Which income tax notice did you get? 142(1) vs 143(1) vs 143(2) vs 156

An income tax notice lands in your inbox and the first instinct is panic. Most of the time, it shouldn’t be: the department sends out four very different kinds of communication under four different sections, and only one of them (scrutiny) is actually the serious, adversarial process people picture when they hear “tax notice.” The other three are either routine, automated, or simply the mechanical follow-up to something already decided. Knowing which one you’ve received changes everything about how urgently, and how, you need to respond.

Four notices, four very different situations

These four sections get confused constantly because they all arrive as an official-looking letter or portal notification with a section number attached. But they sit at completely different points in the assessment process, and conflating them is the single most common reason people either panic unnecessarily or miss a genuinely important deadline.

Section 142(1): the pre-assessment inquiry

A 142(1) notice can arrive even if you haven’t filed a return at all — it can be the department’s way of asking you to file one. If you have filed, it’s a request for specific documents or clarification the Assessing Officer needs before completing an assessment. It is not, by itself, an accusation of anything wrong. Ignoring it is the mistake that actually creates a problem: the Assessing Officer can proceed to a “best judgment” assessment under Section 144 using whatever information is available.

Read the full Section 142(1) guide →

Section 143(1): the automated intimation

This is the one most salaried taxpayers actually receive, and the one most likely to be mistaken for something alarming (see the common reasons salaried employees get flagged if you want the by-cause view rather than the by-section one). It’s a system-generated comparison of your filed return against the department’s own computation, built primarily from your Form 26AS and the Annual Information Statement (AIS). If the two match, it’s just a confirmation with no action needed. If they don’t, it shows either a demand (you owe more) or a revised refund (you claimed more than the department’s records support).

Read the full Section 143(1) demand notice guide →

Section 143(2): the scrutiny notice

This is the one genuinely worth taking seriously from the moment it arrives. A 143(2) notice means your return has been selected for detailed scrutiny — the Assessing Officer is going to examine it and the documents behind it, not just cross-check totals against a database the way 143(1) does. The response deadline is tighter than the others (commonly 15 days), and this is the notice type where getting professional help (a CA, not a forum post) is worth it more often than not.

Read the full scrutiny notice guide →

Section 156: the demand notice

A 156 notice isn’t its own separate inquiry — it’s the mechanical follow-up to any order that determines you owe tax, interest, or a penalty, whether that order came from a 143(1) mismatch, a completed 143(2) scrutiny, or a rectification. It simply states the amount payable and the due date, typically 30 days from service. By the time a 156 notice arrives, the underlying question (do you actually owe this) has usually already been decided — the live decision left is whether to pay or formally dispute the order it stems from.

Read the full Section 156 demand notice guide →

What to actually do when one arrives

1. Identify the section first, before reacting. The number is printed clearly on the notice and in the portal — it determines everything about how urgent this actually is.
2. Log into the e-filing portal directly(not a link from an SMS or email) and check “Pending Actions” or “e-Proceedings.” Every genuine notice is visible there; that’s also the fastest way to confirm a notice is real rather than a phishing attempt.
3. For 143(1) demands, reconcile against your own Form 26AS/AIS before deciding whether to pay or dispute — most mismatches are explainable from that comparison alone.
4. For 142(1) and 143(2),respond within the window with exactly what’s asked for, not more. Missing the deadline is worse than an imperfect response filed on time.
5. For 156, pay if the underlying order was correct; if you intend to dispute it, that has to go through an appeal against the order itself, not the demand notice.

None of these four notice types are, by themselves, evidence of wrongdoing. They’re mostly mechanical steps in a process that runs on deadlines — the real risk isn’t the notice, it’s letting the response window pass without acting.