Belated and Revised Returns

The due date for an income-tax return passes, and one of two things has usually happened. The return was never filed, or it was filed and something in it has since turned out to be wrong: a missed interest certificate, a capital gain reported under the wrong head, a deduction claimed twice. The law gives a route for each. A belated return is filed late, and a revised return replaces one already filed. Each has a closing date, a price, and consequences that last longer than the fee. This guide sets out both routes as they stand on 19 October 2026.

Which Act governs which year

The Income-tax Act, 2025 replaced the Income-tax Act, 1961 from 1 April 2026. The repeal does not move the earlier years across. Under section 536(2) of the 2025 Act, the 1961 Act continues to govern proceedings for any tax year beginning before 1 April 2026. The e-filing portal’s FAQ on the transition says the same of returns: income of financial year 2025-26 relates to a tax year beginning before 1 April 2026 and is therefore governed by the 1961 Act, and a revision made after 1 April 2026 does not change the Act that applies.

Year	Governing Act	Belated return	Revised return
AY 2025-26 and earlier	1961 Act	Closed	Closed
AY 2026-27 (FY 2025-26)	1961 Act, section 139	Up to 31 December 2026	Up to 31 March 2027
Tax year 2026-27 (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027)	2025 Act, section 263	Up to 31 December 2027	Up to 31 March 2028

Each closing date is subject to the “or before the completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier” limit discussed below. For AY 2025-26 and earlier years, the portal FAQ confirms that belated and revised returns can no longer be filed after 1 April 2026; only the updated return remains, covered in the next guide.

The due date that everything turns on

A return is belated only by reference to the due date under section 139(1), so that date comes first. The Finance Act, 2026 substituted Explanation 2 to section 139(1) of the 1961 Act with effect from 1 March 2026. It now has four rows:

• 30 November: an assessee, including partners of the firm (or the spouse of such a partner), to whom section 92E (the transfer-pricing report) applies.
• 31 October: a company; any other assessee whose accounts must be audited under the Act or any other law; and a partner of such a firm (or the spouse), in each case where section 92E does not apply.
• 31 August: an assessee with business or professional income whose accounts are not required to be audited, and a partner of such a firm (or the spouse).
• 31 July: any other assessee.

The 31 August row is new for AY 2026-27. Before the substitution, non-audit business cases shared the 31 July date with salaried individuals.

For AY 2026-27, CBDT Circular No. 07/2026 dated 28 September 2026, issued under section 119 of the 1961 Act read with section 536 of the 2025 Act, extended the due date for persons in serial number 2 of the table (the audit and company row) from 31 October 2026 to 21 November 2026. The tax audit report date moves to 21 October 2026 in consequence. The circular does not touch the 31 July, 31 August or 30 November dates.

For tax year 2026-27 under the 2025 Act, section 263(1)© (also substituted by the Finance Act, 2026) carries the same four rows, with section 172 of the 2025 Act in place of section 92E.

The belated return

When it can be filed

Section 139(4) of the 1961 Act allows a person who has not filed within the time allowed by section 139(1) to file “at any time before three months prior to the end of the relevant assessment year or before the completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier”. For AY 2026-27, which ends on 31 March 2027, the outer date is 31 December 2026. The portal FAQ gives the same date.

Section 263(4) of the 2025 Act says “within nine months from the end of the relevant tax year, or before the completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier”. For tax year 2026-27, which ends on 31 March 2027, that is 31 December 2027. The two Acts measure from different points (the end of the assessment year, and the end of the tax year) but arrive at the same calendar position: 31 December of the year in which the return falls to be filed.

What it costs

The late fee. Section 234F of the 1961 Act levies ₹5,000 on a person who fails to file within the time prescribed in section 139(1). Where total income does not exceed five lakh rupees, the proviso says the fee “shall not exceed” ₹1,000. Under the 2025 Act, the fee is in section 428(a): ₹1,000 where total income does not exceed ₹5,00,000 and ₹5,000 in any other case. There is no longer a ₹10,000 band in either Act. The fee is paid before filing, along with any tax and interest, under section 140A of the 1961 Act (section 266 of the 2025 Act).

Interest for late filing. Section 234A charges simple interest at one per cent for every month or part of a month from the day after the due date to the date of filing, on the tax on total income as reduced by advance tax, TDS, TCS and the reliefs the section lists. The 2025 Act counterpart is section 423, which expresses the same charge as a formula. Section 234B and section 234C interest, for short advance tax, applies separately; see the guide on advance tax and self-assessment tax.

Interest on any refund. Under section 244A(1)(a), refund interest on TDS and advance tax runs from 1 April of the assessment year only where the return was filed by the section 139(1) due date. For a belated return, it runs from the date of filing.

