Every few years, something happens to government employees that looks like good news but turns into a tax headache.
DA arrears land in your account. Pay Commission arrears suddenly appear. All at once, in one financial year — several months' worth of salary you were already owed.
And then tax season arrives. Your total income for that year looks inflated. The tax department sees a large number and charges you at a higher rate — even though a big chunk of that income actually belonged to previous years when you earned less.
This is exactly the problem Section 89(1) of the Income Tax Act was designed to fix.
The Core Idea: Tax You as If You Received It Then
Section 89(1) is a relief provision. It says: when you receive arrears today, you shouldn't pay today's higher tax rates on money that was actually due to you in earlier, lower-income years.
Instead, the law lets you spread the arrears back to the years they relate to — calculate the tax as if you had received them then — and reduce your current-year tax liability accordingly.
The difference between what you'd owe with arrears vs without is returned to you as relief.
When Section 89(1) Applies to You
The most common situations for Central Government employees:
- DA arrears — when a DA hike is announced with retrospective effect (e.g., January revision announced in March — you get 2-3 months' arrears at once)
- Pay revision arrears — after a Pay Commission implementation, arrears for the gap between the effective date and the actual revision order
- Arrears of any other allowance — HRA, TA, or any other salary component revised retrospectively
- Advance salary — salary for future months paid in the current year
The 8th CPC arrears — whenever they land — will be one of the largest single-year income events most Central Government employees experience. Section 89(1) will matter enormously that year.
How the Calculation Works
The logic has four steps:
Step 1: Calculate tax on your total income this year — including the arrears.
Step 2: Calculate tax on your total income this year — without the arrears.
Step 3: For each year the arrears relate to, calculate how much additional tax you would have paid if those arrears had been received in that year.
Step 4:
Relief = (Step 1 − Step 2) − Sum of Step 3 amounts
If the relief is positive, your tax liability reduces by that amount. If negative (meaning you would have paid more tax back then than now), no relief is granted — but at least you don't pay extra.
A Worked Example
You received ₹1,20,000 as DA arrears in FY 2025-26, relating to April–December 2024 (9 months).
| Step | Amount |
|---|---|
| Income excluding arrears | ₹8,00,000 |
| Income including arrears | ₹9,20,000 |
| Tax on ₹9,20,000 (New Regime) | ₹58,500 |
| Tax on ₹8,00,000 (New Regime) | ₹45,000 |
| Extra tax because of arrears | ₹13,500 |
| Tax that would have applied to ₹1,20,000 in FY 2024-25 | ₹6,000 |
| Section 89(1) Relief | ₹13,500 − ₹6,000 = ₹7,500 |
Your tax liability reduces by ₹7,500.
The Non-Negotiable Step: File Form 10E First
Here's the rule that trips people up every year.
You must file Form 10E on the Income Tax portal before submitting your ITR. If you claim Section 89(1) relief in your return without first filing Form 10E, the Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) will raise a demand notice and disallow the entire relief.
How to file Form 10E:
- Log in at incometax.gov.in
- Go to: e-File → Income Tax Forms → File Income Tax Forms
- Select Form 10E
- Choose the correct Assessment Year
- Fill in the tables for each category of arrears (Salary arrears, etc.)
- Verify with Aadhaar OTP or DSC and submit
File this before 31 July — before you file your ITR.
Four Mistakes That Cost People Money
1. Skipping Form 10E — Most common. Claim relief in ITR without Form 10E = demand notice.
2. Wrong Assessment Year — Form 10E must be for the AY corresponding to the FY in which arrears were received. Not the year they relate to.
3. Not splitting year-wise — Each financial year's worth of arrears must be computed separately in the Form 10E table. Lumping them together is wrong.
4. Wrong tax regime — Use the same regime (Old or New) for both current-year and past-year calculations.
Your Employer Should Do This — But May Not
Section 192(2A) of the Income Tax Act requires employers to compute Section 89(1) relief while deducting TDS from salary arrears. Your DDO should factor this in when deducting tax on arrears.
But many DDOs skip this step or don't do it correctly. If your TDS was deducted without 89(1) relief, you can still claim it when filing your ITR — as long as Form 10E is filed first.
Section 89(1) Is Available in Both Tax Regimes
This is important: Section 89(1) relief works under both the Old and New Tax Regimes. The calculation method is identical — use the applicable slab rates for each year.
Pros of Section 89(1)
- ✅ Prevents unfair tax treatment when arrears are received in a single year
- ✅ Available in both Old and New Regimes
- ✅ Significant savings on large Pay Commission arrears
- ✅ Straightforward once you understand the steps
Cons
- ❌ Form 10E is mandatory and must be filed before ITR — easy to forget
- ❌ Requires year-by-year calculation — more work than a regular return
- ❌ No relief if arrears would have attracted higher tax in the earlier year