Zerodha Tax P&L: How to Download and Read Every Column

If you trade through Zerodha and want to file your own ITR, the tax P&L report is the single most important document you'll touch. It collapses thousands of trades into a per-symbol summary with short-term, long-term, intraday and F&O breakdowns — almost in the shape the ITR forms expect.

The catch is that "almost" hides several reconciliation gotchas. This guide walks through every column in the Zerodha tax P&L, what it means for your ITR filing, and the five places people most often get it wrong.

Reading time: ~9 minutes. Skip to the column-by-column table if you just need a reference.

What is the Zerodha tax P&L report?

The Tax P&L is an aggregated P&L statement Zerodha generates on demand, post-financial-year-end. Unlike the regular trading P&L, it:

• Splits gains into short-term capital gains (STCG), long-term capital gains (LTCG), intraday speculative, and F&O non-speculative business — the four buckets the income tax department cares about.
• Applies the first-in-first-out (FIFO) method by default to match buys with sells, which is what the income tax department mandates.
• Excludes Securities Transaction Tax (STT) from the cost base for delivery-based equity (since STT is not allowed as a cost of acquisition under Section 48), but deducts brokerage and exchange charges.
• Treats intraday and F&O charges (including STT) as fully deductible business expenses.

Two important caveats:

1. The tax P&L is a summary, not an audit trail. For ITR Schedule 112A, you need per-trade detail — that comes from the tradebook, not the tax P&L.
2. Corporate actions (bonuses, splits, mergers) are reflected at the FIFO matching layer, but if you transferred shares in from another broker via off-market or CDSL Easiest, those will show as zero cost — you must override them manually.

How to download your Zerodha tax P&L

1. Log in to Zerodha Console.
2. Open the Reports dropdown in the left-side menu.
3. Click Tax P&L.
4. Choose the financial year from the dropdown (for FY 2025-26 returns, choose 2025-26).
5. Select segment — Equity, F&O, Currency, Commodity, or Mutual Fund — one at a time.
6. Click the download icon to get the Excel file. The file name follows the pattern tradewise-tax-pnl-statement-equity-2025-26.xlsx.

Repeat steps 5–6 for every segment you traded in. Most retail traders need at least Equity; F&O traders need Equity + F&O. If you only see Equity, you didn't trade derivatives in that FY.

One file per segment, two tabs per period

The downloaded Excel typically has two relevant tabs:

• Tradewise Exits — every sell (or position close) for the year, with the FIFO-matched buy details and computed P&L.
• Charges Breakdown — brokerage, STT, transaction charges, GST, SEBI charges, stamp duty — by month.

For ITR, you'll work mostly with the Tradewise Exits tab.

Column-by-column reference

Here's what every column in the Tradewise Exits (Equity) tab means and how it maps to ITR fields.

For F&O segment, two extra columns appear:

For Intraday (Speculative), the table looks like Equity but with Buy Date == Sell Date and the gains land in a separate intraday bucket — speculative business income, not capital gains.

The five reconciliation gotchas

These trip up almost every first-time filer. Read them before you finalize numbers.

1. The AIS shows gross sale, not net P&L

The Annual Information Statement (AIS) on the income-tax portal will show your gross sale proceeds (every sell value, totaled). Your Zerodha tax P&L will show net gain (sell minus cost minus charges). These will never match — that is normal.

What the income tax department actually wants reported in Schedule 112A is the per-share breakdown of buys and sells, from which net gain is computed. The AIS sale-value figure is purely informational.

2. Off-market transfers (CDSL Easiest, gifts) show as zero cost

If you transferred shares into your Zerodha demat from another broker or received them as a gift, the tax P&L shows the buy price as ₹0 (or omits the buy entirely). You must manually enter the actual acquisition cost — usually from the previous broker's statement, or from the gift documentation.

This is the single biggest source of inflated capital gains in DIY ITR filings.

