Income Tax Notice in 2026: What Each Type Means and How to Respond
Last updated: 13 October 2026
Quick answer: An income tax notice is a formal communication under a specific section of the Act. Most are routine: a 143(1) intimation summarises how your return was processed, a 139(9) notice flags a defect you must fix in 15 days, and a 245 notice proposes adjusting your refund against an old demand. Scrutiny (143(2)) and reassessment (148) notices are serious and need a documented reply on the e-filing portal before the due date.
Last updated: 13 October 2026 Quick answer: An income tax notice is a formal communication under a specific section of the Act. Most are routine: a 143(1) intimation summarises how your return was processed, a 139(9) notice flags a defect you must fix in 15 days, and a 245 notice proposes adjusting your refund against an old demand. Scrutiny (143(2)) and reassessment (148) notices are serious and need a documented reply on the e-filing portal before the due date. Key takeaways Which Act: notices for FY 2025-26 and earlier still cite 1961 Act sections; new 2025 Act numbers apply from tax year 2026-27. Intimation: 143(1), now section 270(1); must be sent within 9 months of the end of the FY in which you filed. Defective return: 139(9), now 263(7); 15 days to fix or the return is treated as invalid. Scrutiny: 143(2), now 270(8); notice must be served within 3 months of the end of the FY of filing. Reassessment: 148A/148, now 281/280; up to 3 years 3 months after the assessment year, or 5 years 3 months if escaped income is ₹50 lakh or more. Demand: pay within 30 days or interest runs at 1% a month. The email arrives from the Centralised Processing Centre with a password-protected PDF and the words "Intimation under section 143(1)". For many taxpayers, that line alone triggers panic. In reality it is the most common income tax notice in India, and in most cases it simply confirms that your return was processed and tells you whether a refund or a small demand follows. This guide explains every common type of income tax notice an individual is likely to receive in 2026, which section it is issued under (both the old Income-tax Act, 1961 and the new Income-tax Act, 2025 (/insights/income-tax-act-2025-changes-individuals) ), the deadlines that bind you and the department, and exactly how to reply through e-Proceedings on the e-filing portal. What is an income tax notice, and which Act will it cite in 2026? An income tax notice is a written communication from the Income Tax Department, issued under a named section of the law, that either informs you of an outcome or asks you to do something by a date. Every genuine notice carries a Document Identification Number (DIN) and appears in your e-filing account. The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the 1961 Act from 1 April 2026, but that does not mean every notice now uses new numbers. The department's FAQ on the new Act says the 1961 Act continues to govern all tax years that began before 1 April 2026, including proceedings started after that date. So the return you filed in July 2026 for FY 2025-26 (assessment year 2026-27) will be processed, scrutinised or reopened under the old sections. New section numbers will start appearing on notices for tax year 2026-27, whose returns are filed from mid-2027. For the next few years, therefore, you may hold notices citing both Acts at the same time. Types of income tax notice: old and new section numbers The table maps each common income tax notice to its 1961 section and its counterpart under the 2025 Act, verified against the section pages on incometaxindia.gov.in. Notice 1961 Act 2025 Act What it means Your deadline Intimation after processing 143(1) 270(1) Computation of tax, refund or demand after CPC processing None if it matches; 30 days to respond to any proposed adjustment Proposed prima facie adjustment 143(1)(a) 270(1)(a), 270(2) CPC wants to change an item before finalising the intimation 30 days Defective return 139(9) 263(7) Return has a defect (missing schedule, tax unpaid, wrong form) 15 days, extendable on request Inquiry / call for documents 142(1) 268(1) Officer asks for a return, accounts, documents or information Date stated in the notice Scrutiny notice 143(2) 270(8) Return picked for detailed (faceless) assessment Date stated; reply with evidence Show-cause before reopening 148A 281 Officer has information that income escaped assessment Period stated in the notice Reassessment notice 148 280 Formal reopening; you must file a return for that year At least 30 days (2025 Act); up to 3 months from end of month of notice Rectification 154 287 Correction of a mistake apparent from the record Application decided within 6 months Notice of demand 156 289 Formal demand for tax, interest or penalty Pay within 30 days (s.220 / s.411) Refund adjustment 245 438 Refund to be set off against an outstanding demand Respond before the set-off; prior written intimation is mandatory Intimation under section 143(1): do you need to do anything? An intimation under section 143(1) (section 270(1) of the 2025 Act) is not a scrutiny notice. It is a computer-generated summary that compares the income, deductions and taxes in your return with the department's own computation. It ends in one of three ways: no demand and no refund, a refund, or a demand. The PDF is usually sent by email from the CPC and is password-protected; the password is typically your PAN in lower case followed by your date of birth in DDMMYYYY format. Read the last column, which shows the department's figures, against the column showing what you declared. What can CPC change in an intimation? The law limits processing adjustments to a