I-T Dept finds fault in its own notices sent to taxpayers

After having realised fault in the notices served by it to taxpayers earlier, the Income Tax department has urged taxpayers across the country to ignore emails that wrongly flagged ‘significant transactions’ under its Advance Tax e Campaign for Assessment Year (AY) 2026-27. The fourth instalment of advance tax payment came to a close on March 15.

The advisory came after several individuals, reported receiving notices that did not match their financial profiles. In a post on X, the department acknowledged the error and said the issue was being addressed with the service provider handling the communication system.

The emails-intended as reminders for taxpayers to review information on the Compliance Portal-contained incorrect or duplicated data for a number of recipients, an official spokesperson said

It has been reported that certain taxpayers have received emails containing inaccurate details regarding 'significant transactions' undertaken by them as part of the ongoing Advance Tax e Campaign for AY 2026-27, the department said, apologising for the inconvenience and advising taxpayers to ‘kindly ignore’ the communication until the issue is resolved. An official said that the messages were meant to be sent after mapping PAN with the tax that was to be paid as advance tax, but an error resulted in ‘mass messaging’.

Talking to Bizz Buzz, CA Ashish Niraj, Partner, A S N & Company, Chartered Accountants says, “Many of our clients got a mail from ‘[email protected]’ regarding Advance Tax (AT) e-Campaign- based on Significant Transactions for AY 2026-27- XXXXX1234X.”

It mentioned ‘The Income Tax Department has received certain information on financial transactions relating to ABC KUMAR PAN XXXXX1234X for Financial Year 2025-26 (AY 2026-27). It is seen that your advance tax payment for F.Y. 2025-26 is apparently not commensurate with such financial transactions undertaken by you during this period. As part of taxpayer service initiative, this e-campaign aims to intimate you of some of the 'significant transactions' undertaken during F.Y. 2025-26.’

But shocking part was below table mentioned in mail:-

This table was common in many clients. Clients got panicked and started calling our office regarding the same. Some complained that their sales is inflated in mail, some called and said they don’t have GST, some who had GST, asked us to check their GST Returns whether any wrong filing was done by mistake. Some panicked thinking someone may have forged their documents to take GST in their name.

We checked AIS, 26AS etc and confirmed clients that they should not worry as their particulars are correct in AIS. We also told them that it seems a glitch from department as same figures are their in most mails.