3. Corporate actions are FIFO-matched but not always price-adjusted

Stock splits, bonus issues, and rights are reflected by Zerodha at the quantity level, but cost-basis adjustments can be incomplete for very old holdings (pre-2018). Cross-check the Period of Holding and Buy Price for any pre-2018 holding against the corporate action history on NSE.

4. Grandfathered LTCG (Section 112A) needs FMV as on 31-Jan-2018

For equity shares acquired before 1-Feb-2018, the cost for LTCG purposes is the higher of:

• Actual cost, or
• FMV (highest traded price) on 31-Jan-2018, capped at sale consideration.

Zerodha's tax P&L does apply this grandfathering rule, but the FMV column isn't always shown explicitly — you'll see the adjusted cost. If you're filing ITR-2 with old holdings, double-check at least one row manually against NSE's 31-Jan-2018 grandfathering price file.

5. STT is in charges, but NOT in the cost base for delivery

For delivery-based equity, STT is a non-deductible cost — it's already excluded from your tax P&L's "Realised P&L" column. Don't try to "add it back" as cost when filing.

For intraday and F&O, STT is part of allowable business expenses — and it IS included in the deductible charges on those segments' P&L.

How Zerodha tax P&L maps to ITR forms

Rule of thumb: if any row of your tax P&L falls into "Intraday" or "F&O", you must file ITR-3. ITR-2 is only valid when 100% of your trading is delivery-based.

Charges breakdown tab — what's deductible

The second tab in your tax P&L file lists every charge head, broken down by month. For ITR purposes:

Zerodha has already netted these into the "Realised P&L" column for both Equity and F&O segments, so you usually don't need to re-deduct them. Use this table as a sanity check if your numbers look off.

Common mismatches between Zerodha and other reports

If you're cross-checking your Zerodha P&L against another source, here's what to expect:

• vs. CAMS / KFintech mutual fund statements: Zerodha only shows MFs bought through Zerodha Coin. If you SIP through another platform, those won't appear.
• vs. NSDL/CDSL holding statements: Your demat will show current holdings only — no history. Tax P&L shows history but not current open lots.
• vs. Form 26AS: Form 26AS reports TDS, which for equity trading is mostly zero (no TDS on equity capital gains for residents). It will show TDS on dividends though.
• vs. AIS: As above, AIS shows gross sale value. Zerodha shows net P&L. Both are correct in their respective frames.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Where do I download my Zerodha tax P&L? A: Log in to Zerodha Console at console.zerodha.com, open the Reports menu, click Tax P&L, choose the financial year, then click Download under Equity or F&O.

Q: Why is my Zerodha P&L different from the AIS? A: The AIS reports gross sale proceeds. Zerodha's tax P&L deducts brokerage and exchange charges (and for F&O/intraday, STT too) to arrive at taxable gain. Some reconciliation is normal; large differences usually mean missing or duplicate entries.

Q: Does the Zerodha P&L include charges like STT and brokerage? A: Yes, but treatment differs by segment. For delivery, it deducts brokerage but NOT STT (Sec 48). For F&O and intraday, it deducts both brokerage AND STT (allowable as business expense).

Q: Which ITR do I file if I have Zerodha F&O? A: ITR-3. F&O is treated as non-speculative business income, so ITR-2 won't accept it. Intraday is speculative business — also ITR-3.

Q: How do I match Zerodha P&L with ITR Schedule 112A? A: Schedule 112A requires per-share detail (acquisition date, sale date, cost, sale value, FMV as on 31-Jan-2018 for grandfathered shares). Use Zerodha's underlying tradebook (also in Console Reports) or a tool like VriddhiQ that generates ITR-ready Schedule 112A from the tradebook directly.

Further reading

• Consolidating tax P&L across multiple brokers — the hub article if you trade on more than one demat
• F&O turnover calculation FY 2025-26
• Section 64(1A) minor income clubbing
• LTCG ₹1.25L exemption FY 2025-26 — coming soon

This article reflects rules as of FY 2025-26 (Budget 2024 amendments). Tax laws change yearly — always confirm with your CA or the income-tax portal before filing.