Section 271FB — Failure to Furnish Return of Fringe Benefits (Historic — FBT)
Case Laws & Commentary — Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) — bharattax.co Treatise
Status: Spent. Section 271FB penalised an employer’s failure to furnish the return of fringe benefits under section 115WD(1) (Rs. 100 per day of default). Fringe Benefit Tax (Chapter XII-H) was abolished by the Finance Act, 2009 with effect from assessment year 2010-11; the section is therefore spent, surviving only for FBT years up to AY 2009-10.
Finance Act, 2026: No amendment by the Finance Act, 2026.
Mechanism: For FBT years (up to AY 2009-10): failure by an employer to furnish the section 115WD return of fringe benefits → penalty of Rs. 100 per day of default.
Litigation profile: No live litigation; FBT having been abolished, the section operates only historically.
A. COMMENTARY
A penalty tied to a repealed levy
Section 271FB belongs to the Fringe Benefit Tax regime (Chapter XII-H), under which employers filed a return of fringe benefits. FBT was abolished by the Finance Act, 2009 from AY 2010-11. Section 271FB therefore has no application to any year after AY 2009-10 and survives only for residual FBT assessments and appeals of earlier years.
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 fringe benefits.
271FB. If an employer, who is required to furnish a return of fringe benefits, as required under sub-section
(1) of section 115WD, fails to furnish such return within the time prescribed under that sub-section, the
Assessing Officer may direct that such employer shall pay, by way of penalty, a sum of one hundred rupees
for every day during which the failure continues.
C. AUTHORITIES
No authority of current value exists; the candour rule applies. The provision is of historical and back-years interest only.
1. Historic compliance penalty
Principle — confined to FBT years
Proposition The per-day penalty applies only to the failure to furnish the fringe-benefits return for FBT years up to AY 2009-10; with the abolition of FBT, no fresh default can arise.
Use Fixes the temporal limit of the provision.
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 271FB — Failure to Furnish Return of Fringe Benefits (Historic — FBT)
Case Laws & Commentary — Income-tax Act, 1961 (as amended by the Finance Act, 2026) — bharattax.co Treatise
Status: Spent. Section 271FB penalised an employer’s failure to furnish the return of fringe benefits under section 115WD(1) (Rs. 100 per day of default). Fringe Benefit Tax (Chapter XII-H) was abolished by the Finance Act, 2009 with effect from assessment year 2010-11; the section is therefore spent, surviving only for FBT years up to AY 2009-10.
Finance Act, 2026: No amendment by the Finance Act, 2026.
Mechanism: For FBT years (up to AY 2009-10): failure by an employer to furnish the section 115WD return of fringe benefits → penalty of Rs. 100 per day of default.
Litigation profile: No live litigation; FBT having been abolished, the section operates only historically.
A. COMMENTARY
A penalty tied to a repealed levy
Section 271FB belongs to the Fringe Benefit Tax regime (Chapter XII-H), under which employers filed a return of fringe benefits. FBT was abolished by the Finance Act, 2009 from AY 2010-11. Section 271FB therefore has no application to any year after AY 2009-10 and survives only for residual FBT assessments and appeals of earlier years.
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 fringe benefits.
271FB. If an employer, who is required to furnish a return of fringe benefits, as required under sub-section
(1) of section 115WD, fails to furnish such return within the time prescribed under that sub-section, the
Assessing Officer may direct that such employer shall pay, by way of penalty, a sum of one hundred rupees
for every day during which the failure continues.
C. AUTHORITIES
No authority of current value exists; the candour rule applies. The provision is of historical and back-years interest only.
1. Historic compliance penalty
Principle — confined to FBT years
Proposition The per-day penalty applies only to the failure to furnish the fringe-benefits return for FBT years up to AY 2009-10; with the abolition of FBT, no fresh default can arise.
Use Fixes the temporal limit of the provision.
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.