ITR-U: the updated return, its time limit and what it costs

Paid late or short? See how interest under sections 423, 424 and 425 is worked out (the old 234A, 234B and 234C).

There are three ways to correct a return, and they run in order. A belated return covers a missed deadline, and a revised return covers a mistake in a return already filed. Both close within months of the year end. The updated return opens after that.

• You can file it whether or not you filed a return for that year.
• It must add income or tax. It can never reduce what you owe.
• Only one updated return is allowed for each year.
• The tax, interest and additional tax are paid before filing, and the return must carry proof of payment.

The window is 48 months from the end of the assessment year. As of November 2026:

FY 2021-22 is in its last year: after 31 March 2027 it cannot be updated at all. For FY 2025-26 the belated return is open until 31 December 2026 and the revised return until 31 March 2027.

These years fall under section 139(8A) of the 1961 Act. For tax year 2026-27 onwards, section 263(6) of the 2025 Act counts 48 months from the end of the financial year after the tax year, which gives the same result.

The additional tax is a percentage of the tax plus interest payable on the extra income. Tax here includes surcharge and cess.

Example. You find ₹1,00,000 of unpaid tax for an earlier year, with ₹15,000 of interest. Filing in the second year costs 50% of ₹1,15,000, which is ₹57,500. You pay ₹1,72,500 in all. The same return in the fourth year costs ₹80,500 extra.

If you never filed a return for that year, the late filing fee is payable as well: ₹5,000, or ₹1,000 if your income is up to ₹5 lakh.

Under the 2025 Act, an updated return filed in response to a reassessment notice under section 280, within the time the notice gives, costs a further 10% of the tax and interest.

Section 263(6) shuts the route in these cases:

• The updated return would show a loss. The one exception: you filed a loss return on time and the update reduces that loss or turns it into income.
• It would reduce your tax, or create or increase a refund.
• You have already filed an updated return for that year.
• An assessment, reassessment, recomputation or revision is pending or completed for that year. The section 280 notice route above is the exception.
• A search or survey has been carried out in your case: the bar covers that year and the years before it.
• Prosecution has been started for that year.
• The Assessing Officer holds information against you under specified laws, or received under a tax treaty, and has told you about it.
• More than 36 months have passed and a show-cause notice for reassessment has been issued, unless the officer then decides not to reopen the year.

1. Pick the ITR form that applies to you for that year: see which ITR form to file.
2. Choose the updated return as the filing type and state why you are updating: a return not filed earlier, income not reported correctly, a wrong head of income, or a wrong rate of tax.
3. Work out the extra tax, the interest, the late fee where it applies, and the additional tax.
4. Pay the full amount and enter the challan details in the return.
5. Submit and e-verify.

Get the numbers right the first time. You cannot revise an updated return, and you cannot file a second one for the same year.

If the department has already written to you about unreported income, an updated return may not be open to you, or may cost more than replying. Read the notice first: our guide to the reassessment notice explains the steps, and our notice reply service handles the response.