While filing our income tax return (ITR) we take the utmost care not to make any mistakes. However, at times it can happen that we have made a mistake while filing our tax return. These could include mentioning the incorrect bank account number, forgetting to declare interest income, or claiming the wrong deduction.
However, don’t worry if you have made a mistake in your ITR as the current income tax laws allow you to rectify it. Abhishek Soni, CEO, tax2win.in, a tax-return filing company, says, “If you have discovered the mistake after filing your income tax return, then you can rectify your mistake as allowed under the current tax laws. Section 139(5) of the Income-Tax Act allows taxpayers to rectify their mistake by filing a revised income tax return”.
This section states that if someone after filing their return discovers any omission or wrong statement, then he can furnish a revised return any time before the end of relevant assessment year or before the completion of assessment, whichever is earlier. Assessment year is the year immediately following the financial year for which the return is filed.
So, if you have made a mistake in your ITR, here is how you can file a revised return.
What is a revised return?
Revised return allows you to rectify the error or omission of facts made at the time of filing your original ITR. Filing a revised return simply means filing your return again but this time with the correct information. When filing a revised return you need to mention details of the original return.
Who can file it?
Every assessee who has filed his/her ITR is entitled to revise it under section 139(5) to provide correct information to the tax department. Earlier, only those taxpayers who had filed ITR before the expiry of the deadline were allowed to revise their returns. Taxpayers who had filed belated returns, i.e., after the expiry of original deadline to file ITR were not allowed to revise it. However, starting last year, even belated returns can now be revised, says Soni.
Last date to file revised ITR
Earlier, tax laws allowed taxpayers to file revised return till one year after the expiry of the assessment year. This meant that taxpayers had two years from the end of the relevant financial year (the FY for which the return was filed) to correct the mistake and file a revised return. But the time limit to file a revised ITR was reduced last year.
“Starting from last year, the time limit to revise the ITR has been reduced. According to current income tax laws, you now only have time till the completion of the relevant assessment year to rectify your mistake,” adds Soni. Thus, once you have filed ITR for FY 2017-18, you have time till March 31, 2019 to correct your mistake, if any.
How to file revised ITR
The process of filing a revised ITR is the same as filing an original one. However, while filing a revised ITR, you are required to file it under section 139(5) of the Income-tax Act. You are required to select option ’17 – Revised u/s 139(5)’ in the ‘return filed under’ column. The ITR form will additionally ask you for details of the original ITR, i.e. receipt number and date of filing of original ITR, adds Soni.
How many times you can file a revised return
There is no limit for the number of times you can file a revised return. Remember, every time you file a revised return, you are required to provide details of your original ITR. Revising your tax return is a chance for you to rectify your mistake, but one should avoid misuse of this facility and ensure utmost care while filing the original tax return, adds Soni.
Things to remember
Once you have filed your revised ITR, ensure that you have verified the same. The income tax department will not accept your revised tax return, unless it is verified by you. To verify your revised income tax return, you can use any of the methods available to verify your ITR, i.e., e-verification by using electronic methods such as Aadhaar, OTP, EVC through net-banking or via physical verification by sending signed copy of ITR-V (Acknowledgement Receipt) to CPC, Bangalore.
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“Once the scrutiny assessment of your ITR is completed under section 143(3) of the Income-tax Act by the assessing officer, then you cannot file a revised return,” said Soni.
“As a taxpayer you must remember that the deadline to rectify the mistake in your tax return and to file belated return is same, i.e. March 31st of the relevant assessment year. Therefore, if you file a belated return on March 31st, 2019 for the FY 2017-18 (AY 2018-19) you will miss out the chance to rectify the mistake done by you, if any, in your ITR”, adds Soni.
