VittSphere ONE Calculators Blog CA Prabhakar Kumar · FCA · ICAI 560762
Case lawIncome-tax Rules 2026 › Rule 230
Rules 2026s.434

Rule 230 of the Income-tax Rules, 2026

Rule 230 — Refund claim under section 434. Made under s.434 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.

Where this rule sits

Rule 230 gives effect to Section 434 of the Income-tax Act, 2025. A rule cannot go beyond the section it serves: where the two seem to differ, the section governs.

← Rule 229  ·  Rule 231 →

What this rule does

The rule prescribes how a refund claim under section 434 is to be made. The claim shall be made in Form No. 160, by the claimant himself or through a duly authorised agent, and shall be accompanied by a copy of an agreement or other arrangement referred to in section 434.

Three things are fixed: the form, who may make the claim, and the document that must go with it. The rule prescribes no time limit of its own and no fee.

Why it is there

A refund under section 434 rests on an agreement or arrangement that the Department has not seen, so a bare claim would have to be investigated from nothing. The rule requires the claim to come on a fixed form and to carry a copy of that agreement or arrangement with it, and it settles that the claim may be made either by the claimant himself or through a duly authorised agent rather than only in person.

Who it applies to

The forms it prescribes

What this means in practice

The supporting document is part of the claim, not something produced later on request: the claim shall be accompanied by a copy of the agreement or other arrangement referred to in section 434, so a Form No. 160 filed without it is incomplete on the rule's own terms. Agency is permitted, and the agent must be duly authorised. Everything else about the refund — the entitlement, the amount and any period within which the claim must be made — comes from section 434, and this rule neither adds to nor cuts down what that section provides.

Where you meet this rule

A claimant meets it at the single point of filing Form No. 160 with a copy of the agreement or arrangement attached.

The words themselves

shall be made in Form No. 160, by the claimant himself or through a duly authorised agent, and shall be accompanied by a copy of an agreement or other arrangement referred to in section 434
Rule 230, Income-tax Rules, 2026.

What people get wrong

What this page does not tell you. It does not reproduce the rule. Everything above was written from the rule’s own text as the Income Tax Department publishes it — the text is here. A rule is subordinate legislation: it prescribes the method, the form or the period, and it cannot enlarge the charge the section imposes. Where a figure matters, read the sub-rule it comes from.