Intimation Under Section 143(1) of Income Tax Act – ITR Intimation Password

All the income tax returns filed by the taxpayers are first processed online at the Centralised Processing Centre (CPC). After processing the return, the income tax department then issues intimation under section 143(1) to the taxpayers informing them about the results.

If you have received such income tax notice, please do not worry. ClearTax is here to help you. Please drop an email to support@cleartax.in and our experts will get back to you.

Letter of Intimation u/s 143(1)

An income tax return can be either filed voluntarily under Section 139 or on demand by the income tax department under Section 142(1). It is necessary to understand what happens after the taxpayer has filed the return of income. 

The process of examining the return filed by the taxpayer by the income tax department is termed assessment. The IT department carries out a preliminary assessment of all the returns filed and informs taxpayers of the result of such preliminary assessment. This assessment primarily includes arithmetical errors, internal inconsistencies, tax calculation and verification of tax payment. The preliminary evaluation process is fully computerised (automated), and is delegated to the Central Processing Centre (CPC).

Thereafter, the system generates the intimation under Section 143(1), which generally indicates obvious errors identified by the mainframe system.

When Does One Receive an Intimation u/s 143(1)?

Every assessee shall receive the intimation under section 143(1) upon successful processing of the return.

As mentioned above, it is an automated system-driven process that verifies the arithmetical accuracy, information available with the department, details available in return, and the provision of income tax law, and it generates the comparison report. Such an automated process eliminates the manual job of the income tax officer to a great extent.

• If a taxpayer has paid excess tax, then it mentions tax refund. A refund will be issued only if the amount is more than Rs.100. 
• If the tax paid by the taxpayer has fallen short, it mentions the amount of demand and a challan to make the payment. 
• It’s a simple acknowledgement that the ITR filed by the taxpayer is consistent as per the Assessing Officer. 

Centralized Processing Center

With the rapid increase in the number of income tax returns and a jurisdiction-based processing model for all the returns filed, the tax department faced problems leading to delayed processing of income tax returns.

Therefore, the Finance Act, 2008 empowered the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to make a scheme for the centralised processing of returns with a view to expeditiously determine the tax payable by, or the refund due to the taxpayers. Based on the recommendations of the Technical Advisory Group, the department adopted the strategy that CPC at Bangalore would process paper and e-returns without any interface with taxpayers and in a jurisdiction free manner.

CPC project envisaged benefits for the citizens as well as the tax department. For citizens, it led to faster and hassle-free preliminary processing of their returns and also relieved the department from the burden of preliminary assessment that can be computerised,  enabling them to concentrate on hardcore activities.

Any communication from the income tax department creates panic for taxpayers. However, Section 143(1) intimation is not something one needs to worry about. In this article, we would be discussing the intimation sent under Section 143(1) in detail to  help taxpayers easily deal with such intimation.

Preliminary Assessment Under 143(1)

Initial processing of returns by CPC is completely automated and Section 143(1) Intimation is also a computer generated record. CPC validates data provided in each tax return with details available with the income tax department’s own record (such as Form 26AS generated through details provided by collecting banks, TDS returns, etc.) and this notice usually only points out apparent mistakes found out by the mainframe system.

