Services
The department now cross-matches your return against AIS, TDS, and registrar data automatically. When a notice lands, we read it, quantify the exposure, and file a reasoned reply on the e-proceedings portal — fixed fee, quoted after we've seen the notice.
What you get
Income-tax notices are no longer written by an officer who happened to pick your file. They are generated when the department’s systems find a gap between what you filed and what third parties reported about you: your bank, your broker, the sub-registrar who registered your property sale, the client who deducted TDS on your fees. The Annual Information Statement is the department’s version of your year. The notice is the moment it disagrees with yours.
That changes how a reply has to work. A good reply does not argue with the total. It reconciles the department’s data to your return line by line, explains every difference with a document, and takes a clear position on what should be corrected and what should be defended. That is the engagement: read, reconcile, decide, file, follow through.
How we work
First assessment
48 hrs
Section, allegation, deadline, and exposure estimate in writing before you decide anything.
Filed on portal
100%
Every reply submitted on e-proceedings with acknowledgement retained — no ex-parte orders.
Fee, quoted upfront
Fixed
Scoped after the assessment. No hourly billing, no open-ended engagement.
Seven patterns account for the large majority of notices reaching individuals, professionals, and small businesses today. Each has a different trigger, a different deadline, and a different correct response.
Notice types
The section number on the notice tells you the stage of the proceeding. The data it cites tells you what triggered it. Both matter.
A professional — doctor, IT consultant, architect, freelancer — declares income at 8% or 6% under Section 44AD instead of 50% under 44ADA. TDS under 194J in your 26AS tells the department you earned professional receipts. The mismatch is one of the most frequently flagged patterns we now see. The right response depends entirely on whether you are actually a specified professional. Read the 44AD-vs-44ADA notice guide.
Sub-registrar reports the sale under SFT; the buyer’s 194-IA TDS appears in 26AS. If the return omits the gain, understates the sale value, or claims a Section 54 or 54F exemption without visible support, a 143(1)(a) or 148A notice follows. We reconcile deed value, indexed cost, and exemption workings to the AIS figure. Read the guide to property-sale notices.
Brokers and depositories report every sale of securities and every dividend. Omitted capital gains on shares or mutual funds, or F&O trading left off the return entirely, produce an automatic flag. F&O filed on the wrong form — ITR-2 instead of ITR-3 — also triggers a defective-return notice. Read the guide to stock-market and F&O notices.
The return is treated as incomplete or internally inconsistent: wrong form for the income declared, mismatched schedules, missing audit report, presumptive income declared on a form that does not permit it. You get 15 days to cure the defect or the return is treated as never filed. Read the 139(9) guide.
The processing centre proposes an adjustment — disallowing a claim, adding income visible in AIS, correcting an arithmetical inconsistency. You have 30 days to respond before the adjustment is made and a demand raised. Most of these are resolvable with a reconciliation and documents. Read the 143(1) guide.
The department believes income escaped assessment and gives you an opportunity to explain before it reopens the year. This is the most consequential notice on the list: reassessment can reach back three years, or five where the escaped income is ₹50 lakh or more. The show-cause reply is where the case is decided. Read the 148A guide.
e-Verification and e-campaign communications ask you to confirm or explain a transaction the department has on record — a large deposit, a property purchase, foreign remittance, mutual-fund investment. Not a formal notice, but an unanswered flag is the usual precursor to a 148A.
It helps to understand what you are replying to. The department no longer depends on an officer reading your file. Third-party reporting flows into your Annual Information Statement and Taxpayer Information Summary; risk rules run across every return and compare it to that data. The mismatches that surface most often are structural, not accidental:
None of this means the department is right. AIS data is frequently duplicated, misattributed, or reported at gross rather than net. But a reply that does not engage with the data the department holds will lose, whatever the merits.
