If you hold a PAN and are planning to leave India, there is a new compliance step you cannot skip.
Form 156 — introduced under the Income Tax Act 2025 — is the country's new departure undertaking, replacing the old Form 30C effective April 1, 2026. It is filed entirely online, it is event-based, and once submitted, it cannot be revised. Miss it or get it wrong, and you have a legal compliance problem under Section 420(3) of the new Act.
Here is everything you need to know before you travel.
Form 156 is a departure compliance declaration — not a tax payment form. It is an undertaking required from persons domiciled in India at the time of leaving the country.
The key distinction most people miss: Form 156 does not ask you to pay anything. It simply requires you to declare your personal details, travel information, and estimated duration of stay outside India. Think of it as an exit declaration with your tax identity attached.
The shift from manual to fully electronic filing is one of the more significant operational changes here. If you were used to the old Form 30C process, the new system is faster — but it also means there is no offline fallback for Form 156.
Two conditions must both be satisfied for Form 156 to apply to you:
First — you must hold a valid PAN (Permanent Account Number). Second — you must have income chargeable to tax in India.
Both conditions must be met. If either one is missing — say, you do not have a PAN, or you have no taxable income in India — Form 156 does not apply to you. In that case, the relevant form is Form 157, filed under Section 420(4) of the Income Tax Act 2025.
Form 157 remains a manual filing process — which is worth knowing if you fall into that category. But for most resident taxpayers with a PAN, Form 156 and the e-filing portal are the relevant path.
Yes — and this catches a lot of frequent travellers off guard.
Form 156 is event-based, not annual. Every single time you leave India, a fresh Form 156 must be filed. If you travel abroad four times in a year, you file four times. The total number of filings depends entirely on how often you travel outside India.
There is one more thing to be careful about: once Form 156 is submitted and an acknowledgement number is generated, the form cannot be edited or revised. No corrections, no amendments. Verify every detail — passport number, purpose of travel, estimated duration — before you hit submit. There is no going back after that point.
The documentation requirements are straightforward:
PAN Card — mandatory. Form 156 cannot be submitted without a valid PAN. This is the anchor of the entire filing.
Valid Passport — required for passport-related details within the form. Most travellers will use this.
Emergency Certificate — accepted in place of a passport if the person does not hold one. This is issued by the relevant country's authority.
Mobile Number — not technically mandatory, but strongly recommended. It speeds up communication and OTP-based verification with the Income Tax Department.
No tax payment proof, no CA certificate, no NOC from any authority. The form is lighter than many people expect.
Form 156 is a personal declaration about travel. The details it captures are:
Name of the person leaving India
PAN details
Passport number or Emergency Certificate number
Passport issuance date, expiry date, and country of issuance
Estimated duration of stay outside India
That is it. No tax computation, no outstanding dues statement, no payment receipt. The income tax departure form under the new Act is deliberately streamlined compared to what existed before.
Form 156 under the Income Tax Act 2025 is filed exclusively through the Income Tax Department's e-filing portal. There is no manual or offline procedure available for this form.
Step 1 — Register on the e-filing portal
Go to the Income Tax portal and register using your valid PAN. If you already have an account, skip this and log in directly.
Step 2 — Navigate to Form 156
After logging in, go to the Forms section. Select Form 156 from the available options.
Step 3 — Fill in the form
Enter your personal details as required — passport or Emergency Certificate information, purpose of travel, and estimated duration of stay outside India.
Step 4 — Verify the form
Verification can be completed through any of the following methods:
Electronic Verification Code (EVC) via a pre-validated bank account or Demat account
Net Banking or ATM (bank-specific options)
Digital Signature Certificate (DSC)
Step 5 — Submit and save your acknowledgement number
Once submitted, you will receive an acknowledgement number. This is your proof of filing. Save it immediately — the form cannot be edited after this stage, and the acknowledgement number is the only record you will have.
The transition from the Income Tax Act 1961 to the Income Tax Act 2025 brought several specific changes to departure compliance. Here is what has actually changed:
Form split into two separate forms. The old Form 30C handled both PAN holders and non-PAN holders within a single document. Under the new framework, these are now separate — Form 156 for PAN holders with taxable income (fully electronic), and Form 157 for non-PAN holders or those without taxable income (manual).
