Intimation under section 143(1): what it is, and whether a clock is running
The same letter is sent whether nothing happened or you owe money. The two columns tell you which.
Read the two columns side by side. If they agree, this is a receipt and there is nothing to do. If it shows a refund, nothing to do either. If it shows a sum payable, it counts as a demand notice — 30 days to pay or respond, and 30 days to appeal, both from service.
If you miss it: An intimation showing a demand is deemed to be a notice of demand. Unanswered, it is confirmed, interest runs at 1% a month, and refunds for other years are set off against it. The 30 days to appeal expire on the same date.
s. 143(1) up to 2025-26 · s. 270(1) from 2026-27 · checked 10 September 2026
Key takeaways
- An intimation is three different documents wearing one name: a no-change acknowledgement, a refund advice, or a demand. Only the third starts a clock.
- Where it shows a sum payable it is deemed to be a notice of demand, so everything that follows a demand follows this — interest at 1% a month, and set-off against other years' refunds.
- The password is your PAN in lower case followed by your date of birth as eight digits, with no space between them.
- The choice between rectification and appeal is the real decision, and the 30-day appeal window keeps running while a rectification sits in a queue for months.
- Only certain adjustments are permitted at this stage, and none of them may be made without giving you an opportunity to respond first.
The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the Income-tax Act, 1961 on 1 April 2026 and renumbered almost everything. It did not renumber your notice. Under the repeal-and-savings provision, an assessment, reassessment, appeal or penalty for a tax year before 1 April 2026 stays under the 1961 Act — even where the notice itself arrives after that date. So the number that governs the letter in your hand is decided by the year the letter is about, not by the date it was posted. Both numbers are given on every page here, with the governing one first.
“The provisions of the repealed Income-tax Act shall continue to apply to any proceeding pending on the date of commencement of this Act and to any proceedings initiated on or after the 1st April, 2026 (including notices, assessment, reassessment, recomputation, rectification, penalty, reference, revision and appeals) in respect of any tax year beginning before the 1st April, 2026.”
- Notice about 2025-26 or earlier
- The Income-tax Act, 1961 numbering is the one that governs it — s. 143(2), s. 156, s. 220, Form 26AS, Form 16. That is most letters arriving in 2026.
- Notice about 2026-27 or later
- The Income-tax Act, 2025 numbering governs — s. 270(8), s. 289, s. 411, Form 168, Form 130. In practice, letters from 2027 onward.
The three things an intimation can be
Almost all of the anxiety around this document comes from one fact: the same letter, with the same heading and the same tone, is sent whether nothing at all has happened or you owe money. Open it and go straight to the comparison — one column headed with what you provided, one with what was computed on processing. The relationship between the two columns is the whole message.
| What the columns show | What it means | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| The two columns agree | Your return was accepted as filed. This is an acknowledgement, not a notice. | Nothing. Keep it — it is the record that the year was processed. |
| A refund is determined | You paid more than was due. The refund follows to the bank account you pre-validated. | Nothing, unless it does not arrive. Refunds below ₹100 are not issued. |
| A sum is payable | Processing made an adjustment, or allowed less credit than you claimed. This is deemed to be a notice of demand. | 30 days from service to pay or record a response, and separately 30 days to appeal. |
The third row is why this page exists. Everything that follows a demand notice follows an intimation showing a sum payable, and a great many people do not realise a clock has started at all.
Your PAN in lower case, immediately followed by your date of birth as DDMMYYYY, with no space and no punctuation — so PAN ABCDE1234E and a date of birth of 1 January 2000 gives abcde1234e01012000. The commonest failures are typing the PAN in capitals, putting a space between the two parts, or using the date of incorporation rather than a date of birth for a non-individual.
What processing is allowed to change, and what it is not
Processing is not an assessment. It is a limited, largely automated comparison, and the adjustments that can be made at this stage are a closed list rather than a general power to disagree with you.
