An updated return is filed once, and the extra tax is on top

On the year 2025 host, section 263(4) is a return that was not filed in time. The window is nine months from the end of the tax year, or before the assessment is completed, whichever is earlier. Subsection (5) on that host is a revised return, after a return under subsection (1) or (4), where the person finds an omission or a wrong statement. The window is the same nine months, or before the assessment is completed, whichever is earlier.

On the year 2026 host, the substituted subsection (5) is twelve months from the end of the relevant tax year, or before the assessment is completed, whichever is earlier, and it is subject to section 428(b). This page does not treat nine months and twelve months as one window. It does not treat either of them as the 31 December 2027 date on the ITR filing guide, which is written under section 139(5).

An updated return is subsection (6). Any person, whether or not a return was furnished under subsection (1), (4), or (5), may furnish an updated return of their own income, or of the income of any other person they are assessable for, within forty-eight months from the end of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year. The note uses 48 months for the same count. The note also says the filing is optional, and that it can be filed whether or not an original, belated, or revised return was already filed, except in the circumstances it then lists.

The 25% band on the note starts after the due date for the belated or revised return. Section 267 starts that same band after the time available under section 263(4) or (5). Those are the two phrases. This page does not collapse them.

The note says that in tax year 2026-27 a person can file an updated return for financial year 2024-25, 2023-24, 2022-23, and 2021-22. It does not add financial year 2025-26 or financial year 2026-27 to that list. A later example on the same note uses tax year 2026-27 as the year of a return being updated. That example is the loss example below. It is not an extra year on the four-year list.

The person can also be filing for someone else's income, where they are assessable for it. The note's examples are a representative capacity, and clubbing of income. The clubbing rules themselves stay on the clubbing page.

A loss return can still be the earlier return. The updated return itself cannot be a loss return, except where it reduces the loss that was originally reported. A loss under one head, with total income still positive, is not a bar. The note's example is Mr A, tax year 2026-27, total income Rs. 10 lakh, then a short-term capital gain of Rs. 2 lakh on listed equity shares under section 196, and a long-term capital loss of Rs. 10 lakh on immovable property in the same year. The note says the property loss is carried forward because it cannot be adjusted against his other income, and the updated return is still open because total income after the Rs. 2 lakh gain is Rs. 12 lakh. If the original return was a loss of ₹10 lakh, the same Rs. 2 lakh gain reduces that loss to ₹8 lakh, and the note says he can still file.

Section 267(5) computes additional income-tax on the return under section 263(6). It is a percentage of the aggregate of tax and interest payable, as determined in subsection (1) where no earlier return was filed, or subsection (3) where one was. Tax, for that computation, includes surcharge and cess. The percentage depends on when the updated return is furnished, counted from the end of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year.

Section 267(5)(ii) does not print 35%, 60%, 70%, or 80%. It says that where the updated return is filed because of a notice under section 280, within the period that notice specifies, the additional income-tax in (5)(i) is increased by a further 10% of the same aggregate of tax and interest. The note prints the added figures instead: 35%, 60%, 70%, and 80%. Both stay. The first row on the Act page also names the start as the expiry of the time available under section 263(4) or (5). The note names the start as the due date of the belated or revised return.

The note says that, for the additional tax, interest payable is reduced by the interest already paid with the earlier return. Section 267(3)(b) says the tax, interest, and fee are paid along with the additional income-tax computed under subsection (5), as reduced by the interest paid in the earlier return, and that this is before the return is furnished. The return has to carry proof of payment of the tax, the additional income-tax, the interest, and the fee. The note says that without that proof it is treated as a defective return. The note does not name a section for the word "defective".

Where no original or belated return was filed, the note also charges interest under section 423 on the self-assessment tax, from the day after the original due date until the updated return is furnished, and not on the additional income-tax. It does not print a percent for section 423. Interest under section 424 runs from 1 April of the relevant tax year until the assessed tax is paid, before the updated return is filed, and it is also not charged on the additional income-tax. Interest under section 425 is 1% per month on a shortfall in advance-tax instalments, using the total income in the updated return as the returned income. A fee under section 428 applies where the return is after the original due date. The note does not print the rupee amount of that fee.

Where an original, belated, or revised return was already filed, the note says there is no section 423 interest and no section 428 fee at the time of the updated return. Section 424 and section 425 interest are still computed, and each is reduced by the interest already paid on the earlier return. Section 267(7) defines the assessed tax used for section 424 in that case. It is the tax on the total income declared in the updated return, after the credits that subsection lists, and increased by any refund already issued on the earlier return.

