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Case law › Income-tax Act 2025 › Chapter XVI › Section 280
Chapter XVIwas s.148

Section 280 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 280 — Issue of notice where income has escaped assessment. Successor to s.148 of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 280 is in Chapter XVI — Procedure for Assessment, which runs from section 268 to section 301.

← Section 279  ·  Section 281 →

What this section does

Sub-section (1) sets out the notice that must precede a reassessment. Clause (a) requires the Assessing Officer, before making an assessment, reassessment or recomputation under section 279 and subject to section 281, to issue a notice to the assessee along with a copy of the order passed under section 281(3). Clause (b) requires that notice to call on the assessee to furnish, within the period specified in it, a return of his income or of the income of another person in respect of whom he is assessable for the relevant tax year. Clause (c), as substituted by Act No. 4 of 2026 with effect from 1 April 2026, provides that the period specified in the notice shall not be less than thirty days from the date of the notice and shall not exceed three months from the end of the month in which the notice is issued; before that substitution the clause carried only the three-month outer limit and no minimum.

Sub-section (2) requires that return to be furnished in the prescribed form and verification, and applies the Act to it as if it were a return required under section 263. Sub-section (3) provides that a return furnished after the expiry of the period specified in the notice shall not be deemed to be a return under section 263.

Sub-section (4) bars the notice unless there is information with the Assessing Officer which suggests that income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment in the assessee's case for the relevant tax year. Sub-section (5) requires the prior approval of the specified authority where the Assessing Officer has received information under the scheme notified under section 260, directions from the Approving Panel under section 274(6), or any finding or direction in an order passed by any authority, Tribunal or court in a proceeding under the Act by way of appeal, reference or revision, or by a Court in a proceeding under any other law.

Sub-section (6) defines, for this section and section 281, what counts as information suggesting escapement: information as per the risk management strategy formulated by the Board; an audit objection that the assessment was not made as per the Act; information received under an agreement referred to in section 159; information made available under the scheme notified under section 260; information requiring action in consequence of an order of a Tribunal or Court; information emanating from a survey under section 253 other than under sub-section (4) of that section; directions of the Approving Panel under section 274(6); and a finding or direction in an order of any authority, Tribunal or court in a proceeding under the Act or in a Court proceeding under any other law.

Why it is there

Reopening a completed assessment is the Department's most disruptive power, and this section is the gate to it. It requires the officer to have information of a defined kind before he issues a notice, to hand the assessee the section 281(3) order that shows why the case was taken up, to obtain a superior's approval in the categories where the trigger comes from outside the officer's own file, and to give a minimum and a maximum period for the response.

Who it applies to

The figures, and what each one turns on

Read the condition in the same row. A figure quoted without it is a wrong answer with a citation attached.
WhatFigureThe condition on itWhere
Minimum period to be allowed in the noticeNot less than thirty days from the date of the noticeInserted by the substitution of clause (c) by Act No. 4 of 2026 with effect from 1 April 2026; the pre-substitution clause had no minimumSub-section (1)(c)
Maximum period that may be allowed in the noticeNot exceeding three months from the end of the month in which the notice is issuedApplies to the period specified for furnishing the return under sub-section (1)(b)Sub-section (1)(c)

What this means in practice

The notice period is now bracketed at both ends: at least thirty days from the date of the notice, and no later than three months from the end of the month of issue. That floor is new — clause (c) as it stood before the substitution by Act No. 4 of 2026 fixed only the outer limit, so an officer could specify a very short period. Filing late is worse than it looks: sub-section (3) says a return furnished after the specified period is not deemed to be a return under section 263 at all, so the return is not treated as a section 263 return for the consequences that follow from that character. Two documents must arrive together — the notice and a copy of the section 281(3) order — because clause (1)(a) requires the notice to be issued along with it. Sub-section (4) makes information a jurisdictional precondition, and sub-section (6) is a closed list of what qualifies, so a notice is open to challenge if the trigger falls outside it. Approval under sub-section (5) is required only for the three categories that sub-section names, not for every notice.

An example

Illustrative only, and invented for this page. The figures are chosen to show the rule biting, not taken from any real matter.

An Assessing Officer issues a section 280 notice on 12 May 2026 after an audit objection under sub-section (6)(b). The period he specifies must give the assessee at least thirty days from 12 May and cannot run beyond 31 August 2026 — three months from the end of May. If the assessee files on 5 September, sub-section (3) means that return is not deemed to be a return under section 263, whatever else it may be worth.

Where you meet this section

This is the reassessment notice itself, delivered with a copy of the order passed under section 281(3) — for most taxpayers it is the document in their hand when they look the section up. The grounds for it are traced through sub-sections (4) and (6), and the approval requirement in sub-section (5) is often the first thing checked when the notice is contested.