- An arithmetical error in the return.
- An incorrect claim, where the incorrectness is apparent from the information in the return itself — an inconsistency between two entries, not a view about whether you were entitled to something.
- A loss claimed to be set off or carried forward where the return was filed after the due date.
- An expense or a deduction indicated in the audit report but not accounted for in the return.
- A deduction claimed beyond the date after which it is not allowable.
- Credit allowed only to the extent it appears in the tax credit statement — which is not framed as an adjustment but is, in practice, the largest single source of demands at this stage.
No adjustment may be made without first giving you an intimation of the proposed adjustment, in writing or electronically, and considering your response. If a demand appeared with no such opportunity, that is a point worth taking — and it is a point that has to be taken, because nobody will raise it for you. Check your registered email and the portal for a proposed-adjustment communication before assuming none was sent.
The department's own clock
An intimation cannot be issued at any time. It must be sent within nine months from the end of the financial year in which the return was made. Once that period passes without an intimation, processing is closed and the return stands as filed.
That has a practical consequence people rarely draw. If you are waiting on a refund and the period has gone by with no intimation, the return is treated as processed and the refund position is what your return said it was — which is a grievance to raise rather than a wait to continue.
It also means a demand raised long after that period is worth checking against the limit before it is answered on its merits.
Rectification or appeal — the decision that catches people
Where the intimation shows a demand you disagree with, there are two routes and they are not interchangeable. Getting this wrong is the single most expensive mistake available on this page.
| Rectification | Appeal | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | A mistake apparent on the record — arithmetic, a credit not allowed, a challan not matched | A disagreement about the substance of what was decided |
| Where it goes | Back to the same authority that passed the order | To the Commissioner (Appeals), a different authority |
| Cost | Free | ₹250 to ₹1,000, plus representation |
| Time limit | Four years from the end of the financial year in which the order was passed | 30 days from service — and it does not pause |
| How long it takes | Months, and often several | Commonly one to three years |
s. 154 and s. 246A up to tax year 2025-26; s. 287 and s. 357 from 2026-27. The test and the periods are the same under both.
The 30 days for the appeal keep running while a rectification sits in a queue. People file the rectification, wait four months, are refused, and find the appeal window closed. Where the point could go either way, file the appeal first — it can be withdrawn if the rectification succeeds — and remember that delay can be condoned for sufficient cause, but "I was waiting for a rectification" is a reason you would rather not have to argue.
What to do, in order
- 1Open it and read the two columns. If they agree, file it and stop.
- 2If a sum is payable, find the date of service and write both 30-day dates on it — the date to pay or respond, and the date to appeal. They are the same date, and they are not the date you opened the email if the notice reached your account earlier.
- 3Work out what changed. The difference between the columns almost always traces to one line: a credit not allowed, a deduction disallowed, a loss not carried forward, or an arithmetical correction.
- 4Check whether you were given a proposed-adjustment communication first. If an adjustment was made without one, that is a point to take.
- 5If it is a credit that has not appeared, treat it as a mismatch rather than a tax dispute — the fix sits with whoever deducted, and a rectification follows once the credit appears.
- 6Respond on the portal within the 30 days regardless of which route you choose. Recording a disagreement costs nothing and stops the demand being confirmed and set off against a refund.
- 7Then choose the route. Rectification where the mistake is obvious from the record and needs no argument; appeal where explaining it takes a paragraph.
Worked examples
Example 1: An intimation that was simply a receipt
- Assessment year
- 2026-27
- Returned income
- ₹14,20,000
- Computed on processing
- ₹14,20,000
- Sum payable
- Nil
- 1.The columns agree, so nothing was adjusted and no credit was refused.
- 2.There is no demand, so no period is running and nothing has to be answered.
- 3.The only thing worth doing is keeping the document, because it is the record that the year was processed.
Worth stating plainly because it is the commonest outcome and the one that causes the most unnecessary alarm. Most intimations are receipts.
