Section 410 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 410 — Credit for advance tax. Successor to s.219 of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 410 is in Chapter XIX — Collection and Recovery of Tax, which runs from section 390 to section 430.

What this section does

The section converts advance tax into tax paid. Any sum, other than a penalty or interest, paid by or recovered from an assessee as advance tax in pursuance of this Part is treated as a payment of tax in respect of the income of the tax year in which it was payable, and credit for it is to be given to the assessee in the regular assessment.

Why it is there

Advance tax is collected before the income of the year has been assessed, so without this section the payment would sit outside the assessment as a separate sum. The section attaches it to the right year — the tax year in which it was payable, not the year it happened to be paid or recovered — and makes crediting it in the regular assessment a duty rather than a matter of adjustment.

Who it applies to

An assessee who has paid advance tax under this Part
An assessee from whom advance tax has been recovered under this Part
The authority making the regular assessment, who must give credit

What this means in practice

Two words limit the section and both matter. It covers any sum "other than a penalty or interest", so amounts of that character paid alongside advance tax are not converted into tax paid by this section. And the year of credit is the tax year in which the advance tax was payable — so a sum recovered late, or paid in a later year, still belongs to the year for which it was due, not to the year of payment. The section speaks of the regular assessment as the point at which credit is given, and it covers a sum recovered from the assessee just as much as one voluntarily paid.

An example

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

A company's advance tax instalment for a tax year is paid after the year has ended, and a further amount for the same year is recovered from it later still. Both sums, being neither penalty nor interest, are treated as payments of tax in respect of the income of that tax year, and credit for both must be given in the regular assessment for that year — not in the assessment of the year in which the money actually moved.

Where you meet this section

In the tax credit portion of an assessment order or intimation, where advance tax paid or recovered is set against the tax on the year's income. It is the provision to point to where a payment made or recovered for one tax year has been credited against another.

The words themselves

Any sum, other than a penalty or interest, paid by or recovered from an assessee as advance tax

Section 410, Income-tax Act, 2025.

shall be treated as a payment of tax in respect of the income of the tax year in which it was payable, and credit therefor shall be given to such assessee in the regular assessment

Section 410, Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

Crediting advance tax to the year in which it was paid or recovered. The section credits it to the tax year in which it was payable.
Treating interest or penalty paid along with advance tax as tax paid. The section expressly excludes a penalty or interest.
Assuming only voluntary payments qualify. The section covers a sum paid by or recovered from the assessee as advance tax.
Expecting credit at some stage other than the regular assessment. The section directs that credit be given in the regular assessment.

What this replaced

The correspondence is the Income Tax Department’s own, from its comparison utility for the 1961 and 2025 Acts. A renumbering is the easy half; whether the words changed is the half that decides cases.

219 - Credit for advance tax

See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.

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.