Income Tax Notice Reply Drafter (India)

About the Income Tax Notice Reply Drafter (India)

An income-tax notice is usually two things at once: a question, and a clock. This drafter does the first part for you — it names the notice, says exactly what the department is asking, where on the e-filing portal the answer goes, what happens if nobody answers, and when the reply is due (fifteen days for a defective return, thirty for a proposed adjustment or a demand, the date the notice itself sets for an inquiry).

Paste the notice and it picks out the section, the DIN, the PAN, the year and the amounts in this browser — nothing is uploaded. Then choose your position (agree, agree in part, disagree, or comply), pick the grounds from a library that quotes the provision each one rests on, add a reconciliation row for every figure the department and your return see differently, list the documents, and the reply writes itself: a formal submission with the facts, numbered grounds, the reconciliation annexure with totals, the enclosures, the prayer and the verification — plus a shortened version for the portal’s own remarks box, which takes 4,000 characters.

It also keeps the two Acts straight. A notice about a year that began before 1 April 2026 is dealt with under the Income-tax Act, 1961 and its sections, because the repealed Act continues for those proceedings; a notice about tax year 2026-27 onwards quotes the Income-tax Act, 2025. Both section numbers are shown, and the reply uses the right one.

The free preview shows every page with your details and the first part of the wording, and hides the rest; a Premium pass unlocks the full reply and the text for the portal to download, copy or print.

Common uses

• Answering an AIS or e-campaign mismatch with a reconciliation instead of a one-line remark.
• Removing a defect under s.139(9) within the fifteen days and recording how it was removed.
• Replying to a s.142(1) questionnaire with the documents listed category by category.
• Showing cause against a reopening under s.148A, including the limitation point.
• Responding to an outstanding demand that is already paid, reduced in appeal, or not yours.

The notices this covers, and what each one wants

• Intimation after processing (s.143(1); s.270(1) of the 2025 Act) — the computation differs from yours. If it is a mistake apparent from the record, ask for rectification; if a demand has been raised, answer it under Response to Outstanding Demand.
• Proposed adjustment (s.143(1)(a); s.270(2)) — an arithmetical error, an incorrect claim apparent from the return, a loss or deduction disallowed because the return was late, or something in the audit report the return left out. Answer variance by variance within 30 days or the adjustment is made.
• Defective return (s.139(9); s.263(7)) — fifteen days to remove the defect, extendable on an application. Ignore it and the return is treated as invalid.
• Inquiry before assessment (s.142(1); s.268) — file a return, produce accounts or furnish information. Accounts more than three years before the year cannot be called for, and a statement of assets and liabilities needs the Joint Commissioner’s approval.
• Scrutiny (s.143(2); s.270(8)) — produce the evidence you rely on. The notice cannot be served after three months from the end of the financial year in which the return was filed.
• Show cause before reopening (s.148A; s.281) — the information suggesting escaped income must be given to you and you must be heard before any reopening notice.
• Reassessment notice (s.148; s.280) — file a return for the reopened year within the period stated, which cannot exceed three months from the end of the month of issue.
• Set-off of a refund (s.245; s.438) — a refund proposed to be adjusted against an old demand; it cannot be done without an intimation in writing.
• Notice of demand (s.156; s.289) — pay within 30 days or interest runs at 1% a month; an appeal lies within 30 days of service.
• AIS and e-campaign mismatches — feedback on each reported transaction on the Compliance portal, and an updated return if something really was left out.

Where each reply goes on the portal

The Income Tax Department’s own manuals set the paths, and the drafter prints the one for your notice:

• e-Proceedings — log in, then Pending Actions → e-Proceedings → Self, pick the notice and Submit Response. A defective notice offers Agree (upload the corrected return’s JSON) or Disagree with a reason. A proposed adjustment lists each variance: click it, Provide Response, agree or disagree, Save, then submit with the declaration. Other notices offer Full Response or Partial Response, a written remark of up to 4,000 characters, and attachments by category — at most 5 MB each, up to 10 of them, 50 MB in all. Seek/View Adjournment asks for time; Seek Video Conferencing appears only where the officer has allowed it.
• Response to Outstanding Demand — Pending Actions → Response to Outstanding Demand → Submit Response: Demand is correct (which cannot be taken back later), already paid with the challan’s type of payment, amount, BSR code, serial number and date, or Disagree with the demand, choosing reasons and the amount for each. Pay Now goes to e-Pay Tax.
• Rectification — Services → Rectification → New Request, then the kind of rectification: reprocess the return, tax-credit mismatch, status or exemption correction, or return data correction.
• Compliance portal — Pending Actions → Compliance Portal for e-Campaign, e-Verification and AIS feedback; the acknowledgement of the feedback can be downloaded.
• Authenticate a notice — before logging in, the home page’s Authenticate Notice/Order issued by ITD checks a DIN or the PAN, document type, year, date and mobile number. A notice without a valid DIN should be treated with suspicion.