When a return is selected under CASS, the 142(1) questionnaire that follows the 143(2) notice is close to standard. From a recent presumptive-tax scrutiny we handled, the seven items were: the computation of total income; every bank account with full-year statements; a note on the nature of the activity and premises; party-wise and month-wise details of every receipt, with PANs, mode of receipt, and bills above ₹10,000; complete details of any receipts carrying TDS under 194J, and whether they were offered under 44AD or 44ADA; the last two scrutiny assessments; and any pending appeal. Replies must follow the same numbering, go in together, and index every annexure — the notice says so, and the unit holds you to it. We build the reply in exactly that shape.
Why representation matters
Self-reply
Represented reply
The department is not asking whether you meant well. It is asking why line 14 of your return does not match line 14 of the data it already holds. Answer that question, with documents, and most notices close.
Notice PDF, the filed return, and the acknowledgement. If you have AIS and 26AS downloaded already, include them; if not, we pull them with your authorisation.
Section, allegation, response deadline, and an exposure estimate — tax, interest under 234B and 234C, and the penalty range under 270A if the department’s view prevails. Our recommended stance, in writing.
We build the reconciliation between the department’s figures and yours and list the documents that close each gap: broker P&L, sale deed, indexed-cost workings, engagement letters, invoices, bank statements.
Structured submission with annexures and, where the matter is contested, the legal grounds. You review before anything is filed.
Filed on the e-proceedings portal within the window. Acknowledgement, working papers, and the full record retained for any later stage.
When the return is genuinely wrong, the route you take to fix it determines what you pay beyond the tax itself.
| Route | When available | Additional cost beyond tax and interest |
|---|---|---|
| Revised return under 139(5) | Until 31 December of the assessment year, or before assessment is completed, whichever is earlier | None — interest under 234B/234C only |
| Agree to the 143(1)(a) adjustment | Within the 30-day response window | None on the adjustment itself; penalty exposure depends on the nature of the omission |
| Updated return under 139(8A) — ITR-U | Up to 48 months from the end of the assessment year | Additional tax of 25%, 50%, 60%, or 70% of the tax and interest, rising with each 12-month band |
| Contest the notice | Any stage | Nothing if you win; full exposure plus penalty if the department’s view prevails |
Choosing between these is the substance of the advice. A revised return that is still open is almost always cheaper than an ITR-U; an agreed adjustment with an immunity application under 270AA can eliminate penalty entirely for under-reporting; a contest is right only where the grounds are real. We set this out in the assessment memo before you commit to anything.
Methodology
Send us the notice PDF and your filed return. Within 48 hours we tell you which section it is issued under, what data the department has matched it against, the response deadline, and a first estimate of tax, interest, and penalty exposure if the department's view prevails.
We pull your AIS, TIS, Form 26AS, and the underlying source — broker P&L, registrar sale deed, 194J deductor statements — and reconcile them to the return. This is where most notices are won or lost: the reply must explain every rupee of difference, not dispute the total.
Three routes. Where the return was genuinely wrong, we correct it through the cheapest lawful route — revised return, updated return under 139(8A), or agreement to the proposed adjustment — and manage penalty exposure. Where the department's view is wrong, we contest it with documented grounds. Where it is grey, we recommend representation before the first reply, because the first reply frames the whole case.
A structured reply with annexures — computation, reconciliation, supporting documents, and legal grounds where relevant. You review it before it goes. We file it on the e-proceedings portal and retain the acknowledgement.
We track the proceeding to closure: further queries, video-conference hearings under faceless assessment, rectification under 154 if the order has an error, and appeal advice under 246A if the outcome is wrong. Nothing is left with you to chase.
Scope
Common questions
Explore further
Year-round income tax planning and ITR filing for HNIs, executives, NRIs, and founders — built for zero penalties and maximum after-tax wealth retention.
Learn moreF&O trading is non-speculative business income, not capital gains. We classify your full portfolio correctly, compute absolute turnover to ICAI standards, and handle Section 44AB audits and ITR-3 filing end to end.
Learn moreStructured planning for residential and commercial property sales. We model Section 54, 54EC, and 54F exemptions before the deed is signed — eliminating or substantially reducing your capital gains liability.
Learn moreNext step
Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll scope the engagement, confirm deliverables, and give you a fixed-fee proposal within 48 hours.