Respond from abroad
1. Read the actual notice. Identify the issuing authority, section, assessment year or tax year, issue date and response deadline. Keep the full notice and its attachments; a message preview may omit the questions.
2. Check authenticity using the Income Tax Department's Authenticate Notice service. If the details do not match, verify the communication before acting; do not simply ignore it.
3. Sign in to your own e-filing account. Under Pending Actions, open e-Proceedings, select Self and view the relevant notice. Follow its instructions, including any hearing requirement. An authorised representative can assist through the proper authorisation process.
4. Match the evidence to the questions and year in the notice. Reconcile the relevant return, income, bank, TDS or travel records as requested, and use the official e-Proceedings workflow to submit the response.
5. If you need more time, use Seek/View Adjournment where available before the due date, stating the reason and requested date. A request does not itself approve an extension; check its status and the applicable deadline.
6. Save the submitted response, attachments, Transaction ID, Acknowledgment Number and confirmation email. Get help reviewing my notice and deadline if you need a CA to review the next step. Do not put PAN or passport numbers, notice contents or documents in a URL.
Which Act applies to the notice?
A notice arriving after 1 April 2026 does not, by itself, mean the 2025 Act applies. The Income Tax Department's transition FAQs explain that proceedings for tax years beginning before 1 April 2026 continue under the 1961 Act and its procedure, including proceedings initiated after that date. Check the year and the actual section on your notice before using a deadline or response guide.
The timing rule that protects you
For ordinary scrutiny under Section 143(2) of the 1961 Act, the notice generally must be served within three months from the end of the financial year in which you furnished the return. This concerns service, not just the date printed on the notice. Your response deadline is the separate date stated in the notice.
An apparently late notice needs prompt review of the applicable law, filing date and service record, and any objection should be raised properly. Section 292BB can affect service objections when a taxpayer participates, with a proviso for objections raised before completion. Do not assume the printed date alone ends the matter, or ignore the notice.
Expiry of this ordinary scrutiny window does not make the return immune from every other lawful proceeding. For example, reassessment of earlier years has separate conditions and time limits.
Why you were picked, and how far it goes
Scrutiny selection is largely computer-driven, on risk parameters, so being picked is usually about a specific flag, not suspicion of you personally. For an NRI, the classic trigger is a high-value property sale, especially where the TDS deducted, or the figures in your 26AS and the annual information statement, do not line up with the return. So a scrutiny after a property sale is common and often about reconciling the sale and its TDS, not a fishing expedition.
How far the scrutiny can go depends on its type. A limited scrutiny is confined to the specific issue it was opened for, the property sale, say, and the officer cannot travel beyond that issue into your whole return without getting approval to convert it into a complete scrutiny. A complete scrutiny is open to your full return. Knowing which you are in tells you the scope of what you need to explain. A practising CA checks the notice's validity against the deadline, identifies the flagged issue, and responds with the reconciliation and evidence the officer needs, keeping a limited scrutiny limited.