Section 282 — Time limit for notice under sections 280 and 281. Successor to s.149 of the 1961 Act.
Section 282 is in Chapter XVI — Procedure for Assessment, which runs from section 268 to section 301.
Sub-section (1) fixes the outer limits for a notice under section 280. Clause (a) bars it once four years and three months have elapsed from the end of the relevant tax year, unless clause (b) applies. Clause (b) extends the period to more than four years and three months but not more than six years and three months, and only where the Assessing Officer has in his possession books of account or other documents or evidence related to any asset or expenditure or transaction or entry showing that the income escaping assessment amounts to or is likely to amount to fifty lakh rupees or more.
Sub-section (2) fixes the corresponding limits for a show cause notice under section 281: four years from the end of the relevant tax year, extended to more than four but not more than six years only where the escaped income, as per the information with the Assessing Officer, amounts to or is likely to amount to fifty lakh rupees or more.
Sub-section (3) imposes a floor at the other end: no notice under section 280 or section 281 shall be issued within one year from the end of any tax year.
Reopening is an exception to finality, and the section prices that exception by time and amount: a short window for every case, a longer one only where a large sum is involved and the Assessing Officer already holds material showing it. The three-month offset for section 280 notices reflects that the show cause stage under section 281 comes first. Sub-section (3) stops a reopening being launched before the year's ordinary assessment cycle has run.
| What | Figure | The condition on it | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ordinary outer limit for a section 280 notice | Four years and three months from the end of the relevant tax year | Applies unless the case falls under sub-section (1)(b) | Sub-section (1)(a) |
| Extended outer limit for a section 280 notice | More than four years and three months but not more than six years and three months from the end of the relevant tax year | Only where the Assessing Officer possesses books, documents or evidence on an asset, expenditure, transaction or entry showing escaped income of fifty lakh rupees or more | Sub-section (1)(b) |
| Ordinary outer limit for a section 281 show cause notice | Four years from the end of the relevant tax year | Applies unless the case falls under sub-section (2)(b) | Sub-section (2)(a) |
| Extended outer limit for a section 281 show cause notice | More than four years but not more than six years from the end of the relevant tax year | Only where the escaped income, as per the information with the Assessing Officer, is or is likely to be fifty lakh rupees or more | Sub-section (2)(b) |
| Escaped income threshold for the extended period | Fifty lakh rupees or more | Must amount to, or be likely to amount to, that sum; shown by material in the Assessing Officer's possession for section 280, by his information for section 281 | Sub-section (1)(b) and (2)(b) |
| Earliest date on which either notice may issue | Not within one year from the end of any tax year | Applies to a notice under section 280 and to one under section 281 alike | Sub-section (3) |
Four limits, not two, and the three-month difference matters: a section 281 show cause notice must issue within four years, or six in a large case, while the section 280 notice that follows gets an extra three months at each stage. The extended period is not available merely because the escaped income is large — for section 280 the Assessing Officer must already hold books, documents or evidence related to an asset, expenditure, transaction or entry showing the fifty lakh figure, so the material must exist when the notice issues. The threshold is met by an amount likely to amount to fifty lakh rupees, not only by one already quantified. Sub-section (3) applies to both notices, so the earliest and latest dates both have to be checked.
For the tax year ending 31 March 2026, a show cause notice under section 281 must ordinarily issue by 31 March 2030 and the consequent section 280 notice by 30 June 2030. If the Assessing Officer holds documents on a transaction showing escaped income of Rs. 70 lakh, those dates become 31 March 2032 and 30 June 2032. Neither notice can issue before 31 March 2027, because sub-section (3) bars any notice within one year from the end of the tax year.
This is the first thing to check on receiving a show cause notice under section 281 or a notice under section 280 — the date of the notice against the end of the tax year it names — and it is the ground on which such a notice is most often challenged.
if four years and three months, but not more than six years and three months, have elapsed from the end of the relevant tax year, unless the Assessing Officer has in his possession books of account or other documents or evidence related to any asset or expenditure or transaction or entry which shows that the income chargeable to tax, which has escaped assessment, amounts to or is likely to amount to fifty lakh rupees or more
No notice under section 280 or section 281 shall be issued within one year from the end of any tax year.
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.