Section 263 — Return of income. Successor to s.139, s.139D, s.194P of the 1961 Act.
Section 263 is in Chapter XV — Return of Income, which runs from section 262 to section 267.
Sub-section (1)(a) lists who must furnish a return for a tax year on or before the due date, for their own income or that of any other person in respect of which they are assessable: a company; a firm; a person other than a company or firm whose total income, computed without giving effect to Chapter XVII-B, Schedule VIII (Table: Sl. No. 1) or the deductions under sections 82 to 88 of Chapter IV-E or Chapter VIII, exceeded the maximum amount not chargeable to income-tax; a specified entity whose total income before section 11 exceeds that amount; a University, college or other institution referred to in section 45(3)(a); a business trust; an investment fund referred to in section 224; a person who has sustained a business or capital gains loss and intends to carry it forward; a resident other than not ordinarily resident who at any time in the year holds, as beneficial owner or otherwise, an asset outside India or has signing authority in a foreign account, or is a beneficiary of such an asset except where the income is includible in the holder's income; and a person other than a company or firm fulfilling prescribed conditions. Clause (b) requires companies, firms, section 45(3)(a) institutions, business trusts, investment funds and the foreign-asset persons to file regardless of income or loss.
Clause (c), substituted by Act No. 4 of 2026 with effect from 1 April 2026, fixes the due date by a Table with a conditions column. Where section 172 applies, it is 30th November for the assessee, including a partner of the firm or that partner's spouse where section 10 applies. Where section 172 does not apply, it is 31st October for a company, an assessee whose accounts are required to be audited under this Act or any other law, and a partner of such an audited firm or that partner's spouse; 31st August for an assessee having business or professional income whose accounts are not required to be audited, and a partner of a non-audited firm or that partner's spouse; and 31st July for any other assessee. All dates fall in the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year.
Sub-section (2) lets the Board prescribe the form, verification and other particulars, including who must file electronically and the documents that need not accompany an electronic return but must be produced before the Assessing Officer on demand. Sub-section (3) lets the Central Government exempt classes of persons from filing.
Sub-sections (4) to (6) govern late, revised and updated returns. A person who has not filed in time may file within nine months from the end of the relevant tax year, or before completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier. Sub-section (5), substituted by Act No. 4 of 2026 with effect from 1 April 2026, allows a revised return on discovering an omission or wrong statement within twelve months from the end of the relevant tax year, or before completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier, subject to section 428(b). Sub-section (6)(a) allows an updated return, whether or not an earlier return was filed, within forty-eight months from the end of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year. Clause (b), also substituted, preserves that right where a return of loss was filed within the due date and the updated return is a return of income or reduces the loss, and extends it to an updated return filed in response to a notice under section 280 within the period that notice specifies, in which case no other response to that notice is possible.
Clause (c) then lists ten disqualifications from the updated return: a return of loss (except under clause (b)(i)); one decreasing total tax liability; one creating or increasing a refund; a second updated return; a pending or completed assessment, reassessment, recomputation or revision proceeding (except under clause (b)(ii)); communicated information on violation of specified laws; communicated information received under section 90 or 90A of the 1961 Act or section 159; prosecution proceedings initiated under Chapter XXII; the expiry of thirty-six months from the end of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year where a show-cause notice under section 281 has been issued, unless an order under section 281(3) held it not a fit case; and notified persons. Clause (d) bars an updated return where a search under section 247, a requisition under section 248, a survey under section 253 other than sub-section (4), or a notice under section 294 in pursuance of section 295 has occurred, for the year concerned and every preceding year. Clause (e) requires consequential updated returns for later years where a carried forward loss, unabsorbed depreciation under section 33(3)(b) or tax credit under section 206(2)(e) to (h) and 206(3) and (4) has to be reduced; that reference was substituted by Act No. 4 of 2026 for "206(1)(m) to (p) and 206(2)(e) to (h)".
