IRS (Income Tax): CBDT, NADT Training and Ranks

The Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax), or IRS (IT), is the Group 'A' service of the Income Tax Department. Its officers work under the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), which looks after the levy and collection of all direct taxes for the Department of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance. You join through the Civil Services Examination, train for about 16 months at the National Academy of Direct Taxes (NADT) in Nagpur, and start as an Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax.

This guide covers what the CBDT does, how training works, the ranks in the department and what the official record says about pay. It uses only official sources: UPSC, DoPT, the Department of Revenue, the CBDT, PIB and the law itself.

What the CBDT does

• A statutory board. The CBDT was constituted under the Central Boards of Revenue Act, 1963. Its officers also work, ex officio, as a division of the Finance Ministry on the levy and collection of direct taxes.
• How it began. A single Central Board of Revenue once handled both direct and indirect taxes. From 1 January 1964 it was split into the CBDT and the board that is now the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs.
• Who sits on it. A Chairman and six Members, with portfolios for income tax, legislation, administration, audit and judicial matters, taxpayer services and revenue, and systems and faceless assessment. The Chairman is ex officio Special Secretary to the Government of India.
• What it decides together. Among other things, the Board as a whole frames policy on the set-up of the Income Tax Department and on the recruitment, training, service conditions and career prospects of its staff.

Training at NADT, Nagpur

Like other Group 'A' trainees, you first attend the Foundation Course, which LBSNAA runs at Mussoorie and at partner institutions. You then go to NADT, which the Department of Revenue calls the apex training institute for the officers of the Indian Revenue Service.

• Length. The training of IRS officer trainees at NADT is residential and lasts 16 months, with indoor, outdoor and collaborative training.
• Who runs it. NADT is the headquarters of the department's Directorate General of Training, headed by a Principal Director General of Training. The directorate also has 10 regional training institutes for direct taxes.
• Recent batches. The 77th batch, 84 officer trainees including 2 officers of the Royal Bhutan Service, had its valediction set for 14 April 2025. The 78th batch, 130 officer trainees, had its valediction set for 15 April 2026.

After training, PIB's release for the 78th batch says, officer trainees join the Income Tax Department as Assistant Commissioners of Income Tax and are posted across the country.

Ranks in the Income Tax Department

The Income-tax Act, 2025, in force from 1 April 2026, lists the classes of income-tax authorities in section 236. From the top:

1. the Central Board of Direct Taxes;
2. Principal Directors General or Principal Chief Commissioners of Income-tax;
3. Directors General or Chief Commissioners;
4. Principal Directors or Principal Commissioners;
5. Directors, Commissioners or Commissioners (Appeals);
6. Additional Directors, Additional Commissioners or Additional Commissioners (Appeals);
7. Joint Directors, Joint Commissioners or Joint Commissioners (Appeals);
8. Deputy Directors or Deputy Commissioners;
9. Assistant Directors or Assistant Commissioners;
10. Income-tax Officers, Tax Recovery Officers and Inspectors of Income-tax.

As a direct recruit you enter as an Assistant Commissioner. The CBDT's own allocation of work refers to transfers and postings at the levels of Assistant and Deputy Commissioners, Joint and Additional Commissioners, Commissioners and Chief Commissioners. The authorities below Deputy or Assistant Commissioner are a different level: the Act lets the Board and senior authorities, if the Central Government authorises them, appoint them.

Pay

When the Union Cabinet approved the 7th Pay Commission's recommendations on 29 June 2016, it put the starting salary of a freshly recruited Class I officer at ₹56,100. That is your basic pay on joining. Dearness allowance and other allowances are paid on top.

The Civil Services Examination Rules, 2026, which DoPT notified in the Gazette on 4 February 2026, give the pay level of each post in the service (Appendix II):

Post	Pay level	Basic pay
Assistant Commissioner or Assistant Director of Income-tax	10	₹56,100 to ₹1,77,500
Deputy Commissioner or Deputy Director	11	₹67,700 to ₹2,08,700
Joint Commissioner or Joint Director	12	₹78,800 to ₹2,09,200
Additional Commissioner or Additional Director	13	₹1,23,100 to ₹2,15,900
Commissioner or Director	14	₹1,44,200 to ₹2,18,200
Principal Commissioner or Principal Director	15	₹1,82,200 to ₹2,24,100
Chief Commissioner or Director General	16	₹2,05,400 to ₹2,24,400
Principal Chief Commissioner or Principal Director General	17	₹2,25,000

The rules don't say after how many years each step comes, so we don't give promotion timelines.

Before you choose it

• Disability. The CSE 2026 notice lists the IRS (Income Tax) among the services identified as suitable for persons with benchmark disability, with the categories and functional requirements it names.
• Nationality. Unlike the IAS, IFS and IPS, which need Indian citizenship, the other services also admit some subjects of Nepal and Bhutan and certain other people with a Government eligibility certificate.
• Vacancies. UPSC's result notices count IRS posts within "Central Services Group A", which had 507 vacancies in CSE 2025, so there is no separate official IRS (IT) figure in them.

The Income Tax and the Customs and Indirect Taxes services are two separate services in the CSE list, with different boards and academies. See IRS (Customs and Indirect Taxes) and, for a side-by-side view, IPS vs IRS.