What the late return loses

The fee and interest are the visible cost. The lasting cost is in four provisions that key a benefit to a return filed by the due date.

1. Carry-forward of losses. Section 80 of the 1961 Act bars carry-forward of a loss “which has not been determined in pursuance of a return filed in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 139”. The bar covers business losses (section 72(1)), speculation losses (section 73(2)), specified business losses (section 73A(2)), capital losses (section 74(1) and (3)) and race-horse losses (section 74A(3)). Section 143(1)(a)(iii) lets the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) disallow such a loss at the processing stage. The list in section 80 does not include section 71B, so a loss under the head “Income from house property” can still be carried forward from a belated return. Nor does it include unabsorbed depreciation under section 32(2). The 2025 Act counterpart, section 121, lists sections 111(1), 112(1), 113(2), 114(2) and 115(2), and likewise leaves out the house property section, section 110.
2. Profit-linked deductions. Section 80AC denies any deduction under the heading “C.—Deductions in respect of certain incomes” of Chapter VI-A (the 80-IA family, 80P and others) unless the return is filed by the section 139(1) due date. Section 143(1)(a)(v) applies the same rule, and adds section 10AA, at the processing stage. Under the 2025 Act, section 270(1)(a)(vi) does the same for Chapter VIII-C.
3. The old tax regime. Under section 115BAC(6), the new regime is the default. A person without business or professional income can opt out only “along with the return of income to be furnished under sub-section (1) of section 139”. A person with such income must exercise the option on or before the section 139(1) due date. A belated return therefore ordinarily computes tax under the new regime. Section 202(4) of the 2025 Act repeats both conditions by reference to section 263(1).
4. Refund interest, as above.

Condonation of delay

Section 119(2)(b) of the 1961 Act allows the Board to authorise an income-tax authority to admit a claim or application after the time allowed, “to avoid genuine hardship”. The ITR form for AY 2026-27 has a filing-section option “119(2)(b)- After Condonation of delay”, which is used once such an order is obtained. In Sitaldas K. Motwani v. Director General of Income Tax (Bombay High Court, 15 December 2009), a non-resident whose bank had deducted tax at 30 per cent on short-term capital gains filed his first return about 18 months late, claiming a refund on the footing that a 20 per cent rate applied. The Director General refused condonation because nothing had prevented a timely filing. The High Court set the order aside. It held that “genuine hardship” is to be construed liberally, that the authority should see only whether the refund claim is prima facie genuine and not decide its merits, and that “if refund is legitimately due to the applicant, mere delay should not defeat the claim”. It remitted the matter for fresh consideration. The case concerns the discretion; it does not establish that every late claim will be admitted.

The revised return

When it can be filed

The Finance Act, 2026 substituted section 139(5) of the 1961 Act with effect from 1 March 2026. A person who has filed a return under section 139(1) or 139(4) and “discovers any omission or any wrong statement therein” may, “subject to the provisions of section 234-I”, furnish a revised return “at any time before the end of the relevant assessment year or before the completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier”. For AY 2026-27, the outer date is 31 March 2027, three months later than before.

Section 263(5) of the 2025 Act, substituted by the same Finance Act, allows revision of a return under section 263(1) or (4) “within twelve months from the end of the relevant tax year, or before the completion of the assessment”, subject to section 428(b). For tax year 2026-27, that is 31 March 2028.

Two older limits have gone. The present text of section 139(5) expressly lets a belated return be revised. That was not always the law. In Kumar Jagdish Chandra Sinha v. CIT (Supreme Court, 23 April 1996), the assessee had filed belated returns for assessment years 1964-65 and 1965-66 and then filed “revised” returns. The Court held that, because section 139(5) as it then stood referred only to returns under sub-sections (1) and (2), “no revised return can be filed under sub-section (5) of Section 139 in a case where the return is filed under Section 139(4)”. The present words “or sub-section (4)” remove that bar, but the case still shows how closely the courts read the sub-section references in this provision.

The fee for a late revision, and a drafting point

Section 234-I of the 1961 Act, inserted by the Finance Act, 2026 with effect from 1 March 2026, levies a fee of ₹1,000 (total income not exceeding five lakh rupees) or ₹5,000 (any other case) on a revised return furnished “beyond nine months but before twelve months from the end of the relevant assessment year”. Read literally, that window (January to March of the year after the assessment year ends) falls outside the revision period in section 139(5), which ends with the assessment year itself. The 2025 Act’s version has no such gap. Section 428(b) charges the same fee on a revised return “beyond nine months from the end of relevant tax year”, which is the period from 1 January to 31 March after the belated-return date. The evident policy is a fee for revisions made in the extra quarter. Whether the CPC will apply section 234-I to AY 2026-27 revisions filed between 1 January and 31 March 2027 had not been tested when this guide was written.