Standardised personal details template. A common, uniform template for personal information has been introduced across all departure-related forms. Less variation, fewer errors.
"Tax Year" replaces "Assessment Year" and "Financial Year." All forms under the new rules now use the term "Tax Year" as the standard terminology. The old AY/FY language is gone.
Mandatory e-filing. Form 156 must be filed on the Income Tax e-filing portal. The old Form 30C was a physical, manual form. That option no longer exists for persons who fall under Form 156's scope.
Form 156 is one of four forms governing departure compliance under Section 420 of the Income Tax Act 2025. Here is the full picture:
Form
Section
Purpose
Form 154
420(1)
For non-domiciled persons leaving India — employer undertaking to pay tax
Form 155
Tax clearance certificate
Form 156
420(3)
For domiciled persons with PAN leaving India
Form 157
420(4)
For domiciled persons without PAN or without taxable income
Depending on your residency status and income situation, you will fall under one of these four categories. Most Indian residents with a PAN and a salary or business income will land squarely in Form 156 territory.
The acknowledgement-number-and-done nature of Form 156 means preparation matters more than the filing itself. Double-check your passport expiry date — an expired passport entered into the form creates a compliance record that cannot be corrected after submission.
Also, the estimated duration of stay is exactly that — an estimate. You are not bound to return on the exact date you mention. But wildly inaccurate entries can raise questions down the line, so be as accurate as you reasonably can.
A: Yes. Form 156 is an event-based filing under Section 420(3) of the Income Tax Act 2025 — which means a fresh form must be filed every time you leave India. It is not an annual filing. If you travel internationally four times in a year, you are required to file four times.
A: Form 30C under the Income Tax Act 1961 was a manual, paper-based form that covered both PAN and non-PAN holders. Form 156 under the Income Tax Act 2025 is filed entirely online through the e-filing portal and applies only to PAN holders with income chargeable to tax in India. Non-PAN holders now file a separate manual form called Form 157.
A: Form 156 is a pre-departure compliance declaration — it is meant to be filed before you leave India. Filing it after departure defeats the purpose of the departure undertaking and may constitute a non-compliance under Section 420(3) of the Income Tax Act 2025.
A: Filing Form 156 is a mandatory legal requirement under the Income Tax Act 2025. Failure to comply can be treated as a violation of Section 420(3). The practical consequences — in terms of penalties or travel restrictions — are subject to enforcement as the new Act comes into effect from April 2026.
A: No. Form 156 is purely a declaration of personal and travel details — name, PAN, passport information, and estimated duration of stay abroad. It does not require any tax payment proof or tax clearance. If you need a tax clearance certificate, that falls under Form 155 under Section 420(1) of the Income Tax Act 2025.
A: Form 157 is filed by persons domiciled in India who either do not hold a PAN or do not have income chargeable to tax in India. Unlike Form 156, which is filed online, Form 157 is submitted manually before the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer. Both forms became effective April 1, 2026.
A: No. Once Form 156 is submitted and an acknowledgement number is generated, the form is final and cannot be edited or revised under any circumstances. This makes it critical to verify all details — passport number, expiry date, purpose and duration of travel — carefully before clicking submit.
A: Form 156 can be verified using an Electronic Verification Code (EVC) through a pre-validated bank account or Demat account, through Net Banking or ATM options offered by specific banks, or through a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC). All three are accepted on the Income Tax e-filing portal.
A: Form 156 applies to persons domiciled in India at the time of departure. Whether it applies in a given situation depends on the individual's domicile status and whether both conditions — valid PAN and income chargeable to tax in India — are met. If either condition is absent, Form 157 is the applicable form instead.
A: Form 156 under the Income Tax Act 2025 becomes effective from April 1, 2026, replacing Form 30C under the Income Tax Act 1961. From that date, all departure compliance declarations by PAN holders with taxable Indian income must be filed through Form 156 on the e-filing portal.
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