Filed an Updated Return (ITR-U)? How to Respond to a Defective Notice on a 139(8A) Return

You filed your original return on time under Section 139(1), then realised three months later that a fixed-deposit interest entry of Rs 1,20,000 never made it onto the form. To set the record straight you filed an updated return (ITR-U) under Section 139(8A). Days afterwards a defective-return communication landed in your inbox, this time raised against the 139(8A) filing itself. The questions write themselves: do you respond the same way as a normal defective notice, which section do you pick in the utility, and what happens to the original acknowledgement number you quoted? The Income Tax Department's e-Filing portal FAQ (published at incometax.gov.in) answers each of these precisely, and getting the dropdowns wrong is the single most common reason a corrective response is rejected.

This article walks through the exact procedure for AY 2026-27, the statutory backbone in Sections 139(8A), 139(9) and 140B of the Income-tax Act 1961, and a fully worked salary example so you can reconcile your own numbers before you hit submit.

The Scenario

An updated return under Section 139(8A) is the mechanism the Finance Act 2022 introduced to let taxpayers voluntarily declare income they missed, even after the normal and belated filing windows close. The Finance Act 2025 extended the outer limit from 24 months to 48 months from the end of the relevant assessment year, so for AY 2026-27 you potentially have until 31 March 2030 to file an ITR-U. The catch is that an ITR-U is still a return, and like any return it can be flagged as defective under Section 139(9) if a schedule is incomplete, the tax payable is not fully discharged, or the figures do not tie out.

When that defective communication is raised against a 139(8A) return specifically, taxpayers instinctively reach for the ordinary defective-return workflow and select Section 139(9) in the offline utility. That single choice is wrong for an updated return, and it produces a mismatch that the portal treats as an invalid response. The stakes are real: an unrectified defective return can be treated as never filed, which for an ITR-U means the omitted Rs 1,20,000 of interest stays undeclared and the 25% additional tax you were trying to pay under Section 140B goes unrecorded. Use the income-tax calculator to confirm the exact additional liability before you respond, because the response you submit must carry the same computation.

Statutory Answer

Section 139(9) of the Income-tax Act 1961, available in full at indiacode.nic.in, defines when a return is defective and gives the taxpayer a window of 15 days from the date of intimation to rectify it, a period the Assessing Officer may extend on a written application. That statutory framework applies to a defective notice whether it was raised against an original ITR, a belated return, or an updated return filed under Section 139(8A). What changes is not the deadline but the section code you declare inside the corrective return.

The Income Tax Department FAQ at incometax.gov.in is unambiguous on the routing. Question 1 confirms that a response to a defective notice triggered against an updated return is submitted "in the same manner as 139(9)" through the portal path Login then Pending actions then e-proceedings, where you select the respective notice and submit your response. Question 2 then draws the critical distinction: while preparing the XML or JSON, you must select section 139(8A) in the ITR, not 139(9), because the return you are correcting is itself a 139(8A) return. Question 4 states the rule both ways round, for a defective notice against any ITR other than 139(8A) you select 139(9), and only for a 139(8A) return do you select 139(8A).

Two further procedural points come straight from the same FAQ. Per Question 3, it is not recommended to enter the DIN and Date of Notice fields while preparing the response to a 139(8A) defective notice. Per Question 5, you may submit only one response against one defective notice, so there is no scope to file a draft and overwrite it later. Section 140B governs the additional income tax that accompanies an ITR-U, and that liability must already be discharged and reflected in the corrective return you file.

Worked Resolution

Take a salaried professional in the new tax regime for FY 2025-26 (AY 2026-27). The gross salary is Rs 14,00,000, the standard deduction under Section 16(ia) is Rs 75,000, and the omitted income is Rs 1,20,000 of fixed-deposit and savings interest that should have appeared under "Income from other sources". The table below reconciles the original return against the corrected ITR-U using the FY 2025-26 new-regime slabs.