Sub-section (7) treats a return not in conformity with the prescribed conditions as defective: the Assessing Officer may intimate the defect and allow fifteen days, or a further period on application, to rectify it; failure makes the return invalid and the Act applies as if no return had been furnished; rectification after the period but before assessment may be condoned. Sub-section (8) applies the section to a return furnished under an order under section 239(3)(b), and disapplies it to a specified senior citizen referred to in section 402(39) for a year in which tax has been deducted under section 393(1) [Table: Sl. No. 8(iii)]. Sub-section (9) defines beneficial owner, beneficiary, specified entity and specified laws.
The return starts assessment, so the Act must say who files, by when, and on what terms a filing can be corrected. The obligations are not all income-based: entities and foreign-asset holders file regardless of income because the information itself is the object. Sub-sections (4) to (6) build a graduated ladder — belated, revised, then updated — with the updated return bought at the cost of the disqualifications in clause (c), so it cannot be used to reduce tax, manufacture a refund, or pre-empt a proceeding already begun.
| What | Figure | The condition on it | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Due date where section 172 applies | 30th November of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year | Assessee, including the partners of the firm or the spouse of such partner if section 10 applies to such spouse | Sub-section (1)(c), Table Sl. No. 1, as substituted by Act No. 4 of 2026 w.e.f. 1-4-2026 |
| Due date for companies and audited assessees | 31st October of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year | Where section 172 does not apply; a company, an assessee other than a company whose accounts are required to be audited under this Act or any other law, and a partner of such an audited firm or that partner's spouse | Sub-section (1)(c), Table Sl. No. 2 |
| Due date for non-audited business or professional assessees | 31st August of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year | Where section 172 does not apply; assessee having business or professional income whose accounts are not required to be audited, and a partner of a non-audited firm or that partner's spouse | Sub-section (1)(c), Table Sl. No. 3 |
| Due date for any other assessee | 31st July of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year | Any assessee not falling within Table Sl. Nos. 1 to 3 | Sub-section (1)(c), Table Sl. No. 4 |
| Time for a belated return | Nine months from the end of the relevant tax year, or before completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier | Available to a person who has not furnished a return within the time allowed under sub-section (1) | Sub-section (4) |
| Time for a revised return | Twelve months from the end of the relevant tax year, or before completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier | Substituted for nine months by Act No. 4 of 2026 w.e.f. 1-4-2026; on discovering an omission or wrong statement, subject to section 428(b) | Sub-section (5) |
| Time for an updated return | Forty-eight months from the end of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year | Whether or not a return under sub-section (1), (4) or (5) was filed, subject to the disqualifications in clauses (c) and (d) | Sub-section (6)(a) |
| Cut-off after which a section 281 show-cause notice bars an updated return | Thirty-six months from the end of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year | Where a show-cause notice under section 281 has been issued, except where an order under section 281(3) determined it is not a fit case to issue notice under section 280 | Sub-section (6)(c)(ix) |
| Time to rectify a defective return | Fifteen days from the date of the intimation, or a further period as may be allowed on application | Failure to rectify makes the return invalid and the Act applies as if no return had been furnished | Sub-section (7)(a) and (b) |
Read the due date Table by its conditions column: the 2026 substitution made whether section 172 applies the first question, and only if it does not do the October, August and July rows come into play. The 31st August row is new work for anyone with unaudited business or professional income, and it also catches a partner of a non-audited firm and that partner's spouse. The three correction routes are not interchangeable — nine months belated, twelve months revised, forty-eight months updated — and an updated return can never decrease tax, create or increase a refund, or be filed twice. The commonest fatal bars are clause (c)(v) and clause (d): a pending or completed assessment, reassessment, recomputation or revision closes the door save for the section 280 case preserved by clause (b)(ii), and a search, requisition, survey or section 294 notice closes it for the year concerned and every earlier year. Clause (e) is a duty rather than a right. A defective return is not a nullity from the start, but an uncured defect makes the Act apply as if you had never filed.