short list: arithmetical errors, incorrect claims apparent from the return, disallowance of losses or deductions claimed in a late return, and items shown in an audit report but not in the return. Before making such a change, CPC must send a proposed adjustment notice and give you 30 days to reply. If you do not respond, the adjustment goes through. Example: Priya's AIS shows FD interest of ₹62,000, but her return reported ₹40,000. CPC proposes adding ₹22,000. At the 30% slab plus 4% cess, that is a demand of ₹6,864 plus interest. If the extra ₹22,000 belongs to a joint account she reported under her husband's PAN, she should select "Disagree" and attach the bank certificate. If it was simply missed, she should agree, because a mismatch she cannot explain will only grow. Our guide to FD interest and TDS (/insights/fd-calculator-cumulative-vs-payout-tds) explains why accrued interest catches so many people out. How long can the department take to send an intimation? No intimation can be sent after nine months from the end of the financial year in which the return was filed. A return filed in July 2026 must therefore be processed by 31 December 2027. If you hear nothing by then, the return is treated as accepted for processing purposes, though scrutiny and reassessment rules still apply. Income tax notice deadlines: 15 days for defective return, 30 days for adjustment reply and demand, 9 months for intimation, 3 months for scrutiny notice What is a defective return notice under section 139(9)? A defective return notice (section 263(7) of the 2025 Act) means CPC thinks the return is incomplete or inconsistent. Common triggers are claiming a TDS refund without showing the matching income, filing ITR-1 when you have capital gains, leaving a business balance sheet blank in ITR-3, or self-assessment tax not paid in full. You get 15 days from the intimation to fix the defect, and the officer can extend this if you apply. If you do nothing, the return is treated as invalid, as if you never filed. That can cost you carried-forward losses, the benefit of the due date and interest on refund. The fix is usually to file a corrected return in response to the notice from the e-Proceedings tab, not a fresh revised return. If you are unsure of the form, see which ITR form to file (/insights/which-itr-form-to-file) . Scrutiny notice under section 143(2): what happens next? A scrutiny notice (section 270(8) of the 2025 Act) means your return has been selected for a full assessment, usually through the faceless assessment scheme (old section 144B, new section 273). It must be served within three months from the end of the financial year in which the return was filed. For a July 2026 filing, that deadline is 30 June 2027. Scrutiny can be limited (focused on one or two issues, such as large capital gains or high-value cash deposits) or complete. The notice is often followed by a questionnaire under section 142(1) (new section 268(1)) asking for documents such as broker contract notes, property sale deeds, bank statements or rent agreements. How to handle scrutiny well Answer only what is asked, issue by issue, with an index of attachments. Reconcile first: match capital gains to broker statements, and salary to Form 16. Our guides on capital gains on shares (/insights/capital-gains-tax-shares-tax-harvesting) and ESOP and RSU tax (/insights/esop-rsu-taxation-india) cover the usual problem areas. Seek an adjournment through the portal if you need more time, before the due date, with a reason. Request a video hearing if the portal allows it and the issue is complex. Comparison of routine income tax notices you can handle yourself versus notices that need a tax professional Reassessment notice under section 148: how far back can the department go? Reassessment is how the department reopens a past year when it has information that income escaped tax. The process has two stages. First comes a show-cause notice under section 148A (new section 281), with the information relied on, giving you a chance to explain. Only after an order, approved by a specified authority, can a section 148 notice (new section 280) be issued. Time limits under the 1961 Act, for notices issued from 1 September 2024, are 3 years and 3 months from the end of the assessment year, or 5 years and 3 months if the escaped income is ₹50 lakh or more. The 2025 Act states the same windows from the end of the tax year, as 4 years 3 months and 6 years 3 months. The 148A show-cause stage has slightly shorter limits: 3 years, or 5 years for ₹50 lakh and above (4 and 6 years from the end of the tax year under section 282). Under section 280 of the 2025 Act, as amended by the Finance Act 2026, the time given to file a return in response must be at least 30 days and cannot exceed three months from the end of the month in which the notice was issued. Common triggers include unreported property purchases, large cash deposits, foreign assets missing from Schedule FA (/insights/foreign-assets-schedule-fa-india) and AIS entries never declared. Reply to the show-cause notice in detail; it is your best chance to stop the case before it is reopened. Income tax notice time limits for a return filed in July 2026: scrutiny by June 2027, intimation by December 2027, reassessment by June 2030 or June 2032 What does a section 245 notice for refund adjustment mean? A section 245 communication (section 438 of the 2025 Act) says your refund will be set off against a demand outstanding from another year. The law requires the department to tell you in writing before making the set-off. The law also lets the officer withhold a refund while an assessment is pending, but only with senior approval and for up to 60 