Income Tax Notice Time Limits

The Income Tax Department can issue a notice only within the statutory limit fixed for that notice type, ranging from 3 months for a scrutiny notice to about 5 years for high-value reassessment. For a normal reassessment the outer limit is 3 years from the end of the relevant assessment year; it extends to roughly 5 years (5 years 3 months) only when the income that escaped assessment is Rs 50 lakh or more. Routine processing notices are far tighter: 9 months for a 143(1) intimation and 3 months for a 143(2) scrutiny notice, both counted from the end of the financial year in which the return was filed. The table below states every limit, its trigger, your response window, and the section that fixes it.

These are the issue limits, the deadlines that bind the department, and they are separate from your response windows, the days you get to reply once a notice reaches you. Every value in the table reflects the law after the Finance (No. 2) Act 2024 amended Section 149, so it answers how many years back an income tax notice can legally reach you.

A Section 148 reassessment notice can be issued within 3 years from the end of the relevant assessment year in a normal case, and within about 5 years (precisely 5 years 3 months) where the income that escaped assessment is Rs 50 lakh or more, for notices issued on or after 1 September 2024. The 10-year window that existed under the Finance Act 2021, and the older 4-year / 6-year / 16-year windows, do not apply to fresh notices any more; they survive only for notices already issued before 1 September 2024 or proceedings pending under the old regime. Before issuing the 148 notice, the Assessing Officer must first give you a show-cause notice under Section 148A and pass a reasoned order. So, as a rule, the department cannot reopen a year more than five years old.

Reassessment turns on income escaping assessment, and two worked examples make this concrete. Normal case: income escaping in AY 2023-24 (FY 2022-23) is counted 3 years from 31 March 2024, so the notice must issue by 30 June 2027 (3 years 3 months). High-value case: Rs 60 lakh escaping in AY 2021-22 runs 5 years 3 months from 31 March 2022, so the notice must issue by 30 June 2027. The three branches, in short:

• 3 years: normal cases
• 5 years: income ≥ Rs 50 lakh
• 10/16 years: abolished for fresh notices

For the full section-by-section delta, see our page on the reassessment notice under Section 148.

Yes: for a limited set of older years, income tax notice and assessment time limits were extended by the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation and Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 (TOLA), which pushed forward limitation dates falling between 20 March 2020 and 31 March 2021 as COVID relief. This mainly affected old-regime Section 148 reassessment and Section 143(2)/153 deadlines for assessment years up to about AY 2017-18, and the resulting disputes were settled by the Supreme Court in Union of India v. Ashish Agarwal (2022) and Union of India v. Rajeev Bansal (2024). These extensions are legacy: they do not apply to the current 3-year / 5-year Section 149 regime for fresh notices issued on or after 1 September 2024. Unless your notice concerns a pre-2021 year already caught by TOLA, the standard limits in the table above govern.

TOLA was a one-time COVID measure, not a permanent enlargement of the limitation period. If you have received a reopening notice for AY 2013-14 to AY 2017-18, check whether it relies on TOLA timelines and consult a CA, since these are the notices most often quashed or upheld on the Rajeev Bansal reasoning.

A Section 143(2) scrutiny notice must be issued within 3 months from the end of the financial year in which the return is furnished. For a return for AY 2026-27 furnished on 31 July 2026 (financial year of furnishing ending 31 March 2027), the last date to issue a valid 143(2) notice is 30 June 2027; after that the return can no longer be picked for scrutiny. The 3-month limit was substituted by the Finance Act 2016 (effective AY 2017-18); the earlier 6-month limit is obsolete. If a 143(2) notice reaches you after this deadline, the scrutiny is invalid and any resulting Section 143(3) order can be challenged as without jurisdiction.

This is what "how many years back can ITR be scrutinized" really resolves to: once the 3-month window from the end of the filing-year lapses, a return is practically safe from scrutiny. Reopening an older year is then possible only through Section 148 reassessment, not through a fresh Section 143(2) notice. For limited-versus-complete scrutiny and the faceless procedure, see the scrutiny notice under Section 143(2).

