Income tax appeal fee: what each rung costs to enter
The filing fee is the smallest number in this decision. It is still the one people look up first, so here it is — with the form, the clock, and what has to be paid before the appeal is admitted.
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The assessed figure, not the disputed addition and not your returned income.
A first appeal costs ₹250, ₹500 or ₹1,000 depending on assessed income. The Tribunal costs ₹500, ₹1,500, or 1% of assessed income capped at ₹10,000. Those figures are almost never what decides whether to appeal — representation is, and so is what happens to the demand while you wait.
Key takeaways
- The statutory filing fees are small. A first appeal on a ₹5 crore assessment still costs ₹1,000.
- The Tribunal's top slab is a percentage, but it is capped at ₹10,000 — so it stops rising at an assessed income of ₹10 lakh.
- A cross-objection at the Tribunal carries no fee at all, and a stay application there carries ₹500.
- Two money conditions get confused: the tax on your returned income, which the first appeal requires, and the 20% commonly required for a stay. They are different amounts for different purposes.
- Above the Tribunal there is no fee fixed by the Act — court fees are set by the court's own rules and vary by State.
How the fee is worked out
Both the first appeal and the Tribunal charge by reference to the total income as computed by the Assessing Officer — the assessed figure, not the addition you are disputing and not what you returned. Three slabs apply at each forum, and the thresholds are expressed as "does not exceed", so an income landing exactly on ₹1,00,000 or ₹2,00,000 stays in the lower band.
| Assessed income | Commissioner (Appeals) | Appellate Tribunal |
|---|---|---|
| ₹1,00,000 or less | ₹250 | ₹500 |
| Above ₹1,00,000, up to ₹2,00,000 | ₹500 | ₹1,500 |
| Above ₹2,00,000 | ₹1,000 — flat, however large | 1% of assessed income, capped at ₹10,000 |
| Not measured by assessed income | ₹250 | ₹500 |
| Stay application | Not applicable — applied for to the AO | ₹500 |
| Cross-objection | Not applicable | Nil |
s. 249 and s. 253 of the 1961 Act; s. 358 and s. 362 of the 2025 Act. The slabs are unchanged under both.
1% of assessed income sounds open-ended, but the ₹10,000 cap bites at an assessed income of ₹10 lakh. Above that the fee is ₹10,000 whether the assessment is ₹11 lakh or ₹110 crore. So the Tribunal fee has a ceiling too, and it is reached early.
What actually decides whether to appeal
The filing fee is a rounding error in this decision, and treating it as the cost is how people talk themselves out of appeals worth pursuing and into appeals that are not.
The first real cost is representation. An appeal is won or lost on the submissions, and at the Tribunal on the paper book and counsel. What that costs varies with the complexity of the year and the amount at stake, and it is the number worth getting before deciding anything.
The second is time, and what happens to the demand during it. A first appeal commonly takes one to three years and a Tribunal appeal two or more. Filing an appeal does not suspend the demand: it continues, and interest runs at 1% for every month or part of a month throughout, unless a stay is obtained.
The third is the pre-condition, which is frequently confused with the stay. Before a first appeal is admitted, the tax due on your returned income must have been paid — that is the income you yourself declared. It is not 20%, it is not the disputed addition, and it is a separate question from whether the demand is stayed.
| What | How much | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| The filing fee | ₹250 to ₹10,000 by forum and slab | Getting the appeal on the file |
| Tax on returned income | Whatever you declared and have not paid | A pre-condition of the first appeal being admitted at all |
| Stay of demand | Commonly 20% of the disputed demand, as administrative guidance | Stopping recovery while the appeal is pending — a separate application |
The 20% figure is a CBDT benchmark rather than a statutory requirement. An officer can direct less on the facts, and the Supreme Court has confirmed a lesser amount can be ordered.
The clocks, which differ at every rung
Delay can be condoned at each level for sufficient cause, but condonation is an application decided on its merits rather than a right, and it is a poor position to start from. The Tribunal's month-end rule is the one people get wrong, usually by counting sixty days from the date of the order and filing a fortnight late.
- First appeal: 30 days from service of the notice of demand for an assessment or penalty, or from service of the order in other cases.
- Tribunal: two months from the end of the month in which the order was communicated — not two months from the date. An order communicated on 15 August runs to 31 October.
- Cross-objection at the Tribunal: 30 days from receiving notice that the other side has appealed.
- High Court: 120 days from the date the Tribunal's order is received, and only on a substantial question of law.
- Supreme Court: on a certificate of fitness from the High Court; otherwise special leave, which is discretionary.