days after that assessment is completed. Often the "outstanding demand" is old and already paid, or arose from a TDS credit mismatch. Respond through Pending Actions, then Response to Outstanding Demand, selecting whether the demand is correct, partly correct or disputed, and upload challans or rectification orders. If you ignore it, the refund simply gets adjusted. How much time do you get to pay a notice of demand? A notice of demand under section 156 (section 289 of the 2025 Act) must be paid within 30 days of service. After that, you are an "assessee in default" and simple interest of 1% for every month or part of a month applies. You can apply, before the due date, for more time or instalments, and an appeal does not automatically stop recovery unless the officer agrees. Example: a demand of ₹48,000 served on 1 November and paid on 15 February runs into three part-months of delay. Interest is ₹48,000 × 1% × 3 = ₹1,440. If you believe the demand is wrong, file a rectification request under section 154 (new section 287) for an error apparent from the record, or an appeal for disputed issues, but do not let the 30 days pass without a response on the portal. How to respond to an income tax notice online, step by step Verify the notice. On the e-filing home page, use "Authenticate Notice/Order issued by ITD", with the DIN and your mobile number, or PAN, assessment year and date of issue. It confirms with an OTP; no login is needed. Log in and open e-Proceedings. Go to Pending Actions, then e-Proceedings, select Self, and click View Notice. Download and read. Note the section, the year, the specific issues and the response due date. Gather evidence. Download your AIS, TIS and Form 26AS and match each questioned figure. Submit. Choose Full or Partial Response. Each attachment can be up to 5 MB and written remarks up to 4,000 characters. For proposed adjustments, mark Agree or Disagree for each variance. Ask for time if needed. Use Seek Adjournment before the due date, with a reason. Save the acknowledgement and keep checking the portal until the proceeding is closed. Six steps to respond to an income tax notice online through the e-Proceedings tab on the e-filing portal Is the income tax notice genuine or a scam? Fake tax notices and "refund approval" messages are a favourite of phishing gangs. A genuine notice will appear in your e-filing account and can be verified with its DIN. The department never asks for card details, OTPs or payment to a personal account or UPI ID; tax is paid only through the e-Pay Tax service or authorised banks. If the link in an email does not lead to incometax.gov.in, do not click it. Our guide to investment scams in 2026 (/insights/investment-scams-india-2026) covers the reporting route through 1930 and cybercrime.gov.in. What happens if you ignore an income tax notice? The cost depends on the notice. Ignoring a defective return notice makes the return invalid. Ignoring a proposed adjustment lets it go through. Ignoring a scrutiny notice or questionnaire allows the officer to complete a best judgment assessment (old section 144, new section 271), estimating your income with little room for argument. Ignoring a demand adds 1% a month and can lead to recovery from your bank account. Penalties for under-reporting income are separate and can be steep, so a timely, documented reply is almost always cheaper. The habit that prevents most notices is simple: check your AIS before filing, report all interest, dividends and capital gains, pay advance tax (/insights/advance-tax-for-investors) on time, and keep proofs for every deduction you claim. Our tax planning guide (/insights/tax-planning-guide-india) and tax consultation service (/products/tax) can help. Related reading The new Income-tax Act 2025: what changed for individuals (/insights/income-tax-act-2025-changes-individuals) Which ITR form do you need? (/insights/which-itr-form-to-file) Advance tax for investors and retirees (/insights/advance-tax-for-investors) NRI taxation in India: residency, TDS and DTAA (/insights/nri-taxation-india-guide) Tax consultation in India: ITR, capital gains, GST (/insights/tax-consultation-services-india) Frequently Asked Questions Is an intimation under section 143(1) an income tax notice? Technically yes, but it is not a scrutiny notice. It is an automated summary of how CPC processed your return. If the "as computed" column matches what you filed and shows nil demand or a refund, no action is needed. If it shows a demand, check the reason, then pay, rectify or dispute it on the portal within 30 days. How many days do I get to reply to an income tax notice? It depends on the type. A defective return must be fixed within 15 days. A proposed prima facie adjustment and a notice of demand allow 30 days. Under the 2025 Act a reassessment notice must give at least 30 days. Scrutiny questionnaires and show-cause notices state their own date. Always go by the due date printed on the notice. Why do my notices still say section 143(1) and not section 270? Because the 1961 Act continues to govern all tax years beginning before 1 April 2026. Returns for FY 2025-26 and earlier are processed and assessed under the old sections, even though the 2025 Act is in force. Notices citing new sections such as 270(1) or 263(7) will appear for tax year 2026-27 returns, filed from mid-2027. Can the department reopen my return after five years? Only in larger cases. For notices issued from 1 September 2024, reassessment is allowed up to 3 years and 3 months after the end of the assessment year. It can go up to 5 years and 3 months only if the escaped income is likely to be ₹50 lakh or more. A show-cause notice under section 148A must come