How To Correct A Mistake After Filing Your Income Tax Returns
Jul 31, 2017

Author: PersonalFN Content & Research Team

When filing income tax returns, you need to pay attention to detail. But as careful as one may be, at times certain errors may fail to get noticed.

Whether you have filed your income tax returns well in advance or even if filed at the last minute, there is a possibility of making a mistake. You may have forgotten to include certain exemptions, erroneously entered a wrong challan number for the tax credit, or even failed to include certain income.

The list can go on and on, as there could be endless possibilities. Hence, the tax department allows individuals to correct genuine mistakes in their income tax returns.

You may correct the error through two routes:

Submitting a rectification request under Section 154 of the Income Tax Act or
Filing a revised return under Section 139(5)

Difference between an Income Tax Rectification request and Revised Return

Once you submit and verify your income tax returns, an income tax Assessing Officer will authenticate the data you have entered and will send you an Intimation under Section 143(1) of the Income Tax Act. Here, you will need to match the data you’ve submitted and computed under Section 143(1) by the assessing officer. If there is a mistake, it will need to be corrected by submitting a rectification request.

You can submit a rectification request after the income tax return is processed or on receiving an Intimation u/s 143(1). You can rectify mistakes apparent from the record. Under this section, one can rectify clerical, arithmetical mistakes, a mismatch in tax payments, inclusion of income chargeable under an incorrect heading, and even changes in your resident status. Further, there must be confirmation that the mistake is apparent from the records and it is not a mistake that requires debate, elaboration, investigation, etc.

You can file a rectification request within four years from the date of the order that needs to be rectified, not necessary the original order. Thus, even after you file a rectification request and there continues to be an error in the revised order, you can file another rectification within four years from the date of the revised order.

If you unintentionally failed to include certain income or forgot to claim additional income exemptions, then file a revised return. There is a possibility where one could have forgotten to include interest income or even misplaced a donation receipt to claim exemption under Section 80G. A revised return can be filed even before receiving an Intimation u/s 143(1).

You can file a revised return under Section 139(5) of the Income Tax Act. Earlier, it was not permitted to file a revised return for returns filed after the due date. However, from April 1, 2017, you can file a revised return even for belated returns. This is applicable for Assessment Year 2017-18 and onwards.

You can file a revised return before the end of the next assessment year, which is March 31, 2019 for the annual year of 2017-18(AY). Please note, the deadline for filing revised returns has been reduced. From next year, i.e. AY2018-19, the deadline for filing revised returns is March 31, 2019.