FAST-DS Form 3 Now Live: How to Report Payment, ITNS 289 Challan and Deadlines
FAST-DS Form 3, the intimation of payment under the Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers Disclosure Scheme, 2026, can now be filed online on the income-tax e-filing portal. The portal's announcement ticker lists Form 3 of FADS 2026 as available for online filing, alongside Form 1, the declaration form that has been open since the scheme started on 16 August 2026. For declarants who filed early and already hold a Form 2 order, the scheme has moved from declaring to paying, and the payment clock is already running.
Form 3 is the step that turns a declaration into immunity. A declarant pays the tax or fee fixed in the Form 2 order through challan ITNS 289, then files Form 3 with proof of that payment. Only after Form 3 is verified does the department issue Form 4, the certificate that confirms the declaration and payment. A declaration that is never followed by payment and Form 3 within the time allowed does not survive.
The four FAST-DS forms and who files each
The scheme runs on four forms, two filed by the taxpayer and two issued by the income-tax authority under the Principal Director General or Director General of Income-tax (Systems). The time limits below are taken from the department's FAST-DS FAQs and the Form 1 of FADS 2026 user manual.
| Form | What it is | Filed or issued by | Time limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form 1 | Declaration of undisclosed foreign asset, foreign income or unreported foreign asset | Declarant | 16 August 2026 to 31 December 2026 |
| Form 2 | Order determining the amount payable | Income-tax authority | Within one month from the end of the month in which Form 1 is filed |
| Form 3 | Intimation of payment, with proof of payment and any interest | Declarant | Within the payment period: two months from the end of the month in which Form 2 is received, extendable by two more months with interest |
| Form 4 | Order certifying the declaration and payment | Income-tax authority | Within one month from the end of the month in which Form 3 is received |
The declaration window itself does not move. The FAQs state that the last date for Form 1 has been fixed as 31 December 2026, and no declaration can be made after that. Form 3, by contrast, depends on when each declarant's Form 2 order arrives, so different taxpayers will reach their Form 3 deadline in different months.
How much is paid before Form 3 is filed
The amount on the Form 2 order follows the two rows of the Table in section 133 of the Finance Act, 2026, which houses the scheme in Chapter IV (sections 130 to 144). The first row covers an undisclosed foreign asset or undisclosed foreign income where the combined value does not exceed ₹1 crore. The declarant pays tax at 30% of the value of the asset or income, plus an additional amount equal to that tax, which works out to 60% of the declared value. The second row covers a foreign asset that was acquired out of income already taxed in India, or acquired while the person was a non-resident, but was not reported in the relevant return schedule. Here the aggregate value can go up to ₹5 crore and the payment is a flat fee of ₹1,00,000, whatever the value of the asset within that limit.
Values are taken as on 31 March 2026. For assets other than bank accounts, the FAQs say that a variance of up to 20% from the declared fair market value does not by itself make the declaration invalid. Bank accounts are valued differently: the value is the total of deposits from opening up to the valuation date, without reducing withdrawals, though deposits made out of withdrawals from the same account are left out.
Paying through challan ITNS 289
All payments under the scheme go through one challan, ITNS 289, on the e-Pay Tax service. The department's e-Pay Tax FAQs on FAST-DS set out the codes: major head 0020 for companies and 0021 for others, with minor head 115 for corporate PANs and 116 for non-corporate PANs. The portal assigns the minor head automatically. The assessment year on the challan is pre-filled as AY 2026-27 and cannot be edited, whatever year the asset was acquired or the income earned. A single challan carries both tax and fee where the Form 2 order includes both.
The user manual for paying under FAST-DS through e-Pay Tax lays out the route. After logging in, the declarant goes to e-File, then e-Pay Tax, selects the Income-tax Act, 1961, clicks New Payment and proceeds on the tile for the Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers Disclosure Scheme, 2026 (ITNS 289). The payment can also be made before login by entering PAN and mobile number and verifying an OTP. Payment modes include net banking, debit or credit card and UPI through authorised banks, and NEFT or RTGS. The Form 2 order copy should be at hand, because the amount entered has to match it.
