s.10, BMA 2015 — Assessment of undisclosed foreign income and assets

Currently operative

The words "or reassess" and "or reassessment" were inserted in sub-sections (3) and (4) by the Finance (No. 2) Act 2019 with retrospective effect from 1 July 2015.

Income-tax Act, 1961

s.10, BMA 2015

Income-tax Act, 2025

Unaffected; assessment machinery of the 2015 Act

In force from 1 April 2026, but s.536(2)(c) preserves the 1961 Act for tax years beginning before that date.

In short

Section 10 of the Black Money Act allows the Assessing Officer, on receipt of information from an income-tax authority or any other authority, or on information coming to his notice, to serve a notice requiring production of accounts, documents or evidence, and then to assess or reassess the undisclosed foreign income and asset and determine the sum payable. Where the notice is not complied with, sub-section (4) allows a best judgment assessment after an opportunity of being heard. What section 10 lacks is as significant as what it contains. There is no "reason to believe" threshold, no recorded satisfaction, no approval requirement corresponding to section 151 of the Income-tax Act, no procedure corresponding to section 148A, and no limitation at all on the issue of the notice. The Act limits only completion of the assessment, by section 11, which requires the order within two years from the end of the financial year in which the section 10 notice was issued. The date of the notice also carries substantive weight, because section 72(c) fixes the deemed year of acquisition by reference to it.

What the provision does

Confers the power to assess or reassess undisclosed foreign income and assets, and fixes the date from which limitation under section 11 runs.

Threshold questions

Does the notice specify the financial year or assessment year it relates to
What is the date of the first notice under section 10(1), as distinct from any earlier section 8 notice
Is the assessment year the one following the previous year identified, rather than the year of the notice itself
Is the order within two years from the end of the financial year of the notice
Where an exchange of information exclusion is relied on, have the dates of reference and receipt been produced

The recurring disputes.

A notice that does not specify the year

Because the whole dispute is frequently about which year is in issue, a notice that fails to identify the financial or assessment year leaves the assessee unable to answer it. The Kolkata Bench treated that omission as a defect in ACIT v. Ajay Kumar Patel, BMA No. 4/Kol/2025, decided 20 January 2026. The objection should be taken at once and in writing.

Assessment framed in the wrong year

Assessing Officers have repeatedly treated the year of the notice as the assessment year. Every reported instance has been quashed. The Chennai Bench held in Elangovan Malarmangai that the defect is jurisdictional and cannot be cured by section 81, because the assessment is not in substance and effect in conformity with the intent and purpose of the Act.

Limitation and the pandemic extensions

Section 11 allows two years from the end of the financial year of the notice. Whether the 2020 relaxation legislation and the notifications under it extended that period for this Act is contested, and the argument that they did not is a strong one on the face of those notifications. Where an assessment was completed in reliance on a pandemic extension, the notification relied on should be called for.

Frequently asked.

Is there a time limit for issuing a notice under section 10?

No. The Black Money Act imposes no limitation on the issue of a notice under section 10(1), which is a striking difference from the reassessment machinery of the Income-tax Act. The only time limit is on completion: section 11 requires the assessment or reassessment order within two years from the end of the financial year in which the notice was issued. Because there is also no "reason to believe" threshold and no approval requirement, the controls on a section 10 assessment are almost entirely at the back end, which is why the assessment year, limitation, residential status and beneficial ownership carry so much weight in practice.

What is the time limit for completing a Black Money Act assessment?

Two years from the end of the financial year in which the notice under section 10(1) was issued, under section 11(1). Where an assessment is set aside by the Tribunal under section 18, a fresh assessment may be made within two years from the end of the financial year in which that order is received, and the same period applies to assessments giving effect to a finding or direction. Explanation 1 excludes time taken in reopening, periods of court stay, and the period from a reference for exchange of information until the information is received or one year, whichever is less, with the remaining period extended to sixty days if shorter.