After you have filed your income tax return (ITR), the income tax department will process your ITR. Upon processing of your ITR, the department will send you an intimation under Section 143(1) of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
The intimation under Section 143(1) will display a comparison of income submitted by you with the income processed by the income tax department. You will receive the intimation on your e-mail address registered at the e-filing portal. You may also receive a text message on your registered mobile number about the processing of your ITR.
The intimation would display whether your income tax return submitted matches with the department’s calculation. The income tax department recalculates your income and tax calculations.
The department collates your income from various sources and the ITR filed by you. These include your employer’s TDS (Tax Deducted at Source) returns, bank’s TDS returns, AIR (Annual Information Report) submitted by banks and so on. Upon collation of the details of income, the incomes are set against your incomes reported in your ITR.
The intimation also calculates the tax payable on the total income calculated. The department also collates the TDS credits available to you. The TDS amounts standing to your credit in your Form 26AS is set off from your tax payable. Form 26AS is an annual TDS summary statement displaying TDS credits available to you. The department generally allows you credit for TDS amounts appearing in your Form 26AS.
The intimation will recheck your income-tax calculations. Also, the intimation calculates the interest if any payable by you.
At the end of the calculation, the intimation would display the tax demand or refund due to you or a ‘Nil’ demand/refund.
Also Read: Updating bank account and personal details after the filing of ITR
Broadly, an ITR processed under an intimation under Section 143(1) would fall in one of the three categories mentioned below:
- The details of your income, deductions claimed, tax calculated and TDS claims match with the department’s calculation. Here the intimation would display a ‘Nil’ tax demand or refund due.
- The department has included additional income such as interest on fixed deposits not disclosed in your ITR. In such a case, your intimation would show a tax demand. A tax demand may also arise when your TDS credit claimed does not match with your Form 26AS.
- In this case, as per the department’s calculation, you may be eligible to additional TDS credit or your income tax calculations result in a refund. Here, the intimation would display the amount of refund due to you.
If you do not agree with the calculations in the intimation, you can submit a response against it. In the case of a tax demand, you can submit a response against the intimation. You can file a revised ITR. In a case of any other error in the intimation, you can submit a request for rectification. You can also submit a revised ITR while placing a rectification request.
Do note that in a case where any refund is due to you, the department will credit the refund to your bank account. You can check the refund status or ITR status on the e-filing portal.
The time limit allowed for processing of an ITR and sending an intimation is one year from the end of the financial year in which you filed your ITR. For example, for an ITR filed for AY 2019-20 in August 2019, the time available is till 31 March 2021.
I am a Chartered Accountant by profession. I specialise in personal taxes and corporate income tax matters. I am an avid reader and track developments in financial markets, economy and other market developments.