• Once the return is filed, total income or loss is recomputed by the computerised system as per the department’s record and provides a comparison with data filed by the taxpayer
• The intimation has two columns: ‘As provided by the taxpayer in the Return of Income’ and ‘As computed under Section 143 (1)'
• Comparison is made for major categories such as 
  • Income under various heads, 
  • Gross total income,
  • Deductions under Chapter VIA (80C, 80D, etc.), and 
  • Tax deducted at source, and tax paid by taxpayers in the form of advance tax and self assessment tax
• Appropriate adjustments are made to income as computed under Section 143(1) and final tax liability or refund is arrived at
• The adjustments are carried out only after giving an intimation to the taxpayer of the proposed adjustments either in writing or electronic mode i.e., to the email id provided in the income tax return filed
• Response received from the taxpayer within 30 days from the issuance date of intimation will be considered before making the final adjustment and in case no response is received within such period, adjustments arrived at initially will be incorporated.
• After arriving at final tax liability, the same is adjusted against TDS and tax payments and other relief under Section 90/91, if any.
• An intimation shall be prepared and sent to the taxpayer.  
  Kind of intimations possible are discussed below:
  • Intimation with no demand or no refund – This generally happens if the department has accepted the return as filed without carrying out any adjustments to it.
  • Intimation determining demand – Issued in case of adjustments made under Section 143(1) due to a discrepancy found and tax liability is arrived at.
  • Intimation determining refund – Issued where any tax is found to be refundable either where no discrepancy in the return filed or after making adjustments as referred to in Section 143(1) and after giving credit to the taxes and interest paid by the taxpayer.
• While demand notice is sent in case of final tax liability, refunds if any shall be granted to the taxpayer.

Nature of Adjustments Under 143(1)

Total income or loss is computed under Section 143(1) after making the following adjustments:

• Arithmetical error in the return
• Any incorrect claim which is apparent from any information in the return where incorrect claim which may include the following:
  • The claim of an item in the return which is inconsistent with another entry of the same or some other item in such return – for example, income from other sources are deducted from business income but not declared under income from other sources.
  • Disallowance of set-off of loss in the financial year which is carried forward from previous years in which return was filed beyond the specified due date
  • Disallowance of expenditure is indicated in the audit report but not indicated in the return of income.

Time Limit for Issue of 143(1)

Section 143(1) intimation has to be sent within nine months from the end of the financial year in which the return is being filed. For eg: if the taxpayer has filed return pertaining to the financial year 2023-24 in July 2024, intimation can be sent any time till 31 December 2025. If a taxpayer does not receive any intimation within such period, it simply means there are no adjustments carried out to the return filed by the taxpayer and no change in tax liability/refund, and the acknowledgement filed itself is deemed to be Section 143(1) intimation.

Sample of an Intimation Under 143(1)

What is the Password for Intimation u/s 143(1)?

The intimation received under Section 143(1) is password protected. The ITR intimation password will be your PAN (in lowercase) followed by your date of birth in DDMMYYYY format without giving any space.

For example: Assuming your PAN is ABCDE1234E and the date of birth is 01/01/2000, the password to open the intimation will be “abcde1234e01012000”.

Action to be Taken by the Taxpayer after Receiving a 143(1)

• As a first step, review certain things in Section 143(1) intimation to ensure the document pertains to your return itself and the data provided pertain to the same financial year as mentioned in Section 143(1) intimation. 
• Check the name, PAN, address, assessment year for which notice has been sent and e-filing acknowledgement number. 
• In case you are able to identify the mistakes you have made while filing your return from the 143(1) intimation, and they can be rectified by filing a revised return, please do so by logging into the income tax e-filing website. Please refer our article on how you can go about revising your return online.
• However, if no mistakes have been made and you do not agree with the adjustments made by CPC/computerised system, you can file an online rectification application under Section 154(1) intimating the correction of mistake appearing in the Section 143(1) intimation. Refer our article on filing rectification application. 
• Also, submit your response in the e-filing portal where there is a tax demand- whether you agree or disagree with the same.
• In case you are not satisfied with the processing of your rectification return by CPC, you can also file online grievances or contact your assessing officer. In case of no satisfactory action from CPC/assessing officer, you can file a complaint to the income tax ombudsman. 

However, if taxpayer agrees to the tax demand raised by income tax department after carrying out adjustments as above, taxpayer is required to pay such taxes. Refer our article on OLTAS challan payment on how to pay taxes. However, while paying tax on demand raised under this Section, please choose ‘Tax on regular assessment (400)’ under ‘Type of payment’ field in the challan. 
If you wish to pay challan physically, the pre-filled challan is attached with the intimation as below.

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