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Why Revised Return Concept Under Income Tax Law

Under Income tax law the concept of Revised Return is dealt in section 139(5). Now the question is what is Revised Return and why there is concept called revised return exist?

In the simple word, revised return can be termed as return which is filed for error correction or mistake correction i.e. correct return. While filing income tax return whether original return i.e. return filing for the first time for any assessment year or revised return, person may make some mistakes or error which is Human error, that is why Income tax law identifies this problem or human error and allowed a person to correct his /her mistake by filing revised return.

Right to file revised return is statutory right which has been given by section 139(5) thus there is no need to take any permission from Assessing officer or no need to make any application to AO for revised return filling.

There is no cap on maximum no. of revised return filling therefore revised return can be filed for many times without any cap on maximum no. of revised return.

While filing revised return, an individual (whatever is applicable ITR form (form ITR 1 to ITR 7 as per the case) has to give original return acknowledgement no. (Whether filed upto due date or filed after due date) with the date of filing original return. As you need to be aware that amendment (vide Finance Act, 2016) has been carried out in section 139(5) to give revision right to an individual who has filed belated return so now belated return can also be revised .

Return can also be revised after processing of return i.e. after receipt of intimation, under the Income-tax Act, 1961- section 143(1)

Loss return filed under Income-tax Act, 1961- section 139(3) can also be revised.

There is time-limit upto which revised return can be filed and such time limit is provided under the section 139(5). Revised return can be filed at any time before expiry of the relevant assessment year (Let’s take an example- suppose you have filed your original return on 5th July 2020 for AY 2020-21 now you could have filed revised return for assessment year 2020-21 upto 31st March 2021 and in this example it has been assumed that till 31st March 2021 assessment has not been completed) or before completion of the assessment whichever is earlier.  

Finance Act, 2021  has once again reduced time limit for filing revised return because of huge technological upgrade in the Department where the processes under the Act are moving towards becoming faceless and jurisdiction-less, the time taken to conduct and complete such procedures has massively reduced. Thus, from assessment year 2021-2022 revised return can be filed at any time before 3 months prior to end of the relevant assessment year or before completion of the assessment whichever is earlier.