and 72 of the 118 printed marks needed a calculation: 61.0%, against 52.5% in May 2026. International tax kept May's 36 printed marks.

Few questions were new in concept, but the MCQ cases carry one answer into the next, and Q1 is a single 14-mark computation.

TL;DR

• Lengthy, moderate on concepts. 23 of 30 MCQ marks and 49 of 88 printed Part II marks need working.
• PGBP and trusts lead with 14 marks each. Digital assets, penalties and a REIT case, none tested in May, carry 17.
• This was the last CA Final DT paper under the Income-tax Act, 1961. ICAI's suggested answers are not yet out.

Was CA Final DT November 2026 tough or easy?

1. Difficulty: moderate. Penalties under s.270A, virtual digital assets, REITs, s.44C and the s.115BAA choice are all study material topics, and 17 printed marks come straight from ICAI's study material.
2. Length: lengthy. Sixteen of the 23 MCQs need a calculation, Q1 is one undivided 14-mark computation, and Q2 is numbers from start to finish. In May, 4 of Q2's 14 marks were theory.
3. Spread: wide. Twenty of ICAI's 28 chapters carry direct marks, against 16 in May, so skipping chapters cost more than usual.

If you write computations quickly, the paper was fair. If not, Part I and Q1 ate the time.

How did I count the marks?

I read the November 2026 paper from a student-shared scanned copy (booklet LDF) and counted it twice, independently. The counts agreed on every question's marks; I settled a few chapter and type differences, using ICAI's study material for chapters. The May 2026 figures come from ICAI's official suggested answers. Items go to their main ICAI study-material chapter. Part II counts as printed, including the third 4-mark part of Q5(a), so each paper prints 118 marks and you answer 100. Our FR, AFM and Audit posts count internal choice once, which gives 114 here.

An MCQ is computational when you must work out an amount; one asking for a treatment or a statutory cap, such as MCQ 21 or MCQ 9, is theory. Five items show no marks on the scan; I set each by difference.

Which chapters carried the most marks in CA Final DT Nov 2026?

Printed marks for November 2026, with May 2026 in brackets:

• Profits and gains of business or profession: 14, all descriptive (14).
• Trusts, political parties and other special entities: 14, 6 MCQ + 8 descriptive (16).
• Non-resident taxation: 13, 7 MCQ + 6 descriptive (14).
• Deduction, collection and recovery of tax: 12, all descriptive (16).
• Transfer pricing: 7, 1 MCQ + 6 descriptive (6).
• Taxation of digital transactions: 6, all MCQ (0).
• Tax audit and ethical compliances: 6, all descriptive (6).
• Double taxation relief: 6, all descriptive (6).
• Provisions to counteract unethical tax practices: 5, all MCQ (0).
• Appeals and revision: 5, 1 MCQ + 4 descriptive (8).
• Capital gains, assessment of various entities, tax planning, miscellaneous provisions, advance rulings and model tax conventions: 4 each (4, 0, 6, 0, 4, 6).
• Income from other sources 2 (0), BEPS 2 (0), clubbing 1 (0), assessment procedure 1 (2).

Set-off of losses and dispute resolution had 4 marks each in May and deductions from gross total income 2; none of the three carries marks now.

What grew, what shrank and what was new?

Part I changed shape. May had 15 MCQs of 2 marks. November has 23, 7 of 2 marks and 16 of 1, in four cases plus six standalone questions; case and standalone marks stay at 24 and 6. FR on 2 November, AFM on 4 November and Audit on 6 November used the same 16 plus 7 split, so DT is the fourth paper in a row with it.

Part II kept May's layout, with no OR and the same Q5(a) choice. The new ground came through Part I: digital assets, penalties and a REIT. The TDS and TCS chapter had four MCQs in May and none of its own now (its s.194S and s.194LBA MCQs sit in the VDA and REIT cases), so it fell from 16 to 12.

By module, income heads fell from 24 to 21, entities, trusts and digital assets rose from 22 to 28, and procedures and penalties went from 36 to 33. International tax stayed at 36, with 6 marks in each of Q2 to Q5.

Computational marks rose from 62 of 118 printed to 72, and from 50-62 to 58-72 of the marks you answered.

