Statutory position — section 139(8A) and section 140B: the updated return, its five provisos, and the additional tax
CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
My client never declared his crypto gains. Can he still put them right by an updated return, how long has he got, and what will it cost him?
An updated return under s.139(8A) may now be furnished at any time within FORTY-EIGHT months from the end of the relevant assessment year — the Finance Act 2025 substituted 'forty-eight' for 'twenty-four' with effect from 1 April 2025 — but only if none of five provisos bars it. It cannot be used at all if the updated return would be a return of a loss, or would decrease the total tax liability determined on the earlier return, or would produce or increase a refund; it cannot be used where a search under s.132, a requisition under s.132A or a survey under s.133A other than s.133A(2A) has taken place, or where seized assets or books of another person have been notified as belonging or pertaining to the assessee; and it cannot be used where an updated return has already been furnished for that year, or where ANY proceeding for assessment, reassessment, recomputation or revision is pending or has been completed for that year, or where SAFEMA, Benami, PMLA or Black Money Act information or information under a s.90 or s.90A agreement has been communicated to the assessee, or where prosecution under Chapter XXII has been initiated, or where the person is notified by the Board. A fourth proviso, inserted by the same Finance Act 2025, bars an updated return altogether where a show-cause notice under s.148A has been issued after thirty-six months from the end of the relevant assessment year, and a fifth proviso disapplies that bar where an order under s.148A(3) has determined that it is not a fit case to issue a notice under s.148. The price is set by s.140B: additional income-tax of twenty-five per cent of the aggregate of tax and interest if filed within twelve months of the end of the assessment year, fifty per cent within twenty-four months, sixty per cent within thirty-six months and seventy per cent within forty-eight months, over and above the tax, interest and fee otherwise payable.
