Income Tax Department Clarifies on Erroneously Sent Notices under Section 80 P

Days after several income taxpayers had received notices for wrongly claiming tax deductions under Section 80 P, the Income Tax Department clarified that they were sent to them by mistake.

In response to a query raised by the taxpayer, chartered accountant Nirav Choksi on X (formerly Twitter), the tax department said that "an email communication regarding this will be sent to you shortly".

"Defective return errors coming in partnership firm. Section 80P mentioned is not applicable to firms. A futile exercise of responding to such system-generated queries has to be done. @IncomeTaxIndia," Choksi tweeted on September 1.

In response, the Income Tax Department said: "Intimation u/s 143(1) of Income-tax Act, 1961 with the error description 'In Schedule 80P, deduction u/s 80P(2)(e) cannot be claimed on income other than rental income' has been inadvertently sent. An email communication regarding this will be sent to you shortly. The inconvenience caused is regretted."

Last week, hundreds of taxpayers contacted their tax consultants after receiving these notices, which were sent to them even after they had e-verified their returns and the deadline for it had ended on August 31.

The notices pertained to claiming deductions they weren’t even eligible for. The problem here was that these deductions were not meant for individuals but for cooperative societies.