Intimation Under Section 143(1): How to Read It and Respond

An intimation under section 143(1) is the Income Tax Department's computer check of your return. It compares your figures with its own and tells you one of three things: all matched, a refund is due, or tax is payable. Read the comparison, then either do nothing, pay, or ask for a correction through a rectification request.

What is this intimation, and should you worry?

Usually not. Every return goes through the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC) in Bengaluru. The system checks your arithmetic, looks for claims that contradict the return itself, and matches your tax credits with Form 26AS, the statement of tax paid in your name.

It is not scrutiny. The rule exists so that obvious errors are fixed and refunds released without an officer reading each return.

It reaches you by email as a PDF, and you can download it from the portal after logging in. The PDF is password protected. By the department's usual practice the password is your PAN in lower case followed by your date of birth as DDMMYYYY, with no space.

How do you read it?

The heart of the intimation is a table with two columns of numbers: what you provided in the return, and what the department computed. Wherever the two differ, you have found the reason for the demand or the smaller refund.

Look at four places first.

• Total income. Has a deduction or exemption been reduced or disallowed?
• Tax credits. Are TDS, TCS, advance tax and self-assessment tax all allowed in full?
• Interest and late fee. Has interest or a late filing fee been added?
• The last rows. Net amount payable or refundable.

The notice that can come before it

Sometimes the CPC writes to you before it finalises anything. This is a prima facie adjustment notice under section 143(1)(a), or section 270(1)(a) of the 2025 Act. It proposes a change to a figure and asks whether you agree.

You must reply within 30 days from the date the notice was issued. On the portal, go to Pending Actions, then e-Proceedings, open the notice, and choose Agree or Disagree for each variance with your reason. A reply cannot be edited after you submit it. Stay silent, and expect the intimation to carry the adjustment.

How to respond to the intimation

Is the error the department's, or yours? That decides the route.

1. Download the intimation and mark every row where the two columns differ.
2. Open Form 26AS and AIS and check the disputed figure. Our guide on AIS and 26AS explains what each one shows.
3. If the demand is right, pay it. Go to Pending Actions, then Response to Outstanding Demand, choose that the demand is correct, and use Pay Now.
4. If the department is wrong, file a rectification. Go to Services, then Rectification, then Rectification against order passed by CPC, and pick the assessment year.
5. Pick the right request type. Reprocess the return, if your return was correct. Tax credit mismatch correction, to fix TDS, TCS or challan details. Return data correction, to fix wrong entries without adding new income or deductions.
6. Also answer the demand. Under Response to Outstanding Demand, choose Disagree, add your reasons, and pay any part you accept.
7. Keep the 15-digit rectification reference number and track it under rectification status.

A rectification request cannot be withdrawn or revised, and you cannot file a second one for the same year until the first is acted on. It covers a mistake apparent from the record under section 154, or section 284 of the 2025 Act, not a deduction you forgot. For that, the portal points you to a revised return, if the time for one is still open.

A worked example

Imran sells phone accessories on two marketplaces. For FY 2025-26 his taxable income is Rs 15,00,000 under the new regime. His tax works out like this: Rs 20,000 on the slab from Rs 4 lakh to Rs 8 lakh, Rs 40,000 from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 12 lakh, and Rs 45,000 from Rs 12 lakh to Rs 15 lakh. That is Rs 1,05,000, plus 4% cess of Rs 4,200, a total of Rs 1,09,200.

He paid Rs 90,000 as advance tax and Rs 16,800 as self-assessment tax. The marketplaces deducted TDS of Rs 2,400 on gross sales of Rs 24,00,000. Total paid: Rs 1,09,200.

Only TDS differs. Imran checks Form 26AS: both marketplaces appear, Rs 1,400 and Rs 1,000. In his return he had typed the wrong TAN, the deductor's tax number, for the second one, so the system could not match it.

His route: a rectification with the type tax credit mismatch correction, entering the TDS exactly as Form 26AS shows it, and a Disagree response to the demand. Had the Rs 1,000 been missing from Form 26AS, the marketplace would have to correct its TDS return first. Our note on TDS under section 194-O covers that side.

The mistake people usually make

They pay a small demand to make it go away, or click that the demand is correct without checking. The portal warns that once you submit that response, you cannot disagree later. For a seller, unmatched TDS is often money already paid in your name.

The other mistake is paying a demand and then asking for it to be cancelled. If you have paid, the portal's route is a tax credit mismatch correction with the challan details.

Is there a time limit on the department too?

Yes. The law gives the department a fixed period to send the intimation, widely stated as nine months from the end of the financial year in which you filed the return. For a return filed in 2026, that would run to 31 December 2027. I could not open the section text on the department's site today, so confirm this before relying on it.

On your side, an unpaid demand can gather interest and be set off against a later refund.

Frequently asked questions

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