Income Tax :- Belated Income Tax Return u/s 139(4)

Belated Return [Section 139(4)]

(1) Any person who has not furnished a return within the time allowed to him under section  139(1) or within the time allowed under a notice issued under section 142(1) may furnish the  return for any previous year at any time -

     (i) before the expiry of one year from the end of the relevant assessment year; or

     (ii) before the completion of the assessment,

whichever is earlier.

(2) A belated return cannot be revised. It has been held in Kumar Jagdish Chandra Sinha v. CIT [1996] 86 Taxman 122 (SC) that only a return furnished under section 139(1) or in pursuance of a notice under section 142(1) can be revised. A belated return under section 139(4) cannot be revised. 

Note – Notice under section 142(1) is served by the Assessing Officer for the purpose of making an assessment -

    (i) on any person who has filed a return under section 139(1) to -

         (a) produce or cause to be produced such accounts or documents as may be required

              by the Assessing Officer; or

        (b) to furnish in writing information in the prescribed form on such points or matters as

              required by the Assessing Officer.

   (ii) on a person who has not filed his return within the time allowed under section 139(1) or  before the end of the relevant assessment year to -

1. furnish a return of his income or the income of any other person in respect of which he is assessable under the Act, in the prescribed form containing the prescribed particulars;
2. (b) produce or cause to be produced such accounts or documents as may be required by the Assessing Officer; or
3. to furnish in writing information in the prescribed form on such points or matters as required by the Assessing Authority