Example 2: A demand from a loss that could not be carried forward
- Assessment year
- 2025-26
- Business loss claimed for carry-forward
- ₹6,50,000
- Return filed
- After the due date
- Sum payable
- ₹48,000
- 1.A loss claimed to be carried forward where the return was filed late is one of the permitted adjustments at processing. So the adjustment is correct as a matter of law.
- 2.That makes this the wrong case for a rectification: nothing here is a mistake apparent on the record. The system applied the rule.
- 3.It is also a poor case for an appeal, because the rule is clear and the facts are not in dispute.
- 4.The honest answer is to pay within the 30 days, and to note that the loss is gone rather than merely deferred.
Included because most pages on this subject imply every demand is fightable. This one is not, and recognising that early saves a fee, a year and a good deal of hope. The lesson that is worth something is the one about filing on time.
Example 3: A demand, a rectification, and an appeal window nearly lost
- Assessment year
- 2025-26
- Sum payable
- ₹1,10,000
- Cause
- Advance tax challan not matched
- Intimation served
- 14 July 2026
- 1.A challan paid but not matched is a mistake apparent on the record — the payment exists, it is simply pointed at the wrong year or head. So a rectification is the right route.
- 2.Both 30-day periods expire on 13 August 2026. The rectification will not be decided by then, and possibly not for months.
- 3.So the sequence is: respond on the portal disagreeing, attach the challan; file the rectification; and, because ₹1,10,000 is worth protecting, file the appeal as well before 13 August.
- 4.If the rectification succeeds, the appeal is withdrawn and nothing has been lost but ₹1,000 and an afternoon.
The appeal is insurance, and at ₹1,000 on a ₹1,10,000 demand it is cheap insurance. Filing it is the step almost every competitor page omits, and the reason people find the window closed when the rectification comes back refused.
More questions about this page
What is the password for an income tax intimation?▼
Do I need to respond to an intimation under section 143(1)?▼
Is an intimation under section 143(1) a scrutiny notice?▼
What adjustments can be made when a return is processed?▼
How long does the department have to send an intimation?▼
Should I file a rectification or an appeal against an intimation?▼
What happens if I ignore an intimation showing a demand?▼
Which section applies to my intimation — 143(1) or 270(1)?▼
My refund was smaller than I claimed. What happened?▼
Can an intimation be issued after my return was already processed?▼
Official sources checked
The statutes, rules and regulator pages the statements on this page were checked against.
- Income-tax Act, 2025 — s. 270(1) and s. 270(4) (processing and the nine-month limit), s. 287 (rectification), s. 289(2) (an intimation deemed a notice of demand), s. 357 (appealable orders)Read against the enacted text. s. 270(4): no intimation shall be sent after the expiry of nine months from the end of the financial year in which the return is made.
- Income-tax Act, 1961 — s. 143(1), s. 154, s. 156, s. 246AThe provisions that in fact govern any intimation for tax year 2025-26 or earlier, by reason of the repeal-and-savings provision in s. 536 of the 2025 Act.
- Portal paths and response options.
You are here
Holding an intimation and working out whether anything is required of you
What to do next
- 1
If it shows a sum payable
An intimation showing a demand is deemed to be a notice of demand — the 30 days, the interest and the set-off all follow from it.
Income tax demand notice → - 2
If the demand is the exact amount of a credit you claimed
Then it is a reporting failure by whoever deducted, not a tax dispute — and three of the four causes are only fixable by them.
Form 26AS mismatch → - 3
If a different letter arrived and you are not sure what it is
Eight notice types, matched by what the letter says rather than by the section number on it.
Which income tax notice is this? →
This page is general information about procedure and deadlines, checked against the provisions in force on the date shown. It is not advice on your own assessment, and a notice that looks routine can turn on facts a page cannot see. Where money or a limitation period is at stake, put the notice in front of a practising Chartered Accountant.