Several slots repeat: Q1 on a company's income and s.115BAA, again with no gain from opting by my working, foreign tax credit at Q3(b), transfer pricing at Q4(b), OECD and UN Models at Q5(b), a tax auditor's ethics at Q6(a) and advance rulings at Q6(c).

Which questions were tricky or new?

In Part I

• Case I applies s.270A twice: 50% on the Rs 12 lakh addition under s.143(3) and 200% on the Rs 15 lakh misreported under s.147. The 25% rate turns on 2023-24 turnover of Rs 397 crore, not 2024-25's Rs 403 crore. My penalties: Rs 1,66,920 and Rs 8,34,600.
• In Case II, the Bitcoin loss cannot be set off, the NFT sale of Rs 9.9 lakh is net of 1% TDS, and a Bitcoin gift from a friend is taxed while one from a brother is not. MCQ 11 builds on MCQs 10, 12 and 14, so one slip costs twice.
• MCQ 16 likewise uses MCQs 17, 18 and 19, and MCQ 23 uses MCQs 20 and 21. MCQ 20 taxes the REIT on Rs 1.21 crore at the maximum marginal rate, and two options fit, depending on the surcharge: Rs 47,19,000 at 39% or Rs 51,72,024 at 42.744%. ICAI's study material gives no figure, so I pick neither.
• The standalone MCQs covered six topics May did not test: s.155(1A), s.92CE(2A), interest on enhanced compensation, a buy-back after 1 October 2024 taxed as deemed dividend, clubbing of a wife's gift, and the ITAT fee, which stops at Rs 10,000.

In Part II

• Q1, Bardhaman Technologies Ltd, ends on s.115BAA or s.115BAB; s.115BAB is out, as the company was set up in 2017-18. The printed CII and the Arunachal Pradesh backward area are distractors. By my working, opting does not pay: about Rs 12.98 lakh of tax against Rs 14.85 lakh under s.115BAA, or Rs 15.63 lakh against Rs 16.99 lakh if the ECL reversal was not credited to profit.
• Q2 is all computation, ending with a foreign company's Indian branch, where s.44C caps head office expenditure at 5% of Rs 16 crore of adjusted total income, or Rs 0.80 crore.
• Q4(b) runs three associated enterprise tests. A Rs 320 crore loan against Rs 600 crore of assets makes an AE, a 21% holding falls short of 26%, and 80% of supplies falls short of 90%.

Q6(a) is close to Question 4 in Chapter 20's Test Your Knowledge section, with buses for dumpers. Q5(a)(ii) and (iii) track the Maruti Suzuki (2019) and Pioneer Overseas (2022) Supreme Court rulings, Q4(a)(ii) is CBDT Circular 9/2012, and MCQ 5 uses the 20.9664% rate printed in Chapter 24. Every key and figure above is my working.

Where can I get the CA Final DT Nov 2026 question paper?

We have retyped the student-shared copy into a free GradeHunt PDF, so you can download the November 2026 DT question paper and attempt it under time. Some figures were unreadable on the scan, so switch to ICAI's paper once it is out. Our CA Final November 2026 question papers page has the other papers.

Was this the last DT paper under the Income-tax Act, 1961?

Yes. The November 2026 paper was set for AY 2026-27 under the 1961 Act and never cites the new one. In an announcement dated 5 December 2025, ICAI's Board of Studies said the Income-tax Act, 2025 applies to Final Paper 4 from the May 2027 exams, and there is no CA Final attempt in between.

For May 2027, study from ICAI material written for the 2025 Act and learn its terms and section numbers: tax year in place of previous year and assessment year, and section 202 for the new regime in place of section 115BAC. Past papers still teach the method; rework their answers under the new sections.

How should you approach IDT on 11 November?

If Paper 5, Indirect Tax Laws, follows the first four papers, its 30 MCQ marks are worth about 54 of your 180 minutes. On 10 November, time one GST question each on place of supply, input tax credit and valuation, and one on customs valuation. Our exam week tips post has the rest of the plan.

When will ICAI release the DT suggested answers?

ICAI's official question paper and suggested answers for November 2026 are not yet published. Our CA Final question papers and suggested answers post links ICAI's papers by attempt. Until ICAI's answers are out, every key, mine included, is unofficial.

Get your answers checked

If you will write DT again in May 2027, the Gradehunt CA Final test series has full papers you write by hand and upload. Ex-examiners check them within 48 hours of upload.