# Income tax notice: 6 reasons and how to spot a fake 2026-08-08T05:56:09+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Filing your income tax return before the July 31, 2026 deadline does not guarantee you will not receive a notice. The Income Tax Department sends alerts for six common reasons: mismatch between reported salary and Form 16 or AIS; unreported interest from savings accounts, FDs or RDs; claiming higher TDS or TCS credit than shown in Form 26AS; large cash transactions not backed by declared income; capital gains errors from sale of shares, mutual funds or property; and discrepancies in any other income reported across documents. Before responding to any notice, taxpayers should verify its authenticity. The e-filing portal offers a pre-login 'Authenticate Notice/Order' facility. You can check using your PAN, document type, assessment year, date of issue and a mobile number, or directly with the Document Identification Number (DIN) and a mobile number. A notice without a valid DIN issued after October 1, 2019 is generally invalid. This step helps avoid scams and fraudulent demands. ## Coverage - economictimes.indiatimes.com - livemint.com Tags: Annual Information Statement, Capital gains, income tax notice, interest income, ITR filing, TDS mismatch Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/six-common-reasons-for-income-tax-notice-even-after-filing-returns/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/six-common-reasons-for-income-tax-notice-even-after-filing-returns/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes.