Notification No. 1178 — Income-tax Officer directed under section 119

What this is

Notification No. 1178 was published on 11 February 1982. Its subject is Income-tax Officer directed under section 119.

This is an order under section 119 of the 1961 Act — section 239 of the 2025 Act. Section 119 lets the Board give directions to its own officers and, in defined cases, relax a requirement. It is an administrative power, not a power to rewrite the charge.

What it does

The Central Board of Direct Taxes, in exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, directs that an Income-tax Officer making a reassessment or recomputation under section 147 shall not issue a notice under section 148 in two situations. He shall not issue such a notice within four years from the end of the relevant assessment year where the tax on the income chargeable to tax that has escaped assessment for that year is less than rupees two hundred and fifty. He shall not issue it after the expiry of four years but before the expiry of eight years from the end of that year where that tax is less than rupees five hundred. The Explanation provides that "relevant assessment year" has the meaning assigned to it in sections 147 to 153.

Who it reaches

Income-tax Officers proposing to reopen an assessment under section 147
assessees served with a notice under section 148
supervisory authorities examining the validity of a reopening

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.119	s.239

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.

In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961), the Central Board of Direct Taxes hereby directs that the Income-tax Officer, making the reassessment or recomputation under section 147 of the said Act, shall not issue a notice under section 148 of the said Act--

(i) within four years from the end of the relevant assessment year, if the tax on income chargeable to tax which has escaped assessment for the relevant assessment year, amounts to less than rupees two hundred and fifty ; and

(ii) after the expiry of four years but before the expiry of eight years from the end of the relevant assessment year, if the tax on income chargeable to tax which has escaped assessment for the relevant assessment year, amounts to less than rupees five hundred.

Explanation.--In this order, "relevant assessment year" shall have the same meaning assigned to it in sections 147 to 153 of the said Act.

2. This order shall come into force on the 15th day of February, 1982.

[F. No. 289/135/80-IT(Inv.)

From when

15 February 1982.

What to watch

The order comes into force on the 15th day of February, 1982.
The test is the amount of tax on the escaped income, not the amount of the escaped income itself.
The two monetary floors are different according to the stage: rupees two hundred and fifty within four years from the end of the relevant assessment year, and rupees five hundred after four years but before eight years.
The order says nothing about a notice issued after the expiry of eight years from the end of the relevant assessment year.

Where you meet it

In an objection to a notice under section 148, where the tax on the income said to have escaped assessment is small and the notice is issued within the periods this order covers.

An example

Ours, not the Board’s: a worked case built from the rule the instrument sets, to show how it falls out.

Where the tax on the income said to have escaped assessment for an assessment year is rupees four hundred, a notice under section 148 may still be issued within four years from the end of that year, the amount being not less than rupees two hundred and fifty. If the notice is issued after the expiry of four years but before the expiry of eight years, this order forbids it, the tax being less than rupees five hundred.

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. 6/2026 — Condonation of delay in filing Form No. 10AB electronically for approval under clause(ii) of the first proviso to sectio 2 July 2026
Circular No. 2/2026 — Order under section 119 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 for extension of timeline for issuance of tax deducted at source (TD 25 March 2026
Circular No.15/2025 — Extension of timelines for filing of various reports of audit and income tax returns ITRS for the assessment year 2025 2 29 October 2025
Circular No. 10/2025 — Relaxation of time limit for processing of returns of income filed electronically which were incorrectly invalidated by 28 July 2025
Circular No. 7/2025 — Relaxation of time limit for processing of valid returns of income filed electronically pursuant to order u/s 119(2)(b) 25 June 2025
Circular No. 6/2025 — Extension of due date for furnishing return of income for the Assessment Year 2025-26 27 May 2025

← Notification No. 1160 · Notification No. 2810 →

What a notification is. A notification is made under a power the Act itself gives, and within that power it is law — unlike a circular, which only binds the department. Its reach is the reach of the enabling provision and no wider, and the date it carries decides from when it works.

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