How to Rectify Errors Made in the Payment of Advance Tax and Self-Assessment Tax?

Taxpayers make payments of self-assessment, advance tax and other direct taxes online using the respective challans. However, while making the payment, sometimes the taxpayers may choose the wrong assessment year or the wrong tax category (major head code or minor head code) or make an error in the amount of tax paid.

Union Budget 2022 Outcome

1. Where updated return is filed under Section 139(8A) of the IT Act, interest payable under Section 234A shall be computed based on the amount of tax on the total income declared in the said updated return, as reduced by the interest amount paid in the earlier return.

2. Where updated return is filed under Section 139(8A) of the IT Act, interest payable under Section 234C shall be computed based on the total income furnished in the said updated return, as reduced by the interest amount paid in the earlier return .

Recording of Tax Payments under TIN

All the tax payments are recorded under the Tax Information Network (TIN) of the Income Tax Department. The taxpayers’ data flows from banks directly to Tax Information Network.

Challan Status Enquiry (CIN)

Taxpayers can view the tax paid by them by logging on to http://tin-nsdl.com. A taxpayer has to feed in the below details under the option ‘Challan Status enquiry’ (using CIN based view) and verify whether their payment is registered with the government:

• Challan tender date
• BSR code of the collecting branch
• Challan serial number
• Amount of tax paid

Upon feeding the data mentioned above, the complete details of the challan are displayed below:

A taxpayer can make payment of income tax either online or using physical challan at the bank branch.

Correction of Error-Tax Payments made Online

Taxpayers have to contact their jurisdictional assessing officer for making corrections in the challan details. Each taxpayer is assigned an assessing officer for assessment of their income tax returns and related matters.

You can locate your jurisdictional assessing officer through the tab ‘Know your AO’ on the e-filing portal. You can access the data through a mobile-based OTP. Alternatively, you can locate your jurisdictional assessing officer through your e-filing account on the e-filing portal – Under ‘profile settings-My profile-PAN details’. Once you have located your jurisdictional assessing officer, you need to approach the assessing officer at their office and place a request for correction of the errors in the challan. You have to file a letter in the format and attach a copy of the challan paid.

Correction of Error-Tax Payments made at the Branch of a Bank

In the case of the following errors, the bank branch accepting the tax payments are permitted to correct the challan data and in the time frame mentioned below:

• Amount of tax – within 7 days from the deposit of challan
• Assessment year – within 7 days from the deposit of challan
• Major head code – within 3 months from the deposit of challan
• Minor head code – within 3 months from the deposit of challan
• PAN of the taxpayer – within 7 days from the deposit of challan
• Nature of payment – within 3 months from the deposit of challan

Hence, a taxpayer has to make an application for correction within the time period mentioned above. The procedure for making the correction at the bank branch is:

• Fill up a request for correction form at the bank branch which accepted the initial tax payment. Retain an acknowledged copy of the request letter filed.
• Submit the original counterfoil of challan paid along with the request and a copy of your PAN card.

In case you miss filing a request for challan correction within the time mentioned above, you have to contact your jurisdictional assessing officer and place a request for correction with their office. The banks are allowed to make the changes only subject to certain conditions:

• Banks will not make corrections in the name of the taxpayer.
• Both minor head and assessment year are not allowed to be corrected at the same time.
• A correction in the PAN or TAN is allowed only if the name in the earlier PAN or TAN matches with the name in the corrected PAN or TAN.
• The amount of tax can be corrected only if the corrected amount is the same as received by the bank under the original challan.
• Corrections are allowed only once for a particular field. A field once corrected cannot be corrected for a second time.
• There is either a complete correction of all the requested fields or rejection. If even one of the fields fails the correction criteria, the entire request is rejected.