ITR Filed? What the Intimation u/s 143(1) Actually Means

A few weeks or months after you file your ITR, an email lands from the Income Tax Department with an attachment called “Intimation u/s 143(1)”. Every filer gets one, most people panic at it, and almost nobody needs to. Here is what it actually is and the three ways it can go.

What the intimation is — and is not

Section 143(1) is the automated processingof your return. The department's computer (CPC, Bengaluru) rechecks your arithmetic, matches your claimed TDS against Form 26AS/AIS, and applies obvious corrections. The intimation is simply the result of that processing. It is not a scrutiny notice — that would be a notice under section 143(2), which is a different and much rarer thing. Receiving a 143(1) intimation means your return was processed, which is what you want.

The department must issue it within nine months from the end of the financial year in which you filed. File in FY 2026-27 and the outer limit is 31 December 2027 — though in practice most returns process within weeks.

Opening the PDF

The attachment is password-protected. The password is your PAN in lowercase followed by your date of birth as DDMMYYYY — so PAN ABCDE1234F with DOB 5 March 1992 opens with abcde1234f05031992. This trips up more people than the contents do.

Reading the two-column table

The heart of the document is a table with two columns: “as provided by taxpayer” and “as computed under section 143(1)”. Scan down to the final tax rows. If the two columns match, you're done. If they differ, the difference is almost always one of: a TDS entry you claimed that the deductor reported differently, an arithmetic slip, or a deduction the automated check disallowed.

The three outcomes

• No demand, no refund. Columns match, nothing to do. File the PDF away and move on.
• Refund.The computed tax is less than what you paid. The refund is credited to your pre-validated bank account, usually within days to a few weeks of the intimation, with interest under section 244A for the delay period. If it doesn't arrive, the usual culprit is a bank account that isn't validated on the portal — fix that first.
• Demand.The computed tax is more than you paid. If the department is right (a missed interest income is the classic case), pay through e-Pay Tax and respond to the demand on the portal — the intimation gives you 30 days. If you think it's wrong, don't just pay: respond with “disagree with demand” and file a rectification request under section 154 with the correct details.

The two mistakes to avoid

First: ignoring a demand. Unanswered demands accrue interest and get adjusted against future refunds. Second: paying a wrong demand out of fear. Mismatches from deductor-side errors (your employer or bank filed late or wrong) are common and fixable — check your 26AS/AIS, get the deductor to correct their filing, then rectify. The portal handles all of this without a CA for straightforward cases.

Under the new regime most salaried filers have simple returns, and the intimation is a formality. Know the password format, read the two columns, act only on a mismatch — that's the whole skill. Want to sanity-check the tax number in your intimation? Run your income through our income tax calculator — it shows the same slab-wise working the CPC uses.