first. How do I check if an income tax notice is genuine? Use "Authenticate Notice/Order issued by ITD" on the e-filing home page. Enter the Document Identification Number with your mobile number, or your PAN, assessment year, document type and issue date, and confirm with an OTP. A genuine notice will also be visible under Pending Actions in your e-filing account. What if I miss the deadline for a defective return notice? The return is treated as invalid, as though it was never filed. If the defect is cured after the deadline but before assessment, the officer may condone the delay. Otherwise you may have to file a belated or updated return, which can mean losing loss carry-forward and paying extra tax and fees. Can I ask for more time to reply to a scrutiny notice? Yes. In e-Proceedings, click Seek/View Adjournment, choose the date you need, give a reason and submit before the due date. Adjournments are at the officer's discretion, so ask early and use the time to assemble a complete reply rather than sending partial answers. Sources: Income-tax Act 2025, section 270 (https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/section-270-72) ; section 263 (https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/section-263-72) ; section 280 (https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/section-280-74) ; section 282 (https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/section-282-75) ; section 411 (https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/section-411-6) ; section 438 (https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/section-438-6) ; Periods of limitation under the income-tax law (https://www.incometaxindia.gov.in/w/periods-of-limitation-under-the-income-tax-law) ; FAQs on the new Act (https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/help/all-topics/e-filing-services/objective-and-scope-new-act-faq) ; e-Proceedings user manual (https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/help/respond-to-e-proceedings) ; Authenticate Notice user manual (https://www.incometax.gov.in/iec/foportal/help/how-to-authenticate-notice) . Worked examples are Money n Wealth calculations. Received an income tax notice and unsure how to reply? A well-documented first response often closes the matter, while a hurried one can widen it. Talk to Money n Wealth (/contact) for help with your notice and a free portfolio review. This article is for general educational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Figures and examples are illustrative. Please consult a qualified financial adviser for guidance specific to your situation. Money n Wealth (Predics Fintech Services Pvt Ltd) is an AMFI-registered Mutual Fund Distributor (ARN-121995) and APMI-registered PMS Distributor (APRN07444); it is not a SEBI-registered investment adviser and may earn distribution commission on investments made through it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is an intimation under section 143(1) an income tax notice?
Technically yes, but it is not a scrutiny notice. It is an automated summary of how CPC processed your return. If the "as computed" column matches what you filed and shows nil demand or a refund, no action is needed. If it shows a demand, check the reason, then pay, rectify or dispute it on the portal within 30 days.
How many days do I get to reply to an income tax notice?
It depends on the type. A defective return must be fixed within 15 days. A proposed prima facie adjustment and a notice of demand allow 30 days. Under the 2025 Act a reassessment notice must give at least 30 days. Scrutiny questionnaires and show-cause notices state their own date. Always go by the due date printed on the notice.
Why do my notices still say section 143(1) and not section 270?
Because the 1961 Act continues to govern all tax years beginning before 1 April 2026. Returns for FY 2025-26 and earlier are processed and assessed under the old sections, even though the 2025 Act is in force. Notices citing new sections such as 270(1) or 263(7) will appear for tax year 2026-27 returns, filed from mid-2027.
Can the department reopen my return after five years?
Only in larger cases. For notices issued from 1 September 2024, reassessment is allowed up to 3 years and 3 months after the end of the assessment year. It can go up to 5 years and 3 months only if the escaped income is likely to be ₹50 lakh or more. A show-cause notice under section 148A must come first.
How do I check if an income tax notice is genuine?
Use "Authenticate Notice/Order issued by ITD" on the e-filing home page. Enter the Document Identification Number with your mobile number, or your PAN, assessment year, document type and issue date, and confirm with an OTP. A genuine notice will also be visible under Pending Actions in your e-filing account.
What if I miss the deadline for a defective return notice?
The return is treated as invalid, as though it was never filed. If the defect is cured after the deadline but before assessment, the officer may condone the delay. Otherwise you may have to file a belated or updated return, which can mean losing loss carry-forward and paying extra tax and fees.
Can I ask for more time to reply to a scrutiny notice?
Yes. In e-Proceedings, click Seek/View Adjournment, choose the date you need, give a reason and submit before the due date. Adjournments are at the officer's discretion, so ask early and use the time to assemble a complete reply rather than sending partial answers.
Received an income tax notice and unsure how to reply?
A well-documented first response often closes the matter, while a hurried one can widen it. Talk to Money n Wealth for help with your notice and a free portfolio review.