Section 282A of Income Tax

Section 282A of the Income Tax Act deals with the concept of income tax notice and other documents related to income tax issued by the Income Tax Authorities. In this article, we briefly discuss the rules governing the issue of income tax notices or other documents by the Income Tax department. The section deals with communications related to income tax documents such as notice, summon, requisition, order and so on. As per this section, any service of these documents or any other communication should be made by delivering or transmitting a copy of such documents to the concerned person.

Methods for Delivering Notices

Communication of notice, summon, orders or any other documents can be made in the following ways:

By registered post
For service of summons, methods provided under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908)
Communication via electronic records as provided in Chapter IV of the Information Technology Act, 2000 (21 of 2000)
Communication can be made in any other way as provided by rules made by the Income Tax Board

Address for Communication

Under Section 282 of the Income Tax Act, a document or any other communication can be delivered or transmitted to concern person by referring to the address given in the below-listed documents:

Communication can be made to the address available in the PAN database of the addressee
Documents can be sent to the address available in the income tax return filed by the taxpayer
Notices or other relevant documents can be sent to the address available in the last income tax return furnished by the person
In case the addressee is a company, then the communication can be sent to the registered office address which is available on the official website of Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Issue of Income Tax Notices

Section 282A of Income Tax says that a notice or other document related to income tax can be issued by any income-tax authority. These documents should be signed by concern Income Tax authority and should be issued in paper form or communicated in electronic form by that authority as prescribed in Rule 127A. The income tax authority is a person who was authorised by Income Tax Board to issue, serve or give notice or other documents after authentication.

Authentication of Income Tax Notices

Any notice or other document issued by any Income Tax authority will be deemed to be authenticated if the name and office of a designated Income Tax authority are printed, stamped or written.

Rule 127 – Rules for Authentication of Notices or Documents

Rules 127 pertain to issue and authentication of income tax notices as under:

Communication through Email

The electronic mail or electronic mail message can be communicated from the designated e-mail address of issuing income-tax authority.

The name and office of issuing income-tax authority should be printed on the e-mail body if the notice or other documents are in the e-mail body.
In case of documents uploaded as an attachment, the name and office of issuing income-tax authority should be is printed on the attachment of the e-mail.

Communication through Website

Documents or notices in the form of an electronic record can be displayed on the income tax website.

If the issue of income tax notice or other documents is contained as text or remark in the electronic record, the name and office of issuing authority need to be displayed in the electronic record.
In case a notice or other document is in the attachment of electronic record, the name and office of the Income Tax authority need to be printed on the attachment of the electronic record.