Which Act applies to your notice

The Income-tax Act, 2025 is in force from 1 April 2026 and uses “tax year” in place of the previous year and assessment year. But section 536(2)(c) keeps the Income-tax Act, 1961 alive for every proceeding — notices, assessment, reassessment, rectification, penalty, reference, revision and appeals — about a tax year beginning before 1 April 2026, and says such proceedings are carried out under the procedure of the repealed Act.

So a notice about assessment year 2026-27 (the financial year 2025-26) is a 1961 Act notice and the reply quotes s.139(9), s.142(1), s.143 or s.148, while a notice about tax year 2026-27 quotes s.263(7), s.268, s.270 or s.280. The drafter shows both numbers for every notice and puts the right one in the subject line — a small thing that makes a reply read as though it was written by someone who knows the file.

Deadlines, interest and the appeal clock

• Defective return: 15 days from the intimation, extendable on an application (s.263(7)(a); s.139(9)).
• Proposed adjustment: the adjustment is made if no response comes within 30 days of the communication (s.270(2)(b)).
• Scrutiny notice: cannot be served after three months from the end of the financial year in which the return was furnished (s.270(9)).
• Reopening: no show-cause notice after four years from the end of the tax year, or six years where the escaped income is ₹50 lakh or more; the reopening notice itself gets three months more; and nothing within one year of the end of the tax year (s.282).
• Demand: pay within 30 days of service, or the shorter period the notice sets with the Joint Commissioner’s approval; interest at 1% for every month or part of the delay (s.411).
• Rectification: an order or intimation can be amended within four years from the end of the financial year in which it was passed, and an authority must decide an application within six months from the end of the month it was received (s.287(8) and (9)).
• Appeal: 30 days from the service of the demand notice or the communication of the order, with a fee of ₹250, ₹500 or ₹1,000 depending on the assessed income; a delay can be condoned for sufficient cause, and no appeal is admitted unless the tax on the returned income is paid (s.358).

The drafter works the date out from the notice date when the notice itself states none, counts the days left, and says what to do when the date has already passed.

What makes a reply work

• Answer the question asked. Quote the paragraph of the notice and reply to it, in the same order.
• Attach the proof. A ground without a document behind it is an assertion. The drafter lists the enclosures and adds the copies every notice of that kind needs.
• Reconcile, do not argue. A table that shows the department’s figure, your figure and the reason for the gap settles most mismatch notices by itself. The annexure totals both columns so the officer can see the difference is fully explained.
• Be exact about money. Say what you accept and what you dispute, in rupees.
• File on time, or ask for time on the portal. An adjournment request before the date is far better than silence; a reply filed after the date is still usually taken on record until the order is passed.
• Keep the acknowledgement. The portal gives a transaction ID for every submission; keep it with the papers.
• Get help where the stakes are high. Scrutiny, reopening, a search case or a large demand are work for a chartered accountant or a tax lawyer. This is a drafting tool, not advice.

Limitations

• A drafting tool, not tax advice, and not a substitute for a chartered accountant or tax lawyer in a scrutiny, reassessment, search or penalty case.
• It does not log in to the e-filing portal, file anything, or read your AIS or Form 26AS. You file the reply yourself and attach the draft.
• The grounds library is a starting point with the provision each ground rests on: read every paragraph and change it to your facts before you file.
• The notice reader is a pattern match on the words of the notice, in this browser: it can pick the wrong section, so check what it fills in.
• Deadlines are worked out from the date you enter and the statutory period; the date on the notice always wins, and an extension or a holiday can change it.
• Text in the Indian scripts (Devanagari, Bengali, Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu and the others) comes out right in the preview, the DOCX, the PDF and Print. A script the PDF engine cannot draw, such as Urdu, shows in the DOCX and Print but not in the PDF or the free preview’s pages.

Privacy

Everything happens in your browser. The notice you paste, your PAN, the amounts and the documents list are not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot, and the pasted notice is never part of the reply. Keep a draft in this browser is off unless you switch it on — leave it off on a shared computer, and clear the form when you are done.