A notice is a deadline with a letterhead. The worst outcome is almost never a bad reply — it is no reply, because an order passed in your absence is far harder and far more expensive to unwind than an answered notice.
Start by finding three things on the document: the section, the DIN (every genuine communication carries a Document Identification Number), and the date by which a response is due. Then read on.
143(1) — the intimation
This is not an assessment and usually not an accusation. It is the automated processing of your return: arithmetic checked, TDS matched against Form 26AS, deductions checked against the schedules you filled.
It arrives in one of three flavours: no change, a refund, or a demand.
If there is a demand or a reduced refund, the intimation shows your figures and the department's side by side. Find the line that differs. Nine times in ten it is a TDS entry that did not match, a deduction claimed in the wrong schedule, or a challan that has not been mapped.
Your move: respond on the e-filing portal under the outstanding demand tab — either agreeing, or disagreeing with reasons and evidence. If the return itself was wrong, a revised return may be the cleaner fix. If the intimation is wrong, a rectification under section 154 is the route. Both have time limits, and the demand keeps accruing interest while you think about it.
There is a related notice, 143(1)(a), which proposes an adjustment and gives you a window to respond before it is made. That one is genuinely urgent: silence is treated as agreement.
143(2) — scrutiny
This is a real assessment. The department is examining your return and will ask for supporting material. It can only be issued within a limited window after the end of the financial year in which the return was filed, so the first thing worth checking is whether it is even in time.
Scrutiny is either limited — confined to the specific issues named in the notice — or complete. If it is limited, the officer may not roam beyond those issues without following a separate procedure, and knowing that saves you from volunteering material nobody asked for.
Your move: the proceeding is faceless and runs through the portal. Answer exactly what is asked, attach documents that prove the point, and file within the window. Ask for an adjournment on the record if you need one — an adjournment sought is normal, an adjournment taken silently is not.
148 — reassessment
The department believes income escaped assessment in a year you thought was closed. This is the most serious of the three and it has its own preliminary stage.
Before a 148 notice can issue, you should have received a show-cause notice under section 148A(b) setting out the information relied on, and an order under section 148A(d) deciding it is a fit case. If either is missing, or if the material behind the allegation was never supplied to you, that is a real defect and it is worth identifying early.
Your move: treat the 148A(b) stage as the main event, not a formality. It is the one point at which a document — a bank statement showing a credit was a loan repayment, a deed showing a receipt was capital — can end the matter before it becomes an assessment.
Three rules that apply to all of them
- Check the DIN. No DIN, no valid communication. It is also how you spot a fraudulent one.
- Never let the date pass. A partial reply or an adjournment request filed on the record beats silence every time.
- Log in and look for yourself. Every genuine notice appears in the e-filing portal's pending actions. If it is not there, be suspicious of the paper.