The forms, under both numbering systems
| Forum | Up to tax year 2025-26 | From 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|
| Commissioner (Appeals) | Form 35 | Form 99, under rule 167 |
| Appellate Tribunal | Form 36 | Form 115, under rule 193(1) |
| Cross-objection at the Tribunal | Form 36A | Form 116, under rule 193(2) |
| High Court and above | The court's own procedure | The court's own procedure |
Which numbering applies depends on the tax year the appeal concerns, not on today's date — the repeal-and-savings provision keeps earlier years under the 1961 Act even for appeals filed after 1 April 2026.
Worked examples
Example 1: A ₹48,00,000 addition, appealed to the Commissioner (Appeals)
- Returned income
- ₹9,00,000
- Assessed income
- ₹57,00,000
- Demand
- ₹16,80,000 including interest
- 1.Assessed income exceeds ₹2,00,000, so the filing fee is ₹1,000. It would be ₹1,000 on a ₹5 crore assessment too.
- 2.Before admission, the tax due on the returned income of ₹9,00,000 must have been paid — not on the ₹48,00,000 addition.
- 3.The demand is not suspended by the appeal, so a separate stay application goes to the Assessing Officer. Against the 20% benchmark that is ₹3,36,000.
- 4.Interest continues on whatever is not paid, at 1% a month, for however long the appeal takes.
₹1,000 to file. The number that actually matters is the ₹3,36,000 and the interest on the balance over two years — which is what the decision should be made on.
Example 2: The Tribunal, where the cap makes the fee predictable
- Assessed income
- ₹2,40,00,000
- Forum
- Appellate Tribunal
- 1.Assessed income exceeds ₹2,00,000, so the top slab applies: 1% of assessed income.
- 2.1% of ₹2,40,00,000 is ₹2,40,000 — far above the cap.
- 3.The cap is ₹10,000, so that is the fee.
- 4.A stay application, if one is needed, is a further ₹500.
₹10,000 on a ₹2.4 crore assessment, and it would be ₹10,000 on a ₹240 crore one. The percentage looks alarming and almost never operates.
Example 3: A cross-objection that cost nothing
- Who appealed
- The department, to the Tribunal
- Outcome below
- Partly favourable to the taxpayer
- Points the taxpayer lost
- Not separately appealed
- 1.Where the other side appeals, you can file a memorandum of cross-objections on the points decided against you, within 30 days of receiving notice of their appeal.
- 2.No fee is payable on a cross-objection.
- 3.It is treated as an appeal in its own right, so the points you lost below are live before the Tribunal rather than closed.
- 4.Missing the 30 days means arguing only on the department's grounds, with your own findings standing.
Free, short-lived, and routinely missed. If the department appeals and any part of the order below went against you, the cross-objection window is the cheapest thing on this page.
More questions about this page
How much does it cost to file an income tax appeal?▼
Is the appeal fee based on my disputed amount?▼
What do I have to pay before an appeal is admitted?▼
Does the Tribunal's 1% fee have a limit?▼
How long do I have to file an appeal?▼
Is there a fee for appealing to the High Court?▼
Do I pay a fee for a cross-objection?▼
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Official sources checked
The statutes, rules and regulator pages the statements on this page were checked against.
- Income-tax Act, 2025 — s. 358 (form, fee and limitation for the first appeal), s. 362 (appeals to the Appellate Tribunal), s. 365 (High Court), s. 367 (Supreme Court)Fee slabs read against the enacted text. s. 358(6) carries the pre-condition that tax on the returned income be paid.
- Income-tax Act, 1961 — ss. 246A, 249, 253, 260A, 261Governs appeals concerning tax year 2025-26 and earlier. The slabs are identical.
- Income-tax Rules, 2026 — rule 167 (Form 99) and rule 193 (Forms 115 and 116)Notified by CBDT Notification No. 22/2026, G.S.R. 198(E), 20 March 2026.
- Arithmetic verified by an automated test in the repositoryscripts/test-appeal-fee.mts — 29 assertions including both band edges at both forums, the ₹10,000 cap landing exactly, and the cases where no statutory fee exists.
You are here
Working out what the next rung of the appeal ladder costs to enter
What to do next
- 1
If you have not decided which rung you are aiming at
Six forums, and each decides something different — the Tribunal is the last one that will look at your facts at all.
Income tax appeal → - 2
If this is your first appeal
What you must pay to file, what happens to the demand meanwhile, and the power the first appellate authority has to make things worse.
Appeal to the Commissioner (Appeals) → - 3
If you need the date rather than the fee
Notice type and the date it was served, in. Your exact deadline and the next rung, out.
Notice deadline calculator → - 4
If the demand is running while you decide
Interest at 1% a month, a possible penalty up to the arrears, and set-off against every other year's refund.
Income tax demand notice →
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.