The arithmetic uses the FY 2025-26 new-regime slabs: nil up to Rs 4,00,000, 5% on Rs 4,00,000 to Rs 8,00,000, 10% on Rs 8,00,000 to Rs 12,00,000, and 15% above Rs 12,00,000. Because total income of Rs 14,45,000 exceeds the Rs 12,00,000 threshold, the Section 87A rebate of Rs 60,000 does not apply in this case. The extra tax attributable to the omitted Rs 1,20,000 of interest is therefore Rs 1,00,620 minus Rs 81,900, or Rs 18,720, and you can cross-check that figure with the new-regime calculator.

On top of that base liability sits the additional income tax under Section 140B. Because this hypothetical ITR-U for AY 2026-27 is filed within 12 months of the end of the relevant assessment year, the additional tax is 25% of the aggregate of the additional tax and interest. The four windows set by the Finance Act 2025, confirmed against indiacode.nic.in, are summarised below.

Now the response itself. After paying the Section 140B liability and recording the challan as self-assessment tax, open the offline utility for the relevant assessment year and select section 139(8A), exactly as you did when filing the original updated return. The decisive field is A5 of Part A General 139(8A). Per the portal FAQ, you must select the same option in A5 that you chose when filing the 139(8A) return. If you had filed a prior ITR under Section 139(1) or 139(4), A5 is "Yes" and you must enter the same Original Date of Filing and Acknowledgement Number of that earlier return, identical in both the ITR-U and the defective-notice response. If you never filed a prior 139(1) or 139(4) return for that year, A5 is "No" and the Original Date of Filing and Acknowledgement Number fields are left blank in both documents. Submit through Pending actions then e-proceedings, attach the corrected XML or JSON, and remember Question 5 of the FAQ: only one response is permitted per notice, so verify every figure before submission.

FAQ

Which section do I select when responding to a defective notice on a 139(8A) return?

You select 139(8A), not 139(9). The Income Tax Department FAQ at incometax.gov.in (Question 2) states that the section dropdown in the ITR must be 139(8A) when responding to a defective notice triggered against an updated return. Section 139(9) is selected only for defective notices raised against any other ITR type.

Where on the portal do I submit the response?

Log in at incometax.gov.in and follow the path Pending actions then e-proceedings, then select the relevant notice and submit your response. This is the same route used for an ordinary 139(9) defective notice, per Question 1 of the portal FAQ.

What do I enter in field A5 of Part A General 139(8A)?

Select the same option you chose when filing the original 139(8A) return. If a prior return was filed under Section 139(1) or 139(4), A5 is "Yes" and you repeat the same Original Date of Filing and Acknowledgement Number. If no prior return was filed, A5 is "No" and those two fields stay blank, as set out in Questions 6 and 7 of the FAQ.

Should I fill in the DIN and Date of Notice fields?

No. Question 3 of the portal FAQ states that it is not recommended to enter the DIN and Date of Notice while preparing the response to a defective notice triggered against an updated return filed under Section 139(8A).

Can I submit more than one response to the same defective notice?

No. Question 5 of the FAQ confirms that only one response may be submitted against one defective notice, so there is no second attempt. Reconcile your computation in full, including the Section 140B additional tax, before you file. See our guides on why refunds fail and advance-tax instalments under 234C for related compliance pitfalls.

How long do I have to respond to a defective notice?

Section 139(9) of the Income-tax Act 1961, available at indiacode.nic.in, allows 15 days from the date of intimation, extendable by the Assessing Officer on application. If the defect is not rectified within the allowed time, the return may be treated as invalid, meaning the omitted income stays undeclared.

If both an ITR-U and an older defective-notice response are pending, which prevails?

Per Question 8 of the portal FAQ, the updated return may prevail over other applicable sections and is treated as the latest return. Choosing between regimes for the corrected filing is easier with the old-versus-new comparison and the broader rule set in our note on which deductions survive in the new regime.