ITR Filed Successfully? Here Are 8 Income Tax Notices the Department May Still Send You

Arjun filed his ITR in July, saw the “successfully verified” message on the portal, and mentally closed the chapter on taxes for the year. Three weeks later, an email landed in his inbox with the subject line “Intimation under Section 143(1),” and his stomach dropped before he’d even opened it. He assumed something had gone badly wrong. It hadn’t. It was a completely routine, computer-generated confirmation that his return had been processed, nothing more.

This happens to a surprising number of people every filing season. The word “notice” carries a weight in everyday language that doesn’t match what most of these communications actually are. Some are genuinely routine. A few are serious and time-sensitive. Knowing which is which, the moment you see one in your inbox or on the income tax portal, changes a stressful evening into a two-minute check.

Quick answer: After filing your ITR, the Income Tax Department can send several different types of notices, ranging from a routine processing confirmation under Section 143(1) to more serious scrutiny or reassessment notices under Sections 143(2) and 148. The section number mentioned in the notice tells you exactly how serious it is and what response is expected, and every notice comes with a specific deadline that should never be ignored, even if you plan to dispute it.

About This Guide: Written by the Finance Checks Editorial Team, Personal Finance Researchers. This article draws on the Income Tax Act provisions applicable for the current assessment cycle, including the Finance Act’s amendments to reassessment timelines and the faceless assessment framework. Last updated: August 2026.

Why Getting a Notice Doesn’t Automatically Mean Trouble

Before going through each type, it’s worth resetting the underlying assumption most people carry into this topic. A notice is simply a formal communication from the tax department, and the reasons behind one range from “we’ve finished processing your return, here’s a summary” to “we need you to explain a specific mismatch” to, in rarer cases, “we intend to examine your return in detail.” The department now relies heavily on automated data matching, cross-referencing your return against your Annual Information Statement, Form 26AS, bank records, and property registration data, which means far more notices today are triggered by simple mismatches or missing details than by any suspicion of wrongdoing.

That said, every notice specifies a response deadline, typically counted from the date it’s issued or served, and this deadline needs to be respected regardless of how minor or serious the notice appears. Missing it, even for a notice you believe is a mistake on the department’s end, tends to make the situation considerably harder to resolve than simply responding on time would have.

1. Section 143(1) — Intimation After Processing

This is the one that catches the most people off guard purely because of how alarming the word “notice” sounds, when in reality this is the least concerning of the eight. A Section 143(1) intimation is issued after the Centralised Processing Centre finishes processing your return, and it’s essentially a summary comparing what you declared against what the department’s own computation shows.

Most of the time, this intimation simply confirms your return matches, with no further action needed. Occasionally, it flags a minor arithmetic difference, an incorrect deduction claim, or a small mismatch that results in either a small additional demand or a refund adjustment. If you agree with the intimation, no response is required at all. If you disagree, you can raise a rectification request or file a response directly through the e-filing portal.

2. Section 139(9) — Defective Return Notice

This notice means the return you filed has an error or omission serious enough that the department considers it incomplete or inconsistent as filed. Common triggers include filing the wrong ITR form for your income type, such as using the simpler ITR-1 despite having capital gains that require ITR-2 or ITR-3, missing a required schedule like Schedule CG for capital gains or Schedule HP for house property income, or failing to attach an audit report when your turnover crosses the mandatory audit threshold.

You typically get 15 days from the date of the notice to correct the defect and refile. This window can be extended if you request it before it lapses, but if you let the deadline pass without responding, your original return can be treated as if it was never filed at all, which carries its own consequences, including potential late filing penalties.

3. Section 142(1) — Preliminary Inquiry Notice

This notice usually shows up in one of two situations: either you haven’t filed a return at all for a year you were required to, and the department is calling you to file one, or you have filed, but the assessing officer needs additional documents or clarification before completing the assessment. This might include your computation of income, bank statements, TDS certificates, or proof supporting a specific claim you made.

A Section 142(1) notice is often the first formal step in a more detailed assessment process, so responding thoroughly and promptly here can prevent the matter from escalating into a more involved scrutiny notice later.

