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 tax 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.

Theses errors can be easily rectified in the income tax portal. This article explains in details, the steps to rectify the challan details.

Rectification Through E-Filing Portal

Time Limits

1. For wrong selection of type of tax, challan correction can be done within 30 days of submission. (Minor heads)
2. For wrong selection of nature of assessee (income tax for company or income tax for others), challan correction can be done within 30 days of submission. (Major heads)
3. Correction can be done for the following tax payments
   1. Advance tax paid (Minor head code* - 100)
   2. Self assessment tax paid (Minor head code - 300)
   3. Demand payment on regular assessment (Minor head code - 400)
4. For change of assessment year, the rectification request needs to be submitted within 7 days of challan submission.
5. If the time limit of 30 days has crossed, challans can still be corrected by contacting Jurisdictional Assessing Officer.
6. Challan correction can be done only once in the income tax portal, for subsequent corrections, the tax payer must approach assessing officer.

Steps to be Followed

Step-1:Login to Income tax portal

Step-2: On the Services tab - select ‘correction’ option.

Step-3: On the right side of the challan correction page, click on ‘Create Challan Correction Request’.

Step-4: Select the details in the challan which needs correction, namely assessment year, tax applicable (corporate income tax or others) and type of tax payment (advance tax, self assessment tax, tax paid on demand).

Step-5: On the next page, you have to choose the challan in which rectification needs to be made. You can choose it using Challan Identification Number (CIN) or the assessment year. Fill the details as the case and proceed.

Step-6: You can now correct the fields in challan, make the requisite changes and continue. 

Step-7: On the summary of changes page, cross verify the changes made and proceed.

Step-8: The last step is E - verification. You can E - verify using Digital Signature (DSC), Aadhar OTP, EVC or other options as available.

Upon successful E - verification, a success message will be displayed. You can now check the status of e-verification on login > services > challan correction to check the status of the corrections made.

Points to Remember

• For challan correction, it needs to be unconsumed - not utilized against any tax liability. If it is utilized against any tax liability already, then you have to contact the respective assessing officer to make any corrections in it.
• Amount of challan cannot be rectified through any means. 

Correction of Error-Tax Payments made Online

• For the corrections that cannot be made on the e-filing portal, 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 left side on the e-filing portal.

• You can access the data through a mobile-based OTP. 
• Alternatively, you can locate your jurisdictional assessing officer through logging into your e-filing account.
  • On the top right corner of the screen, click on your profile.
  • On the profile page, scroll down and find 'Jurisdiction details' on the left side of the page.
  • You have to approach the assessing officer and 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.