When can a person revise his income tax return in India

In this article, we will be discussing tax provisions related to revise income tax return i.e. when and how you can revise your income tax return or how to rectify mistakes in a ITR. Provisions related to filing of revised income tax return are specified in section 139(5) of income tax act 1961. As per section 139(5), if an assessee discovers any omission or any wrong statement in the return filed then he or she may furnish a revised return. For example, after filing your ITR before the due date, if you found that the income specified in the return has been shown as Rs 5, 60,000 instead of Rs 6, 50,000 then the return can be revised from your end to get it rectified. However, to file a revised ITR, the assessee is required to file the original return which he is trying to revise before the last date of filing or if it is filed in response to notice under section 142 (1), then within the time limit allowed in that notice.

Time Limit to file revised income tax return – Section 139(5)

Revised income tax return can be filed under section 139(5) by an assessee any time before the expiry of the relevant assessment year or before the completion of assessment, whichever is earlier. For instance, if you found out certain mistakes in your ITR for the financial year 2019-20, then such mistake can be rectified by filing a revised return on or before 31^st march 2020 or before the completion of assessment, whichever is earlier. Now the question is, how many time one can revise the ITR? As the income tax act is silent in this matter, it can be revised as often as required by the taxpayer. We do not have any restriction on number of revision that assessee can file for a financial year. This means, you can revise your ITR as many times as you want to rectify mistakes. But, it has to be on or before the dates that we have discussed above. Earlier, only those assessee who filed their IT return before due date were allowed to revise i.e. belated IT return were not allowed to revise. But as per the recent amendments, now assessee can also revise a belated return. After this amendment, last date of filing income tax return and revised return is the same i.e. 31^st march of the assessment year.

Example

Here are the tax dates applicable for financial year 2018-2019 (i.e. previous year starting from 1st April 2018 to 31st March 2019); Due date of filing ITR is 31st July 2019. Last date of filing income tax return is 31st March 2020. If you file your ITR on or before 31st March 2020 then your return will be eligible to get benefit of section 139(5) i.e. you can revise your return. This means, the deadline to file your income tax return and to rectify the mistakes in it is the same i.e. 31^st march 2020. Therefore, we suggest you to file it on or before the due date, so that you will have sufficient time to rectify mistakes if any in the ITR.

How to file a revised IT return

You can revise your income tax return by filing the same ITR forms that you originally filed. In addition to the correction you want to make in the original return, you are required to fill up following additional details related to the earlier return that you want to revise.

Field in Income Tax return	You need to fill
Return filed under section	17 – revised return u/s 139(5)
Whether original or revised return	R – Revised
If revised, defective, modified then enter receipt no.	Acknowledgement number of ITRV for filling original return
Date of filing of original return	Actual date when you have uploaded your IT return

After revising, your original ITR stands withdrawn and the revised return will become the original return. Refund or tax calculation will be based on the last return filed by you. We suggest you to file your revised return only to rectify genuine omissions or wrong statements. We further suggest to revise your Income tax return as soon as you discover the mistake in it. To avail the benefit of revising your ITR for any mistake in it, it is advised to file your IT return before the last date of filing, preferably if possible before the due date of filing. If you missed the due date for some reason, then ensure that your Income Tax Return is uploaded before 31st March error free as you will be losing the benefit to revise it in future i.e. after 31st March of the assessment year.