4. Section 143(2) — Scrutiny Notice

This is where the seriousness level rises noticeably. A Section 143(2) notice means the assessing officer intends to examine your return in complete detail, which can involve producing books of accounts, vouchers, contracts, and full financial statements supporting everything you declared. It’s typically issued because your earlier response to a Section 142(1) inquiry was considered unsatisfactory, or because specific red flags in your return, unusually large deductions, mismatches with AIS data, or high-value transactions, warranted a closer look.

This is generally considered serious enough that attempting to handle it entirely on your own, without a qualified chartered accountant reviewing your position and helping prepare the response, isn’t advisable. The stakes and documentation requirements here are meaningfully higher than the earlier, more routine notices.

5. Section 148 — Income Escaping Assessment

This notice is issued when the assessing officer has reason to believe that some income chargeable to tax wasn’t disclosed or was under-reported in a past assessment year, even one that’s already been completed. It essentially reopens a prior year’s assessment.

The reassessment framework changed meaningfully in recent years, with a mandatory pre-notice procedure now required before a Section 148 notice can be validly issued, giving taxpayers a chance to respond before reassessment formally begins. The time limits for issuing this notice are also fairly specific: generally up to three years from the end of the relevant assessment year in normal cases, extending up to ten years only where the department holds evidence that escaped income linked to an asset, expenditure, or specific entries exceeds ₹50 lakh. Given both the seriousness and the legal nuance around validity and timing, this is another notice where professional representation matters considerably.

6. Section 133(6) — Notice Calling for Information

This notice asks you to furnish specific books, documents, or explanations relevant to your tax affairs, and it can be issued not just to you directly but sometimes to third parties, like your bank, in relation to your transactions. It’s often used when the department wants to verify a specific high-value transaction or clarify a discrepancy without necessarily opening a full scrutiny.

Ignoring a Section 133(6) notice is a genuinely risky move that people sometimes underestimate, since non-compliance can trigger a follow-up Section 148 notice, along with penalties for non-compliance and, in serious cases involving actual tax evasion, additional penal interest and penalties running well beyond the original tax amount involved.

7. Section 156 — Demand Notice

Once an assessment, reassessment, or rectification process concludes and the department determines that tax, interest, penalty, or any other amount is payable, a Section 156 demand notice specifies the exact amount owed and the due date for payment. This notice typically follows one of the earlier assessment-related notices rather than arriving on its own out of nowhere.

Ignoring a demand notice carries real consequences, including additional interest accruing on the unpaid amount and potential enforcement action by the department. If you disagree with the computed demand, particularly for larger amounts, the appropriate step is to formally dispute it through the proper appeal or rectification channel rather than simply not paying and hoping it resolves itself.

8. Section 245 — Refund Adjustment Against Past Demand

This notice comes into play specifically when you’re owed a refund for the current year, but the department has an outstanding demand against you from a previous year that hasn’t been settled. Rather than issuing your refund directly, the department proposes to adjust or offset it against that older outstanding amount and gives you an opportunity to respond if you believe the prior demand is incorrect or already resolved.

This is precisely why keeping track of any old, disputed, or seemingly resolved tax demands matters even years later, since an unresolved entry sitting quietly in the system can resurface exactly like this when you’re least expecting it, in the form of a smaller-than-expected refund.

How to Actually Check and Respond to a Notice

Every one of these notices can be viewed directly on the official income tax e-filing portal. After logging in with your PAN and password, notices typically appear under “Pending Actions” or “e-Proceedings” on your dashboard. It’s worth checking this section periodically even if you haven’t received an email or SMS alert, since portal-based delivery is now the primary channel the department relies on.

Once you’ve located the notice, the first and most important step is identifying the section it’s issued under, since that alone tells you how serious it is and what kind of response is expected. Routine intimations under Section 143(1) or straightforward defective return notices under Section 139(9) can often be addressed directly through the portal without professional help. Anything involving scrutiny under 143(2), reassessment under 148, or a substantial demand under 156 genuinely benefits from a qualified chartered accountant reviewing the specifics before you respond, since the way you frame your reply can materially affect the outcome.

