Circular No. 321

What it does

Allows life insurance premium receipts filed in support of a section 80C claim to be given back to the assessee. Until now such receipts were kept on the income-tax record. The Board decides that where an assessee applies for their return, the receipts may be returned after the Income-tax Officer records a note, under his signature with date, against the column in the return claiming the life insurance premium rebate, to the effect that the claim has been verified with reference to the original receipts which have been returned to the assessee.

Why it was issued

It was represented to the Board that policyholders are frequently required by the Life Insurance Corporation to produce the original receipts as proof of payment of premium.

Who it reaches

Individuals claiming section 80C relief on life insurance premia
Policyholders needing originals for the Life Insurance Corporation
Income-tax Officers holding premium receipts on the assessment record

The provisions it speaks to

Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.

Under the 1961 Act	Now
s.8O	no counterpart recorded
s.80A	s.122
s.80C	s.2, s.123
s.87	s.155

The instrument, as the Board published it

The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.

Deductions from total income
SECTION 8O0C l LIFE INSURANCE PREMIA, CONTRIBUTIONS TO PROVIDENT FUND, ETC. [SECTION 87 AS ORIGINALLY ENACTED/SECTION 80A BETWEEN 1-4-1965 TO 31-3-1968]
488. Life insurance premium receipts annexed with income-tax return - Instructions regarding their return to assessees
The present procedure is that life insurance premium receipts which are produced by the assessees in support of their claim under section 80C are made a part of income-tax records. It has been suggested to the Board that policy-holders are frequently required by the LIC to show the original receipts towards proof of the payment of the premium. The question as to how to deal with the request for return of the life insurance premium receipts has been considered by the Board. It has been decided that wherever the assessees apply for return of life insurance premium receipts the same could be returned to them after recording a note (under the Income-tax Officer's signature with date) against the column provided for in the return claiming life insurance premium rebate, to the effect that "the claim has been verified with reference to the original receipts which have been returned to the assessee".
Circular : No. 321 [F. No. 246/2/78-IT(A-II)], dated 15-1-1982.

What to watch

The receipts go back only on the assessee's application, and only after the officer's dated endorsement on the return.
The endorsement is the Department's evidence that the claim was verified, so without it the record is incomplete.
Section 80C in the form referred to here has since been replaced, and premium receipts are no longer filed with a return.

Where you meet it

When an assessee asks the Assessing Officer to release original premium receipts filed with an old return.

On the same provision

Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.

Circular No. 58 — Section 80M l Inter-corporate Dividends 15 April 1971
Notification No. 134/2021 [F. No. 178/4/2021-ITA-I] / SO 5056(E) — 2 the Gazette of INDIA : Extraordinary [Part Ii—sec. 3(ii)] 6 December 2021
Notification No. 45/2020 [F. No.370142/26/2019-TPL] / SO 2232(E) — Ministry of Finance 7 July 2020
Notification No.91/2015 [F.No.178/21/2014-ITA.I] / SO 3313(E) — jftLVªh laö Mhö ,yö&33004@99 REGD. NO. D. L.-33004/99 8 December 2015
Circular No. 19/2015 — Circular No.- 19 /2015 27 November 2015
Circular 1/2015 — Explanatory notes to the provisions of the finance no.2 act 2014 21 January 2015

← Circular No. 322 · Circular No. 320 →

A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board issues a circular to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to a circular that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves.

Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.

What this is