NEW DELHI: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Tuesday asked taxpayers to voluntarily review their deduction and exemption claims in their annual income tax returns, saying its analysis showed many taxpayers had claimed deductions or exemptions they were not entitled to.
In a statement issued after multiple social media posts highlighted text messages from the Income Tax department, the CBDT said it had launched an initiative to encourage taxpayers to voluntarily review and correct their deduction and exemption claims.
The statement said the tax department was reaching out to identified taxpayers via text messages and email under the “Non-intrusive Usage of Data to Guide and Enable (NUDGE)” campaign to correct such errors and file revised tax returns by December 31, 2025.
“Under the risk management framework, and through the use of advanced data analytics, cases for Assessment Year (AY) 2025–26 have been identified. The framework includes instances where bogus donations to Registered Unrecognised Political Parties (RUPPs) and other ineligible deductions or exemptions appear to have been claimed in the Income-tax Returns (ITRs). It has also been observed that, in some cases, either incorrect PANs or invalid PANs of donees have been quoted. Some cases also contain errors relating to the extent of deduction or exemption claimed,” CBDT spokesperson V Rajitha said in a statement.
The department has advised taxpayers to review their ITRs, verify the correctness of their deduction and exemption claims, and revise their returns, if required by December 31, 2025, to avoid further enquiries in the matter.
“Taxpayers whose deduction or exemption claims are genuine and correctly made in accordance with law are not required to take any further action,” the spokesperson said.
Taxpayers who do not avail of this opportunity may still file an updated return from January 1, 2026, as permitted under law, subject to payment of additional tax liability.
During FY 2025–26, more than 2.1 million taxpayers have already updated their ITRs for AYs 2021–22 to 2024–25 and paid more than ₹2,500 crore in taxes. In addition, more than 1.5 million ITRs have already been revised for the current assessment year(AY), the statement said.
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