One warning in the FAQs deserves attention before anyone clicks Pay Now. A payment made under an incorrect minor head in ITNS 289 cannot be corrected or refunded, and the payment user manual asks declarants to check every detail against the Form 2 order before paying. The challan receipt that the portal generates after a successful payment is the proof that goes with Form 3, so it should be downloaded and kept with the Form 2 order.
Filing Form 3 on the e-filing portal
Form 3 is filed electronically to the prescribed income-tax authority, with proof of payment of the amount in the Form 2 order and, where payment is late, the interest. FAST-DS forms sit on the portal under e-File, Income Tax Forms, File Income Tax Forms, in the section for forms under other Acts, which is the same place from which Form 1 was filed.
The authority then matches the payment intimated in Form 3 against the Form 2 order. If they agree, Form 4 is issued within one month from the end of the month in which Form 3 was received. Form 4 is the document that should go on the client file, because it certifies that the declaration is valid and the amount has been paid.
FAST-DS payment deadline and interest: a worked illustration
The timeline is easier to see with dates. The following is an illustration with assumed figures.
A resident individual files Form 1 on 10 September 2026, declaring a foreign brokerage account worth ₹40 lakh on 31 March 2026 that was funded from income never offered to tax, and ₹10 lakh of dividends earned on it. Both fall in the first row of the section 133 Table, and the combined ₹50 lakh is within the ₹1 crore limit. Tax at 30% is ₹15 lakh and the additional amount is another ₹15 lakh, so the Form 2 order should show ₹30 lakh payable.
Because Form 1 was filed in September, Form 2 has to be issued by 31 October 2026. Say the order is received on 20 October 2026. The payment period without interest then runs to 31 December 2026, two months from the end of October. If the declarant pays on 15 January 2027, the delay is part of one month and simple interest at 1% comes to ₹30,000, so the challan should be for ₹30,30,000. Paying on 10 February 2027 makes the delay one month and ten days, which counts as two months, and the interest becomes ₹60,000. The last date on which payment can be made at all is 28 February 2027, four months from the end of the month in which the Form 2 order was passed. Form 3 with the challan receipt has to be filed within that same period.
A declarant who files Form 1 on the last day, 31 December 2026, would get Form 2 by 31 January 2027, would have until 31 March 2027 to pay without interest, and could pay with interest up to 31 May 2027.
What happens if Form 3 is not filed in time
The FAQs are direct on this. If the amount in Form 2 is not paid within the time allowed, including the two-month extension, the declaration is void and treated as never having been made. The benefit of the scheme is lost for that declaration, and the declarant returns to the position of a person holding an undisclosed foreign asset, with the information now on record.
A valid declaration, on the other hand, gives immunity from further tax, penalty and prosecution under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 for the income or asset declared, and that income or investment is excluded from total income under the Income-tax Act, 1961 and the Black Money Act. In exchange, the declarant cannot seek rectification, revision, set-off or any other relief on assessments already made for the declared income or asset. Where an assessment is pending, the Assessing Officer has to take the declaration into account. Two groups stay outside the scheme altogether: income or assets that represent proceeds of crime where proceedings under the Prevention of Money-laundering Act, 2002 have been initiated or are pending, and years for which an assessment under the Black Money Act has already been completed.
Who should be filing Form 3 now
Those who filed Form 1 in August or September 2026 are the first group with live payment deadlines, since their Form 2 orders were due by the end of September or October. For an August filer whose Form 2 order arrived in September, the interest-free payment window closes on 30 November 2026. Practitioners handling FAST-DS cases should list each client's Form 1 filing date, the date the Form 2 order was received, and the resulting payment and outer-limit dates, and then check that the challan amount matches the order to the rupee. The remaining declaration window for everyone else closes on 31 December 2026, and the interest-free period for a December filer runs into March 2027.
Official source: View the official source document