What a revised return can and cannot do

A revised return replaces the original for all purposes. It can add income, withdraw a claim, correct a head of income, add a missed deduction or reduce income. It can also increase a refund. That is the main practical difference from the updated return under section 139(8A), which cannot reduce tax or increase a refund. It does not, however, cure the consequences of lateness. A revised return that revises a belated return is still, for section 80 and section 80AC, a return that was not filed by the due date. The revision is also unavailable once the assessment is complete.

The revised return is also the assessee’s own route to a fresh claim before the Assessing Officer. In Goetze (India) Ltd. v. CIT (Supreme Court, 24 March 2006), the assessee had filed its return for assessment year 1995-96 and later sought a further deduction by letter during the assessment. The Assessing Officer disallowed it because there was no provision for amending a return other than by revising it, and the Tribunal agreed. The Supreme Court dismissed the assessee’s appeal. It made clear, however, that the issue “is limited to the power of the assessing authority and does not impinge on the power of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal”. The Court described that power, by reference to National Thermal Power Co. Ltd. v. CIT (Supreme Court, 1998), as the Tribunal’s power to entertain a point of law for the first time where the facts on which it rests are on record. A claim the Assessing Officer cannot admit without a revised return may therefore still be raised in appeal.

What to have ready

• The original acknowledgement number and date (for a revision), from the portal’s “View Filed Returns” or the e-mailed acknowledgement.
• The Annual Information Statement (AIS), Taxpayer Information Summary (TIS) and Form 26AS, from the portal and TRACES. Most revisions follow a mismatch found there. See Reconciling AIS, TIS and Form 26AS.
• The intimation under section 143(1), if the original has already been processed. A revision filed after processing is processed afresh.
• A computation of the revised tax, interest under sections 234A to 234C, and any fee under section 234F or 234-I, from the books and the challans. Any balance is paid as self-assessment tax before filing.
• Bank account pre-validation on the portal, if a refund will arise.

The form, and the fields that matter

There is no separate form for a belated or revised return. The return is filed in the ITR form that applies to the assessee: ITR-1 to ITR-7, as notified for AY 2026-27 under the Income-tax Rules, 1962. In ITR-1 for AY 2026-27, Part A asks under field A15 whether the return is filed under “139(1)-On or before due date, 139(4)-Belated, 139(5)-Revised” or “119(2)(b)- After Condonation of delay”. Field A18 asks, for a revised return, for the “Receipt No. and Date of filing original return”. Field A20 carries the section 115BAC(6) opt-out. The other ITR forms carry equivalent fields. The ITR walkthroughs on this site, such as ITR-1 for a single salary and ITR-3 for salary plus business, cover the rest of each form.

Returns for tax year 2026-27 will be filed in the forms prescribed under rule 164 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026. Rule 164(14) provides that a return relating to the tax year beginning 1 April 2025 or any earlier year “shall be furnished in the appropriate form as applicable in that tax year”. That is, AY 2026-27 returns, including belated and revised ones, stay in the 1961-Act forms.

Signing and verification

Verification is the same as for an original return: digital signature, electronic verification code (Aadhaar OTP, pre-validated bank or demat account, net banking) or a signed ITR-V sent to the CPC. Companies, and persons whose accounts are audited, have narrower choices. The 30-day limit for verification after upload applies to belated and revised returns too, and a late verification moves the date of filing. That matters most for a return filed in the last days before 31 December, which a late verification can push outside the belated-return period altogether. See E-Verifying a Return.

Summary

1. Fix the year and the Act. AY 2026-27 and earlier fall under the 1961 Act; tax year 2026-27 onwards falls under the 2025 Act.
2. Fix the due date under section 139(1) (31 July, 31 August, 31 October or 30 November), allowing for Circular 07/2026 (21 November 2026 for audit and company cases for AY 2026-27).
3. For a return not filed by the due date, file under section 139(4) by 31 December 2026 (AY 2026-27) or under section 263(4) by 31 December 2027 (tax year 2026-27), and pay the section 234F or section 428(a) fee and section 234A or section 423 interest first.
4. Expect the loss of carry-forward (other than house property loss and unabsorbed depreciation), of Part C deductions and of the old-regime option.
5. For a filed return that is wrong, file under section 139(5) by 31 March 2027 (AY 2026-27) or under section 263(5) by 31 March 2028 (tax year 2026-27), quoting the original acknowledgement. Expect a ₹1,000 or ₹5,000 fee for a revision made after nine months.
6. Verify each return within 30 days of upload.
7. Where both windows have closed, look to the updated return, or to condonation under section 119(2)(b).

The next guide covers the updated return, ITR-U, which reopens a closed year for up to 48 months at the price of additional tax.