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Income-tax Act, 1961 · Chapter XIV: Procedure for Assessment

Section 156: Notice of demand

The Income-tax Act, 1961 was repealed by the Income-tax Act, 2025 from 1 April 2026. The text is kept here because the judgments below apply it.

In plain words

When a tax, interest, penalty, fine or any other sum is due because of an order under this Act, the Assessing Officer must send the assessee a notice of demand in the prescribed form stating the amount.

  • The notice must be served by the Assessing Officer.
  • It must use the prescribed form.
  • It must specify the exact sum payable.
  • If the sum is determined under sub‑section (1) of section 143, section 200A or section 206CB, that intimation counts as the notice of demand.

A simplified explanation, prepared with AI assistance from the official text below and checked automatically against it for numbers and cross-references. The official text is the law and prevails over this summary. Not legal advice.

Official text

When any tax, interest, penalty, fine or any other sum1*** is payable in consequence of any order passed under this Act, the [Assessing Officer] shall serve upon the assessee a notice of demand in the prescribed formspecifying the sum so payable: [Provided that where any sum is determined to be payable by the assessee or4[the deductor or the collector under sub-section (1) of section 143 or sub-section (1) of section 200A or sub-section (1) of section 206CB], the intimation under those sub-sections shall be deemed to be a notice of demand for the purposes of this section.]

Source: India Code (Legislative Department), the text of the Act as it stood before its repeal. Words in square brackets [ ] were inserted or substituted by later amending Acts, and *** marks words omitted by an amendment. The amendment footnotes are not reproduced here. Official text on India Code.

Supreme Court judgments citing the section 156