Section 258 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 — Disclosure of Information Relating to Assessees

In plain language

What Section 258 is about

Section 258 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (in force from 1 April 2026) governs when and to whom the Income-tax Department can share information about a taxpayer (assessee) that it collects while doing its job — your returns, assessment records, TDS data, bank details, investments, and so on. As a rule, this information is confidential. Section 258 carves out the limited, controlled situations in which it may lawfully be disclosed. It is the direct successor to Section 138 of the Income-tax Act, 1961, and largely re-enacts that provision with clearer structure.

The three parts of the section

• Sub-section (1) — Sharing with other government agencies: The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) or an income-tax authority it specifies may furnish information to any officer, authority or body that works under a law relating to the imposition of any tax, duty or cess, or to those dealing in foreign exchange (as defined in section 2(n) of FEMA, 1999). Information may also be given to any other authority the Central Government notifies, where it is in the public interest.
• Sub-section (2) — Requests by a person (Form 88): A person can apply to the Principal Chief Commissioner / Chief Commissioner / Principal Commissioner / Commissioner in the prescribed form (Form No. 88) asking for information about an assessee. The officer may supply it only if satisfied that it is in the public interest to do so. Crucially, that officer's decision is final and cannot be challenged in any court of law.
• Sub-section (3) — Government's power to lock down information: The Central Government may, by notification, direct that no information or document shall be furnished or produced by a public servant in respect of specified matters or classes of assessees, except to notified authorities. This is a privacy safeguard for sensitive cases.

Who it applies to

• Income-tax authorities and the CBDT — they are the holders and potential disclosers of the information.
• Other regulators and agencies — e.g. GST authorities, Customs, the Enforcement Directorate (foreign-exchange matters), and other notified bodies.
• Any member of the public or organisation who has a genuine public-interest reason to seek information about an assessee under sub-section (2).
• Assessees themselves — the persons whose data is protected. Note that the assessee's consent is not a precondition; disclosure turns on public interest and legal authority.

Key conditions and limits

• Disclosure to other agencies must relate to their lawful functions under a tax/duty/cess or foreign-exchange law, or be notified in the public interest.
• A person's request under sub-section (2) must be in Form 88 and is granted only on a recorded satisfaction of public interest — it is not a right, and there is no automatic entitlement.
• The Commissioner-level decision is final; there is no appeal, revision or writ on merits, though gross illegality may still attract judicial review of process.
• Sub-section (3) notifications can override disclosure entirely for protected classes.

How it interacts with other laws and sections

Section 258 works alongside the Right to Information Act, 2005 — the RTI Act's Section 8(1)(j) generally exempts personal information, and tax authorities frequently point RTI applicants to the Form 88 route under Section 258 instead. It also complements the confidentiality expected during assessment and search proceedings, and dovetails with information-exchange under India's tax treaties (DTAAs) and FEMA. For agencies like GST officers or the ED, Section 258(1) is the lawful gateway to receive taxpayer data.

Practical implications

• For a normal taxpayer, your return data is not public — a nosy neighbour cannot simply demand it.
• Banks, courts and regulators can obtain data only through the proper Section 258 channel or a specific statutory power.
• If you genuinely need another person's tax information (say, to enforce a claim), the correct route is a Form 88 application arguing public interest — expect it to be refused unless the public-interest case is strong.