An individual with unaudited professional receipts, to whom section 172 does not apply, files nothing by 31st August. She may still file a belated return within nine months from the end of the tax year, and may revise within twelve months from that end. Two years later she wants to disclose additional receipts of Rs. 8 lakh: an updated return is open within forty-eight months from the end of the succeeding financial year, because it increases her income. Had it reduced her tax or produced a refund, clause (c)(ii) and (iii) would bar it, and if a survey under section 253 had been conducted in her case, clause (d)(ii) would bar an updated return for that year and every preceding year.
This is the section under which the return itself is furnished, in the form and manner prescribed by the Board, and whose due date every other time limit in the Act is measured from. You also meet it as a defect intimation under sub-section (7) giving fifteen days to rectify, and as the rejection of an updated return on a ground in sub-section (6)(c) or (d).
he may, subject to the provisions of section 428(b), furnish a revised return at any time within twelve months from the end of the relevant tax year, or before the completion of the assessment, whichever is earlier
at any time within forty-eight months from the end of the financial year succeeding the relevant tax year
if the defect is not rectified within the period allowed under clause (a), then the return shall be treated as an invalid return and the provisions of this Act shall apply as if the assessee had failed to furnish the return
| 1961 provision | What changed in the move |
|---|---|
| s.139 | 1. Belated and revised return limits are re-expressed from the assessment year to the tax year, with no change in the actual outer date: '3 months prior to the end of the relevant assessment year' becomes 'nine months from the end of the relevant tax year', and 'before the end of the relevant assessment year' becomes 'twelve months from the end of the relevant tax year'. 2. The defective-return code is de-statutised: the whole Explanation to s.139(9), with its lettered list of what makes a return defective (audit report, proof of tax paid, trading and profit and loss account, personal accounts of partners, etc.), is replaced by 'not in conformity with all the conditions as may be prescribed' - the content moves from the Act into the rules. 3. All the dead matter goes: the first proviso 'one-by-six' economic criteria, s.139(1A)/(1B) employer and e-filing schemes, and the obsolete s.139(8) interest provision. 4. The separate filing obligations for trusts, political parties, research associations, mutual funds, business trusts and investment funds (s.139(4A)-(4F)) are folded into one list of compulsory filers with a defined 'specified entity'. 5. S.263(1)(b) states expressly that companies, firms, universities/colleges, business trusts, investment funds and foreign-asset holders must file 'regardless of income or loss' - in 1961 this was spread across the third proviso and sub-sections (4D)-(4F). 6. Both texts as they stand after the Finance Act, 2026 now carry a 31 August due date for non-audit business and professional assessees (previously 31 July) and make the revised return expressly subject to a fee (s.428(b) in 2025, s.234-I in 1961). |
How we established this. Read s.263 of the 2025 Act against s.139 of the 1961 Act. Both carry the identical marginal heading 'Return of income'. The obligation clause is word-for-word in substance ('shall, on or before the due date, furnish a return of his income or the income of such other person'); the s.139(1) fifth proviso's device of testing the exemption limit 'without giving effect to' the specified exemptions and Chapter VI-A reappears verbatim in structure at s.263(1)(a)(iii) with the 2025 Act's own cross-references substituted; the four-row 'due date' Table in Explanation 2 to s.139(1) is reproduced as the Table in s.263(1)(c) with the same four categories, same conditions (s.92E becoming s.172, s.5A becoming s.10) and the same four dates; s.139(4) belated return, s.139(5) revised return, s.139(8A) updated return with its list of bars, s.139(9) defective return with its 15-day cure and condonation proviso, s.139(1C) exemption notification and s.139(9A) return under a s.119(2)(b) order all reappear in the same order as s.263(4), (5), (6), (7), (3) and (8)(a). The scattered obligations in s.139(4A) to (4F) reappear as the 'specified entity' list in s.263(1)(a)(iv)-(vii) and s.263(9)(c), and s.194P's relief for a specified senior citizen reappears as s.263(8)(b).
All of them are in the Rules 2026 index.
See every circular and notification on this section, or the circulars index.
See every circular and notification on this section, or the notifications index.