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Case lawIncome-tax Act 2025Chapter XXIII › Section 517
Chapter XXIIIwas s.289

Section 517 of the Income-tax Act, 2025

Section 517 — Receipt to be given. Successor to s.289 of the 1961 Act.

Where this section sits

Section 517 is in Chapter XXIII — Miscellaneous, which runs from section 499 to section 536.

← Section 516  ·  Section 518 →

What this section does

One sentence: a receipt must be given for any money paid or recovered under the Act. It draws no distinction between voluntary payment and recovery, and names no officer, form or time limit.

Why it is there

It creates a simple evidentiary obligation so that every sum passing to the department under the Act is documented in the payer's hands.

Who it applies to

What this means in practice

There is nothing to compute or claim here — the practical value is that a receipt is due as of right for anything paid or recovered, including money recovered rather than paid over voluntarily. The section prescribes no form, so the receipt takes whatever form the receiving authority issues.

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 firm pays Rs. 5 lakh of tax across the counter, and in another case Rs. 2 lakh is recovered from an individual under the recovery machinery of the Act. Both are entitled to a receipt: the section covers any money 'paid or recovered' under the Act, so an involuntary recovery stands on exactly the same footing as a voluntary payment, and a refusal on the ground that the money was taken rather than tendered has no basis. What the section does not do is prescribe a form, a time or an officer, so the receipt takes whatever shape the receiving authority issues.

Where you meet this section

In the acknowledgment of any payment or recovery of money under the Act — the receipt is due as of right, including where the money was recovered rather than paid over voluntarily. The section names no form and no authority.

The words themselves

A receipt shall be given for any money paid or recovered under this Act.
s.517, Income-tax Act, 2025.

What people get wrong

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.

See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.

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 517. 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

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.