Section 271F — Failure to Furnish Return of Income (Pre-Assessment-Year 2018-19 — Sunset)
Case Laws & Commentary — Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) — bharattax.co Treatise
Status: Spent prospectively. Section 271F levied a penalty of Rs. 5,000 for failure to furnish the return of income by the end of the relevant assessment year, as required by section 139(1) (and the provisos). For assessment year 2018-19 onwards it is displaced by the fee under section 234F; section 271F therefore governs only assessment years up to 2017-18.
Finance Act, 2026: No amendment by the Finance Act, 2026.
Mechanism: For AY 2017-18 and earlier: failure to furnish the return by the end of the assessment year → penalty of Rs. 5,000 → subject to reasonable cause under section 273B. For AY 2018-19 onwards, the late-filing fee under section 234F applies instead.
Litigation profile: Litigated, while live, almost entirely on the reasonable-cause defence. It is now of back-years and historical interest.
Section 271F was the penalty for non-filing/late filing of the return. The Finance Act, 2017 introduced the late-filing fee under section 234F for AY 2018-19 onwards, which is automatic and not subject to reasonable cause; section 271F consequently ceased to apply to those years. It remains relevant only for AY 2017-18 and earlier, which continue in the assessment and appeal pipeline.
Reasonable cause while it applied
Being within section 273B, the section 271F penalty yielded to reasonable cause — for example, a bona fide belief that no return was required (income below the taxable limit after deductions), illness, or non-availability of records. The discretionary, non-automatic character of the penalty distinguished it sharply from the present section 234F fee.
B. STATUTORY TEXT (verbatim)
Reproduced from the Income-tax Act, 1961 as amended up to the Finance Act, 2025; Finance Act, 2026 changes are noted above.
Penalty for failure to furnish return of income.
271F. If a person who is required to furnish a return of his income, as required under sub-section (1) of
section 139 or by the provisos to that sub-section, fails to furnish such return before the end of the relevant
assessment year, the Assessing Officer may direct that such person shall pay, by way of penalty, a sum of
five thousand rupees:
Provided that nothing contained in this section shall apply to and in relation to the return of income required
to be furnished for any assessment year commencing on or after the 1st day of April, 2018.
C. AUTHORITIES
The authorities are of back-years value and turn on section 273B and the discretionary character of the penalty.
1. Reasonable cause and discretion
Hindustan Steel Ltd v. State of Orissa (1972) 83 ITR 26 (SC)
Holding Penalty for a technical/venial or bona fide default ought not to be imposed; the authority has a judicially-exercised discretion.
Use The governing discretion authority for the (now spent) section 271F penalty.
Principle — bona fide belief that no return was due
Proposition A genuine belief that the income was below the taxable threshold (after eligible deductions), or other bona fide cause, constituted reasonable cause under section 273B and defeated the section 271F penalty.
Proposition For returns of AY 2018-19 and later, the consequence of late/non-filing is the automatic fee under section 234F (not subject to reasonable cause), and section 271F has no application.
Use Fixes the temporal boundary; directs current-year disputes to section 234F.
Prepared for the bharattax.co Treatise on the Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026). Statutory text reproduced from the official Act; case-law holdings are the author’s summaries for professional use.
CHAPTER XXI — PENALTIES IMPOSABLE
Section 271F — Failure to Furnish Return of Income (Pre-Assessment-Year 2018-19 — Sunset)
Case Laws & Commentary — Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) — bharattax.co Treatise
Status: Spent prospectively. Section 271F levied a penalty of Rs. 5,000 for failure to furnish the return of income by the end of the relevant assessment year, as required by section 139(1) (and the provisos). For assessment year 2018-19 onwards it is displaced by the fee under section 234F; section 271F therefore governs only assessment years up to 2017-18.
Finance Act, 2026: No amendment by the Finance Act, 2026.
Mechanism: For AY 2017-18 and earlier: failure to furnish the return by the end of the assessment year → penalty of Rs. 5,000 → subject to reasonable cause under section 273B. For AY 2018-19 onwards, the late-filing fee under section 234F applies instead.
Litigation profile: Litigated, while live, almost entirely on the reasonable-cause defence. It is now of back-years and historical interest.
A. COMMENTARY
Superseded by the section 234F fee
Section 271F was the penalty for non-filing/late filing of the return. The Finance Act, 2017 introduced the late-filing fee under section 234F for AY 2018-19 onwards, which is automatic and not subject to reasonable cause; section 271F consequently ceased to apply to those years. It remains relevant only for AY 2017-18 and earlier, which continue in the assessment and appeal pipeline.
Reasonable cause while it applied
Being within section 273B, the section 271F penalty yielded to reasonable cause — for example, a bona fide belief that no return was required (income below the taxable limit after deductions), illness, or non-availability of records. The discretionary, non-automatic character of the penalty distinguished it sharply from the present section 234F fee.
B. STATUTORY TEXT (verbatim)
Reproduced from the Income-tax Act, 1961 as amended up to the Finance Act, 2025; Finance Act, 2026 changes are noted above.
Penalty for failure to furnish return of income.
271F. If a person who is required to furnish a return of his income, as required under sub-section (1) of
section 139 or by the provisos to that sub-section, fails to furnish such return before the end of the relevant
assessment year, the Assessing Officer may direct that such person shall pay, by way of penalty, a sum of
five thousand rupees:
Provided that nothing contained in this section shall apply to and in relation to the return of income required
to be furnished for any assessment year commencing on or after the 1st day of April, 2018.
C. AUTHORITIES
The authorities are of back-years value and turn on section 273B and the discretionary character of the penalty.
1. Reasonable cause and discretion
Hindustan Steel Ltd v. State of Orissa (1972) 83 ITR 26 (SC)
Holding Penalty for a technical/venial or bona fide default ought not to be imposed; the authority has a judicially-exercised discretion.
Use The governing discretion authority for the (now spent) section 271F penalty.
Principle — bona fide belief that no return was due
Proposition A genuine belief that the income was below the taxable threshold (after eligible deductions), or other bona fide cause, constituted reasonable cause under section 273B and defeated the section 271F penalty.
Use The standard back-years defence.
2. Relationship to section 234F
Principle — section 234F fee, not section 271F penalty, for AY 2018-19 onwards
Proposition For returns of AY 2018-19 and later, the consequence of late/non-filing is the automatic fee under section 234F (not subject to reasonable cause), and section 271F has no application.
Use Fixes the temporal boundary; directs current-year disputes to section 234F.
Prepared for the bharattax.co Treatise on the Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026). Statutory text reproduced from the official Act; case-law holdings are the author’s summaries for professional use.