What is Income Tax Challan? If a mistake is made in filling, how to correct it? Know the online process and deadline

While filing Income Tax Return (ITR) or paying advance tax, every taxpayer comes across ‘Income Tax Challan’. It is an official receipt for depositing direct taxes into the government treasury. Many times, due to haste, carelessness or lack of technical understanding, taxpayers commit serious human errors while filing the challan – like selecting the wrong assessment year, entering the wrong PAN number, or selecting advance tax (Minor Head 100) instead of self-assessment tax (Minor Head 300). If such a mistake occurs, your money is deducted from the bank account, but your tax outstanding continues to be visible in the records of the Income Tax Department. It is a matter of relief that the Income Tax Department has provided a very easy system of online ‘challan correction’ for this.

Income tax challan is a financial document and legal receipt through which any person, firm or company deposits its income tax into the account of the central government. Earlier this work was done by filling physical forms (like ITNS 280 or ITNS 281) in banks, but now this process has become completely digital through the Income Tax e-filing portal.

The challan contains the name of the taxpayer, PAN, type of tax, financial year and amount deposited. When you pay tax through challan, there are three most important unique data points generated from the system:

• BSR Code: This is the 7 digit code of the bank branch from where the payment was processed.

• Challan Date: The day the tax was deposited.

• Challan Serial Number: Unique 5 digit number given to your payment on that day.

By combining these three, CIN (Challan Identification Number – CIN) is formed, which is given tax credit only after entering it in the ‘Tax Paid’ schedule of the ITR form and the return is processed.

1. Wrong selection of Assessment Year (AY): This is the most common mistake. For example, assessment year 2026-27 has to be selected for the financial year 2025-26, but people mistakenly select the old year considering the current financial year as the assessment year.

2. Wrong Minor Head (Type of Payment): Those filing advance tax often mistakenly select ‘Self-Assessment Tax (300)’, or tick ‘Advance Tax (100)’ or ‘Tax on Regular Assessment (400)’ while filing tax after filing the return.

3. Major Head: For companies it is ‘0020’ (Corporation Tax) and for non-corporate/individual taxpayers it is ‘0028’ (Income Tax other than Companies). Sometimes a person chooses the head of the company.

4. Typo in PAN Number: Registration of PAN number of any other person or relative, due to which tax credit gets reflected in someone else’s Form 26AS/AIS.

Income Tax Department and banks have set clear time limits for correction in challan:

• Online Correction on e-Filing Portal: From the date of payment of tax by the taxpayer After 7 days (when the challan is updated on the e-portal) A correction request can be made online within the assessment year from .

• Correction through Bank Branch: If you had filled the over-the-counter challan by going to the bank counter, then you can within 30 days You can make corrections in assessment year, PAN and major/minor head by applying in the concerned bank branch.

• When the deadline passes: If 30 days or primary deadline has passed, correction can be made through the ‘Challan Correction’ module on the portal or by submitting a rectification application under Section 154 to your Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (AO).

If you have paid tax through online net banking, UPI or debit card and there is a mistake in the challan, then the process to correct it at home is as follows:

1. First of all the official portal of Income Tax Department incometax.gov.in Go to and login with your PAN and password.

2. in the menu bar above ‘Services’ Click on the tab and from the dropdown ‘Challan Correction’ Select the option of (Challan Correction).

3. on the next page on the right ‘Create Challan Correction Request’ Click on the button.

4. Now you need to choose the type of correction you want to change:

   
   

   • Change in Assessment Year

   • Change in Tax Applicable – Major Head

   • Change in Type of Payment – Minor Head

5. After this, you will get the details of the challan in which there was a mistake. CIN (BSR code, challan date and serial number) Or you have to search by entering ‘Assessment Year’. The respective challan will appear on the screen.

6. After selecting the challan, enter correct details (like select correct AY or correct minor head).

7. after checking details ‘Continue’ Click on and verify the request electronically through your Aadhaar OTP, Net Banking or EVC.

8. Once the e-verification is complete, you will get a ‘Success Acknowledgment Number’. Usually within 3 to 7 working days, the challan is corrected and the correct record is reflected in your Form 26AS and AIS/TIS.

If the PAN number is wrongly filled in the challan, it cannot be changed directly from the normal online portal, as the system adopts stringent security measures before transferring the data of one PAN to another person’s account.

• If the bank is full: Visit the bank branch within 7 days of payment with the original challan receipt, copy of the correct PAN card and No-Objection Certificate (if available) of the erroneously written PAN card holder.

• In case of online payment: You have to submit a written application to your Assessing Officer (AO). In this, bank statement (which proves that money has been deducted from your account), copy of challan and affidavit will have to be attached. The officer issues the internal transfer order in the National Stock Exchange/NSDL and CPC system after checking and verification.

While filling the challan, always double-check the ‘Assessment Year’ and ‘PAN’ appearing on the screen before going to the final payment gateway, so that any kind of notice or online correction can be avoided.