Income Tax Notice (Reply)

There are certain types of notice issued on the different occasion/default. Let us discuss few of them...........

• Notice under section 131-This notice shall be issued by the AO for the inspection and discovery of documents of an assessee who has concealed his/her income.

• Notice under section 133- Under this section, AO may seek information regarding names and addresses of members of a firm, HUF and their respective shares.

• Notice under section 139(9)- An Assessing Officer shall issue a notice under section 139(9) if  assessee has filed a defective return.

• Notice under section 142(1)-  An Assessing Officer shall issue a notice under section 142(1) in order to investigate a particular assessee's income and return filed. It can be issued before or during the assessment. Through this notice the AO may ask the taxpayer to file return of Income if it has not been filed by the taxpayer within the due date,accounts or documents as asked by the Assessing Officer and after submission of all the documents, the AO may not make detailed assessment if he is satisfied with all the documents submitted.​

• Notice under section 143(1)- Usually notice cum intimation under section 143(1) is issued to the taxpayer when return is filed. It is just an intimation that the return has been successfully filed. So, there is no need to respond to such notice.

However, in certain cases notice under this section may be issued if there is mismatch in the computation of income and this notice shall also be considered as demand notice if the tax paid by the assessee shows shortfall and refund notice if the there is excessive tax paid by the assessee.

• Notice under section 143(2)- If the AO is not satisfied with the documents submitted under section 142(1) he shall issue notice under this section. If a person receives notice under section 143(2) it means that the AO wants to conduct detailed scrutiny. This notice is sent only after issuing notice under section 142(1). The AO may ask to submit proof of all sources of income and details of exemptions and deductions claimed by the assessee. If the assessee does not respond to this notice then Income Tax Department may conduct Best Judgment Assessment u/s 144 or Assessee shall be penalized under section 271(1)(b) and/or Prosecution u/s 276D.

• Notice under section 148- Notice under section 148 is issued to a taxpayer if the Assessing Officer has reason to believe that the assessee has escaped tax. This is a notice for reassessment. An AO cannot issue notice under section 148 if all the documents are rightly submitted by the assessee and there are no valid reasons to issue the notice. The AO shall record in writing the reasons to believe to issue notice under this section.

• Notice under section 156- AO shall issue demand notice under section 156 if the taxpayer is liable to pay outstanding tax, interest, penalty or fine. The assessee must respond to this notice within 30 days of receiving the notice.

• Notice under section 245- In any case if refund is payable to an assessee, the AO may set off such refund amount against outstanding tax payable by him. In this notice the AO shall specify the adjustments in refund amount. This is an intimation notice to inform about the changes made.