Section 24 - Amendment of section 139 - Finance (No. 2) Act, 1980

24. Amendment of section 139 In section 139 of the Income-tax Act, after sub-section (8), the following sub-section shall be inserted with effect from the 1st day of September, 1980, namely :- (9) Where the Income-tax Officer considers that the return of income furnished by the assessee is defective, he may intimate the defect to the assessee and give him an opportunity to rectify the defect within a period of fifteen days from the date of such intimation or within such further period which, on an application made in this behalf, the Income-tax Officer may, in his discretion, allow; and if the defect is not rectified within the said period of fifteen days or, as the case may be, the further period so allowed, then, notwithstanding anything contained in any other provision of this Act, the return shall be treated as an invalid return and the provisions of this Act shall apply as if the assessee had failed to furnish the return : Provided that where the assessee rectifies the defect after the expiry of the said period of fifteen days or the further period allowed, but before the assessment is made, the Income-tax Officer may condone the delay and treat the return as a valid return. Explanation : For the purposes of this sub-section, a return of income shall be regarded as defective unless all the following conditions are fulfilled, namely :- (a) the annexures, statements and columns in the return of income relating to computation of income chargeable under each head of income, computation of gross total income and total income have been duly filled in; (b) the return is accompanied by a statement showing the computation of the tax payable on the basis of the return; (c) the return is accompanied by proof of - (i) the tax, if any, claimed to have been deducted at source and the advance tax and tax on self-assessment, if any, claimed to have been paid; (ii) the amount of compulsory deposit, if any, claimed to have been made under the Compulsory Deposit Scheme (Income-tax Payers) Act, 1974 (38 of 1974); (d) where regular books of account are maintained by the assessee, the return is accompanied by copies of - (i) manufacturing account, trading account, profit and loss account or as the case may be, income and expenditure account or any other similar account and balance-sheet; (ii) in the case of a proprietary business or profession, the personal account of the proprietor; in the case of a firm, association of persons or body of individuals, personal accounts of the partners or members; and in the case of a partner or member of a firm, association of persons or body of individuals, also his personal account in the firm, association of persons or body of individuals; (e) where the accounts of the assessee have been audited, the return is accompanied by copies of the audited profit and loss account and balance-sheet and the auditor's report; (f) where regular books of account are not maintained by the assessee, the return is accompanied by a statement indicating the amounts of turnover or, as the case may be, gross receipts, gross profit, expenses and net profit of the business or profession and the basis on which such amounts have been computed, and also disclosing the amounts of total sundry debtors, sundry creditors, stock-in-trade and cash balance as at the end of the previous year. .