The words themselves

the period specified in the notice referred to in clause (a) shall not be less than thirty days from the date of such notice but shall not exceed three months from the end of the month in which such notice is issued.
Section 280(1)(c), as substituted by Act No. 4 of 2026 w.e.f. 1-4-2026, Income-tax Act, 2025.
Any return of income required to be furnished under sub-section (1), furnished after the expiry of the period specified in the notice under the said sub-section, shall not be deemed to be a return under section 263.
Section 280(3), Income-tax Act, 2025.
No notice under this section shall be issued unless there is information with the Assessing Officer which suggests that the income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment in the case of the assessee for the relevant tax year.
Section 280(4), Income-tax Act, 2025.
the Assessing Officer shall, subject to the provisions of section 281, issue a notice to the assessee, along with a copy of the order passed under section 281(3)
Section 280(1)(a), Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

What this replaced, and what changed

1961 provisionWhat changed in the move
s.1481. The time limit moves by a full year. Under s.149 of the 1961 Act no s.148 notice could issue after three years and three months from the end of the relevant assessment year, or after five years and three months in the fifty-lakh cases. Under s.282 of the 2025 Act the corresponding limits are four years and three months and six years and three months. The fifty-lakh threshold and the 'books of account or other documents or evidence' condition are unchanged. 2. S.282(3) adds an embargo that has no 1961 counterpart: no notice under s.280 or s.281 within one year from the end of any tax year. 3. Two new categories of qualifying information are added - directions of the Approving Panel under s.274(6) (the GAAR route) and any finding or direction contained in an appellate, revisional or court order, whether under this Act or any other law: s.280(6)(g) and (h). 4. The requirement of prior approval of the specified authority widens from one situation (information under the notified scheme) to three, the two new ones being an Approving Panel direction and a court or appellate finding: s.280(5)(b) and (c). 5. The 1961 survey limb was confined to surveys 'on or after the 1st day of September, 2024'; s.280(6)(f) drops the date and simply refers to a survey under s.253 other than sub-section (4). 6. The thirty-day floor and three-month ceiling for the return period are unchanged in substance but are now a free-standing clause (1)(c) rather than words embedded in the notice-issuing sentence.

How we established this. Read s.280 of the 2025 Act against s.148 of the 1961 Act. The marginal headings are word for word the same, 'Issue of notice where income has escaped assessment'. The opening sentence is the same sentence: 1961 - 'Before making the assessment, reassessment or recomputation under section 147, the Assessing Officer shall, subject to the provisions of section 148A, issue a notice to the assessee, along with a copy of the order passed under sub-section (3) of section 148A, requiring him to furnish, within such period as may be specified in the notice, not being less than thirty days from the date of such notice but not exceeding three months from the end of the month in which such notice is issued, a return of his income'; 2025 splits the same sentence into clauses (a), (b) and (c) of sub-section (1) with s.279 for s.147 and s.281 for s.148A. S.148(2) and its proviso (return treated as a s.139 return; a late one not so treated) become s.280(2) and (3) with s.263 substituted. The first proviso to s.148(1) becomes s.280(4) in identical words. The second proviso (prior approval where information came under the s.135A scheme) becomes s.280(5)(a) with s.260 substituted. S.148(3), which defines 'information which suggests that the income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment' in six clauses, is reproduced as s.280(6) with the same first five clauses in the same order and the same wording.

Rules that serve this section

Rules of the Income-tax Rules, 2026 that work section 280. Where the rule’s own heading names the section we say so; the rest are marked on reading the rule, which is our derivation and not the department’s. A rule that serves the section silently and that we have missed will not appear here.

All of them are in the Rules 2026 index.

Circulars of the Board on this section

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. Every one below was written under the 1961 Act; it reaches this section because the department’s own concordance carries the provision it names to this one.

See the circulars index.

Notifications that reach this section

A notification is made under a power the Act gives and, within that power, is law. These too were made under the 1961 Act and are placed here by the department’s concordance.

See the notifications index.

Case law carried across

Read this before you rely on it. Every decision below was decided under the Income-tax Act, 1961. It appears here because it is tagged to a 1961 provision that the department’s own mapping carries to section 280. That is an inference we have drawn, not a holding on the new section: where the words changed in the move, the reasoning may not survive. Treat this as the place to start looking, not as authority on the 2025 Act.

Explainers

Read with

What this page does not tell you. It does not reproduce the section. Everything above was written from the section’s own text as the Income Tax Department publishes it — the text is here, and nothing here is advice on your facts. Where a figure matters, read the sub-section it comes from.