Section 119 of the Income Tax Act

Income tax is one of the foremost revenues earning methods for most governments across the world. Not only does it help sponsor the national development narrative, but it also ensures that every citizen can contribute towards the maintenance of common resources equally. In India, approximately 4.5 % or 5.9 crore people are currently classified as direct income taxpayers. Although these numbers are relatively small, with growing incomes and the push towards a $5 trillion economy, they are bound to increase manifold.

The taxation system in India is by and large governed by a set of well-defined, comprehensive and detailed laws. Tracing their origins to Article 265 of the Constitution which explicitly states that "no tax shall be levied or collected except by the authority of law." These laws have been codified under the Income tax act,1961. The various sections of this act describe the different ways in which income tax can be charged, claimed, refunded, or carried forward.

However, one of the most prominent sections of the IT act, 1961, that has been inserted with the primary aim of making the taxation process transparent, hassle-free and simple is Section 119.

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As explained above, Section 119 allows applications for income tax claims to be filed even after the designated due date is over. For fulfilling this purpose, CBDT has issued an exhaustive set of guidelines via Circular number 9/2015. These guidelines don't just talk about the powers vested at various levels of the income tax hierarchy, but they also mention the monetary limits up to which these authorities can accept or reject claim applications.

A detail of the limits prescribed and the authorities responsible for dealing with the same have been depicted in the following table:

The applications which are submitted for claiming refunds, deductions, or exemptions reach the offices of the aforementioned authorities. Then each one of them is examined on the basis of its merit.

At this juncture, it would be extremely important to note that these authorities cannot keep the applications pending for a prolonged period. There is a pre-ordained time limit, within which action on the submitted applications needs to be taken.

Right after your application for a claim has been accepted, you would be asked to file a proper income tax return under Section 112 (2) (b) of the Income tax act, 1961. In order to do this, you will have to visit the e-filing website of the income tax department and take the following steps:

1. Use your user ID and password to login to the income tax e-filing portal.
2. Visit the 'e-file' section and click on it.
3. A drop-down menu will appear. On this, select the tab titled 'income tax returns.'
4. Pick the assessment year for which you intend to file your returns.
5. You will now be asked to choose a filing type. Select 'Filing against notice or order.'
6. A list of sections will be displayed. Choose 'section 139 read with section 119 (2) (b). Sometimes, instead of Section 139, Section 139 (4) would be mentioned. Pick either one of them.
7. Finally, verify your identity and click on 'File returns.' Your claim would immediately be submitted.

In most cases, the processing of these claims would take about 7 to 15 days. Nonetheless, once they have been processed, you would receive the total amount of relief claimed in your linked bank account. When followed to the letter, this process enables taxpayers to yield instant returns, without having to face the scourge of needless delays and official red-tapism.

Factors to Consider

Apart from the details mentioned above, as a taxpayer, you will also have to consider a variety of other factors. These are:

• For the deductions, exemptions, refunds and loss carryforwards that you claim, no interest would be paid by the income tax department, owing to the delay in relief.
• As per the Income Tax Act, 1961, the income accruing to any one person, would not be considered taxable, if it is processed by the hands/accounts of another person.
• The claim for refunding money can only be made due to reasons like excess payment of Tax Deduction on the Source (TDS), payment of self-assessment tax or advanced settlement of tax.
• A proper investigation would be conducted into the genuineness of your claim. If the authorities find your claim to be unsatisfactory, it would be summarily rejected.

Therefore, before submitting your application to the requisite authorities, it would be crucial to make sure that your claim falls within the ambit of established law, procedures, covenants, and conventions.