The notice limit and the assessment-completion limit are two different deadlines. The Section 143(2) scrutiny notice must be issued within 3 months of the end of the filing-year (above); once scrutiny is validly opened, the Assessing Officer must complete the Section 143(3) assessment order within the limit set by Section 153: generally 12 months from the end of the assessment year in which the income was first assessable (for AY 2022-23 onwards; AY 2021-22 was a shorter 9 months, and earlier years ranged from 12 to 21 months). For a reassessment under Section 147/148, the order must be passed within 12 months from the end of the financial year in which the Section 148 notice was served. If the department misses the Section 153 completion limit, the assessment is time-barred and no order can be passed for that year.

Receiving a valid Section 143(2) notice does not hand the department unlimited time: the order carries its own 12-month Section 153 clock, and an order passed after it is void. TOLA extended some Section 153 completion dates for older years, as noted in the TOLA section above.

A Section 143(1) intimation must be issued by the CPC within 9 months from the end of the financial year in which the return was filed; for a return filed in July 2026 for AY 2026-27, that deadline is 31 December 2027. A Section 139(9) defective-return notice has no separate outer limit but is issued within the same processing window, and you must cure the defect within 15 days of receiving it (the AO can extend on request). If you miss the 15-day window, the return is treated as invalid (as if never filed), triggering interest under Section 234A, a late fee under Section 234F, and loss of carry-forward of losses. If the department misses the 9-month window, the return stands as filed and no 143(1) adjustment can be made.

An intimation differs from a scrutiny: a Section 143(1) intimation is a routine, automated summary of how the Central Processing Centre (CPC) processed your return, and it may show a refund, no demand, or a demand. Where it proposes an adjustment under Section 143(1)(a), you get a separate 30-day window to respond before the change is made.

Sections 142(1), 156 and 245 carry no fixed outer time limit to issue the notice, but each is bounded by other deadlines. A Section 142(1) inquiry notice must precede the assessment's own time-bar, and it cannot demand accounts for a period more than three years before the previous year. A Section 156 demand notice is issued together with the order that creates the demand and must be paid within 30 days, after which 1% per month interest runs under Section 220(2). A Section 245 refund-adjustment intimation has no deadline but is invalid unless you are given prior notice. Respond within 30 days or set-off proceeds by deemed consent. A Section 154 rectification, by contrast, does have a limit: the department can rectify a mistake apparent from the record only within 4 years from the end of the financial year in which the order was passed.

In practice, the Section 142(1) bound is the assessment time-bar; the Section 156 risk is recovery and attachment if you miss the 30 days; and for a Section 245 set-off, verify the old demand is genuine before it is adjusted, because prior intimation is mandatory and the refund adjustment notice under Section 245 is invalid without it. If you apply for a Section 154 rectification yourself, the Assessing Officer must dispose of your application within 6 months from the end of the month of receipt.

Whether the department can still issue a notice for your assessment year depends on the last date fixed for that year, not on a single fixed number. For a normal reassessment (income under Rs 50 lakh), the last date is 3 years (plus the 148A buffer) from the end of that assessment year; for high-value reassessment (Rs 50 lakh or more) it is about 5 years. Scrutiny under Section 143(2) closes far sooner: 3 months from the end of the financial year in which the return was filed. Find your assessment year in the ready-reckoner below to see the last date the department can issue each notice, and whether that year is already time-barred as of today.

The reckoner is illustrative as of 10 July 2026: the last-date columns are stable, but the Status column re-dates at each 1 April roll-over. If your year shows time-barred, the next section explains how to challenge a late notice.

A notice issued after its statutory time limit is time-barred and void, and any assessment built on it can be quashed. For a Section 143(2) scrutiny notice or a Section 148 reassessment notice, the limitation period is jurisdictional: if the notice is late, the proceedings are invalid regardless of the merits, and courts routinely set such notices aside. You can raise the limitation objection during the proceedings and, if needed, by writ petition. First confirm the exact issue-date and the section on the notice, then check it against the master table and the ready-reckoner above; a notice served even one day beyond the limit is challengeable. Always authenticate the notice on the e-filing portal before acting, because the issue-date shown there is what counts.

If you suspect a late notice, work through four steps:

1. Identify the section and the issue-date printed on the notice.
2. Compute the limit from the master table, or find your assessment year in the ready-reckoner above.
3. If it is out of time, object in writing, citing the limitation section that applies.
4. For a Section 143(2) or Section 148 challenge, engage a CA or tax counsel, and authenticate the notice on the portal before you act.