Section 460 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 460 — Penalty for failure to submit statement under section 505. Successor to s.271GC of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 460 is in Chapter XXI — Penalties, which runs from section 439 to section 472.

What this section does

The section lets the Assessing Officer impose a penalty on a person required to furnish a statement under section 505 who fails to do so within the period prescribed under that section. The penalty is Rs. 1,000 for every day for which the failure continues if the period of failure does not exceed three months, and Rs. 1,00,000 in any other case.

Why it is there

The statement under section 505 is the only regular reporting the Act requires from the person concerned, and a daily penalty makes a short delay expensive enough to matter. The switch to a flat figure once three months have passed keeps the daily accumulation from running away, so a long default carries a fixed cost rather than an unbounded one.

Who it applies to

A person required to furnish a statement under section 505 who fails to furnish it within the prescribed period
The Assessing Officer imposing the penalty

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.

What	Figure	The condition on it	Where
Penalty for a short delay	Rs. 1,000 for every day for which the failure continues	Where the period of failure does not exceed three months	Clause (a)
Penalty in any other case	Rs. 1,00,000	Where the period of failure exceeds three months; a flat amount, not a daily one	Clause (b)

What this means in practice

The two limbs do not add up. A failure of up to three months is charged at Rs. 1,000 a day; anything longer attracts the single figure of Rs. 1,00,000 and the daily count stops mattering. The power is discretionary in its terms — the Assessing Officer "may impose" — and the period is the one prescribed under section 505 itself, not a date set in a separate 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.

A person required to furnish the statement under section 505 files it 40 days after the prescribed period expires; the penalty under clause (a) is Rs. 1,000 a day for 40 days, that is Rs. 40,000. Had he filed only after five months, clause (b) would apply and the penalty would be the flat Rs. 1,00,000.

Where you meet this section

You meet it as a penalty order from the Assessing Officer following a late or missing statement under section 505, computed either day by day or at the flat figure depending on how long the failure lasted.

The words themselves

Rs. 1000 for every day for which the failure continues, if the period of failure does not exceed three months

Section 460(a), Income-tax Act, 2025.

Rs. 100000 in any other case

Section 460(b), Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

Adding the daily penalty to the flat figure. The two clauses are alternatives decided by whether the period of failure exceeds three months.
Continuing the daily count past three months. Clause (b) then fixes a flat Rs. 1,00,000.
Counting the delay from a notice. The failure is measured against the period prescribed under section 505.
Treating the penalty as automatic. The section says the Assessing Officer may impose it.

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.

271GC - Penalty for failure to submit statement under section 285

See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.

Read with

Section 505

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.