The note says an updated return cannot be revised. It can be filed only once for a particular tax year. It cannot decrease the total tax liability worked out from an earlier return. It cannot produce a refund, or increase a refund that was already due on an earlier return.

On the year 2026 host, clause (b)(i) keeps the updated return available where there was a loss, a return of loss was filed by the due date in subsection (1), and the updated return is a return of income or reduces the loss. Clause (b)(ii) also allows it where a notice under section 280 gives a period, and in that case the person cannot answer that notice by filing a return in some other way. Clause (c)(v) otherwise bars a year where assessment, reassessment, recomputation, or revision is pending or already completed, with an exception for that section 280 case. The note's line is the same bar, and the same exception: pending or completed, except an updated return filed because of a section 280 notice, inside the period the notice gives.

A search under section 247 blocks the tax year of the search and every preceding tax year. The note's date is a search on 01-06-2026, which blocks tax year 2026-27 and any year before it. A requisition under section 248 has the same span. A survey under section 253 has the same span, except a survey in connection with TDS or TCS. The Act host says "other than sub-section (4)" of section 253. The note says "in connection to TDS or TCS". This page does not treat those two phrases as one definition.

A notice that money, bullion, jewellery, a valuable article, books, or documents seized or requisitioned from someone else belong to the person, or contain information related to them, blocks the tax year of that search or requisition and every preceding tax year. Information with the Assessing Officer under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, the Black Money Act, 2015, the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act, 1988, or the Smugglers and Foreign Exchange Manipulators (Forfeiture of Property) Act, 1976, blocks the year if it was communicated before the updated return is filed. Information received under a DTAA or a TIEA does the same, if communicated before filing. Prosecution already started for that tax year blocks it. A person or class the Board notifies is also out.

A show-cause notice under section 281, issued after 36 months from the end of the financial year succeeding the tax year, blocks the updated return. It does not block the year if an order under section 281(3) says the case is not a fit case for a notice under section 280. The year 2026 host of section 263(6)(c)(ix) uses that same pair of sections.

Where the updated return reduces a carried-forward loss, carried-forward unabsorbed depreciation, or MAT or AMT credit for a later tax year, the note says an updated return is required for each such later year. Section 263(6)(e) is the same duty, for a loss carried forward under Chapter VII, unabsorbed depreciation under section 33(3)(b), or tax credit carried forward under the clauses that host names. The note's list is carried-forward losses, carried-forward unabsorbed depreciation, MAT credit, and AMT credit.

The note's figures, in rupees, are these. Business income or loss: tax year 2028-29 is 80,00,000, tax year 2027-28 is 10,00,000, tax year 2026-27 is a loss of 20,00,000. The earlier returns set off 10,00,000 of that loss in 2027-28 and 10,00,000 in 2028-29. Total income in 2028-29 was 70,00,000. Loss still carried forward was 10,00,000 from 2027-28 and 20,00,000 from 2026-27, on the note's table.

He then files an updated return for tax year 2027-28 with additional business income of 25,00,000, and sets off the whole 20,00,000 loss of tax year 2026-27 against it. Total income on that updated return is 15,00,000. Because the loss carried into tax year 2028-29 is reduced, the note requires an updated return for 2028-29 as well. On that updated return the business income stays 80,00,000, the set-off is nil, and total income is 80,00,000. Tax on the updated return is paid with interest for default or deferment of advance tax, and with the additional tax.

On the same note, no new MAT credit arises from tax year 2026-27. A reference to MAT credit after that line is unutilised MAT credit under section 115JAA of the Income-tax Act, 1961. This page does not compute a MAT credit of its own.

The note does not print a separate form number. The updated return is the ITR form that applies to the taxpayer. The schedules it names are Part A Gen and Part B ATI. The details it lists include which band the return falls in: within 12 months, 12 to 24 months, 24 to 36 months, or 36 to 48 months, counted from the end of the financial year succeeding the tax year. They also include whether the filing reduces a carried-forward loss, unabsorbed depreciation, or tax credit, and if so which later years are affected and whether a revised or updated return is filed for them. One of the reporting lines is relief under section 157 that was not claimed in the earlier return. The relief itself is on the section 157 page.

A company, a political party, and a person whose accounts are required to be audited under section 63 file the updated return electronically under a digital signature certificate. A person filing in ITR-7 is excepted from that audit line. Anyone else files electronically under a digital signature certificate or an electronic verification code.

The note's question on assessment says that, for an updated return, an assessment under section 270 or section 271 can be made at any time before 9 months from the end of the financial year in which the updated return is furnished. That sentence is the note's answer. This page does not restate sections 270 and 271.