Common Mistakes People Make When They Receive a Notice

The most frequent mistake is panicking over a routine Section 143(1) intimation and either ignoring it out of confusion or, worse, taking hasty action based on a misunderstanding of what it actually says, when in most cases it requires no action at all if it simply confirms your return.

The opposite mistake is equally common and considerably more costly: treating a genuinely serious notice, like one under Section 143(2) or 148, as unimportant simply because it arrived by email rather than post, and missing the response deadline as a result. The digital, faceless nature of most modern tax communication doesn’t make these notices any less serious than their older paper-based equivalents.

A third mistake is responding to a notice with information that doesn’t fully reconcile with your original ITR, your AIS, or your Form 26AS. Any inconsistency between your response and these existing records tends to raise more questions than it resolves, so before submitting a reply, it’s worth double-checking that everything lines up cleanly across all these sources.

My Take

The single biggest thing that would reduce stress around this topic isn’t better tax knowledge, it’s simply reading the section number before reacting emotionally to the word “notice.” A 143(1) intimation and a 148 reassessment notice can look almost identical at a glance in your inbox, an official-looking email with a formal reference number, but one needs nothing from you and the other needs a lawyer-level response within a strict deadline. Get in the habit of checking your e-filing portal’s pending actions section every couple of months, even outside of filing season, since catching a notice early, whatever its severity, is always easier to deal with than discovering it weeks after the response window has already started closing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Section 143(1) intimation, and should I worry about it? A Section 143(1) intimation is a routine, computer-generated summary confirming your ITR has been processed. In most cases, it simply confirms your return matches the department’s records and requires no action. It only needs a response if it flags a genuine discrepancy you disagree with.

What happens if I don’t respond to a defective return notice under Section 139(9)? You typically have 15 days to correct the defect and refile. If this deadline passes without a response or an approved extension, your original return can be treated as though it was never filed, which may trigger late filing penalties and other consequences.

Is a Section 143(2) scrutiny notice serious? Yes. It means the assessing officer intends to examine your return in full detail, including books of accounts and supporting documents. Given the depth of review involved, it’s generally advisable to involve a qualified chartered accountant before responding.

How long can the department take to issue a Section 148 reassessment notice? Generally up to three years from the end of the relevant assessment year for standard cases, extending up to ten years only where the department has evidence of escaped income linked to an asset, expenditure, or entries exceeding ₹50 lakh.

What is the difference between Section 142(1) and Section 143(2) notices? Section 142(1) is typically an earlier, preliminary inquiry asking for documents or clarification, or calling for a return that wasn’t filed. Section 143(2) is a more serious scrutiny notice, often issued when the response to an earlier 142(1) inquiry was considered insufficient.

What should I do if I get a Section 156 demand notice I disagree with? Rather than ignoring it, you should formally dispute the demand through the appropriate rectification or appeal channel on the e-filing portal. Ignoring a demand notice allows interest to accrue and can lead to enforcement action.

Why would my refund be adjusted under Section 245 instead of paid out? This happens when you have an outstanding tax demand from a previous year that hasn’t been resolved. Instead of issuing your current refund directly, the department proposes adjusting it against that older demand, giving you a chance to respond if you believe the prior demand is incorrect.

Can I ignore a Section 133(6) notice if I think it doesn’t apply to me? No. Ignoring a Section 133(6) notice is risky, since non-compliance can lead to further notices under Section 148, along with penalties, and in serious cases, substantial additional interest and penalties if evasion is later established.

Where can I check if I’ve received an income tax notice? All notices are visible on the official income tax e-filing portal, typically under “Pending Actions” or “e-Proceedings” after logging in with your PAN. It’s worth checking this section periodically rather than relying solely on email or SMS alerts.

Do all income tax notices require hiring a chartered accountant? No. Routine notices like a Section 143(1) intimation or a straightforward Section 139(9) defective return notice can usually be handled directly through the portal. More serious notices, particularly under Sections 143(2), 148, and large demands under 156, generally benefit from professional representation.

Disclaimer: This article is for general informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute tax or legal advice. Income tax notice provisions, timelines, and procedures are subject to change, and the appropriate response depends on your specific circumstances. Please consult a qualified chartered accountant or tax professional promptly upon receiving any income tax notice.