An Indian who moved to the US for work successfully challenged an ₹8.29 lakh penalty, with the Jaipur tribunal recognising his late filing as an inadvertent lapse due to relocation stress and limited understanding of tax rules.
An Indian taxpayer who moved to the United States for work has won full relief from a penalty of ₹8.29 lakh after the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in Jaipur accepted that his missed return was an inadvertent lapse rather than deliberate concealment.
Abhishubham Bahadur Saxena had relocated in August 2018 for an on-site role with a multinational company. According to reports by Mint and The Economic Times, he later failed to file his Indian income tax return on time while adjusting to life abroad. In August 2019, he voluntarily paid about ₹1.62 lakh in self-assessment tax, along with interest and late fees, before any reassessment action began.
The tax department later reopened the case under Section 148 of the Income-tax Act after identifying salary income. Saxena then filed a return showing total income of ₹20.49 lakh, which the assessing officer accepted without additions. Even so, penalty proceedings were launched under Section 270A, with the department treating the reassessment disclosure as under-reported income and classifying it as misreporting, which carried a much heavier penalty.
Saxena argued that he had acted in good faith and that the failure to file on time stemmed from relocation stress and unfamiliarity with the filing rules. Mint reported that he told the tribunal he had “inadvertently missed filing the return by the due date” because of the demands of settling in a new country and his limited understanding of belated return provisions. The tribunal agreed that his explanation was credible and that he was entitled to protection under Section 270A(6), which can shield taxpayers from penalties where they provide a bona fide explanation and disclose all material facts.
On August 17, 2026, the Jaipur bench ordered the penalty removed in full and also condoned a 49-day delay in filing the appeal, after accepting that a portal jurisdiction issue between Kanpur and Jaipur caused the delay. The ruling, as reported by multiple Indian business and tax outlets, is a reminder that late filing does not automatically amount to misreporting, particularly when a taxpayer has already made a voluntary payment and can show a genuine reason for the lapse.
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