Taxpayers filing their income tax return (ITR) for AY 2026-27 will notice a new reporting field in the online filing portal and JSON utilities titled ‘Receipts not in the nature of income.’ The addition is intended to improve the way certain non-taxable receipts are disclosed in the return.
The new field does not make these receipts taxable or introduce any additional tax liability. Instead, it provides a separate reporting category for amounts that are not considered ‘income’ under the Income-tax Act, such as certain gifts, loans and receipts from the sale of rural agricultural land.
This new field was not part of the officially notified ITR forms or the PDF versions available on the Income-tax portal. It has been introduced only in the online filing utility and the JSON schema, said three experts who spoke to Mint.
What is the purpose of the new head?
The inclusion of the ‘Receipts not in the nature of income’ field is meant to provide an additional disclosure by taxpayers while filing their return. Reporting Exempt Income was already mandatory under the existing ITR rules and continues to remain so, said Ankit Jain, Partner at Ved Jain and Associates.
He added that the new field is meant to capture other receipts that are not regarded as income but are received during the financial year and could otherwise be construed as income.
Disclosing such receipts can help taxpayers explain the nature of these funds if questioned by the tax authorities. A taxpayer can disclose the following receipts under the new head:
Loans receivedAmount received in any inheritanceAmount received on sale of any personal assets
“However, one needs to be careful while filing their tax return. The disclosure for the exempt income should be made according to the nature of the income only and not all income should be reported in this residual head,” he added.
Is it mandatory to disclose eligible receipts under the new head?
The introduction of this field does not, by itself, create a new statutory obligation to disclose these receipts, according to Ritika Nayyar, Partner at Singhania & Co.
Gifts received from specified relatives continue to remain outside the scope of taxation. Likewise, gifts received on the occasion of an individual’s marriage continue to enjoy the same exclusion and loan receipts are capital receipts, thereby do not constitute income.
Similarly, consideration received on transfer of rural agricultural land remains outside the capital gains provisions because such land is not regarded as a capital asset under the Income-tax Act.
Accordingly, none of these receipts become mandatorily reportable merely because a new reporting field has been introduced in the filing utility, he said.
“What has changed is practical rather than legal. Since this field currently appears only in the online filing portal and the JSON utility and not in the notified ITR forms it remains unclear whether the system presently mandates disclosure in every case,” Nayyar noted.
Meanwhile, Hari Raheja, Advocate at D.M. Harish & Co. LLP said that it is always important to show all receipts whether taxable or not as a department’s view is uncertain and we could land up in deep trouble, not having make the disclosure assuming a certain amount which is claimed exempted finally becomes taxable. “By making disclosure we can save ourselves from penalty.”