Is your income tax return marked as defective? Solve it online.

After the filing of income tax return, the details provided by a taxpayer in the ITR is cross-verified and processed by the Income tax department. The department analyses the details provided by the taxpayer with the information that is available to them. If they find any mismatch or mistakes or any information is missing in ITR then they will treat the ITR as Defective Return. A Defective Return notice u/s 139(9) will be issued to the taxpayer once a mismatch is detected.

Grounds of defect-

1. Return form has not been duly filled: All the items in income tax return form must be filled in the manner indicated in the return form. If any schedule of the relevant form is not applicable in the case of an assessee, it should be scored across as “——-NA——-“. This type of defect occurs only in offline/physical return filling.
2. Return without self-assessment tax: Paying your taxes based upon self-assessment is mandatory before the filing of income tax return. For example: suppose your age is below 60 years having total income as Rs.3,00,000/- and no TDS deduction, then you should pay Rs.5,150/- as income tax before filing income tax return u/s 139(1). It will be needless to say that if you file income tax return without paying income tax, your return will be defective u/s 139(9).
3. Annexures, statements, accounts etc: A few statements, reports, proof of pre-paid taxes, accounts etc. should accompany the return of income, otherwise, the return will become defective.

The above are only few example of a defect that may cause an income tax return as a defective return.

Most common defect: (i) Filling ITR-4; (ii) declaring himself that he is liable to maintain books of account as per section 44AA; (iii) Not providing full details of the Balance sheet and Profit and loss account in the income tax return. As per Section 44AB if business income exceeds Rs 1 Crore (or) professional income exceeds Rs 25 Lakh then auditing of books is mandatory. As per Section 44AA, certain professionals who belong to professions like  Legal, Medical, Engineering, Architectural, Accountancy, Technical consultancy etc have to maintain books of accounts. The other professionals are not required to maintain books of accounts if the gross receipts is less than Rs 10 Lakhs.

Consequences of filing defective return

1. Your income tax return will be marked as defective u/s 139(9).
2. You will receive an intimation from the assessing officer regarding the defect.
3. You are required to rectify the defect within 15 days from the date of such intimation, failing which may cause your ITR as invalid.You can apply to the AO to extend the time limit. AO may condone the delay and treat the return as a valid return if such defect is rectified after the given time but before the completion of the assessment.

How to solve this problem online?

1. Kindly visit e-filing portal & login with your credentials.
2. Click on ‘My Pending Actions’ link under ‘Dashboard’ menu option.
3. Once an ITR is considered as ‘Defective’, it gets reflected under the tab “For your action-Details of defective return-Click here.
4. You can find details of your defective return issued under section 139(9). Here, you can find notice issued date, CPC Reference number, the status of your notice and Response option.
5. Click on the ‘Response’ link.

7. Kindly go through the error code, error code description & Probable resolution to understand the reason for treating your ITR as a defective one.
8. If you believe that the reason is valid and you agree with defect then select YES option under ‘do you agree with defect’ list box.
9. Do the required correction as specified in the notice and upload your new revised ITR. Under the option “section under which return is filled”  select the option “In response to a notice under Section 139(9).
10. Select your ITR form name and upload XML file.
11. If you do not agree with the defect then you can select NO under column ‘Do you agree with the defect?’ and provide the remarks under column Assessee Remarks.

You can withdraw your response within 3 days of the submission.