1. Identify the document
Record the authority, period, provision, service date and response deadline. Preserve the complete notice and annexures.
Keep the original downloaded document or received copy, the covering communication and any delivery or portal evidence together. Identify the entity and registration number addressed, the reference number and the specific action requested. Do not rely on a cropped screenshot that omits annexures or instructions.
Assign someone to confirm the applicable response process and track the stated date immediately. Record uncertainty about receipt, missing pages or portal access as an open issue for the person handling the matter, rather than choosing a date by analogy with another notice.
2. Build a chronology
Collect earlier replies, orders, payments and acknowledgements. Distinguish a request for information from an appealable order or recovery communication.
Use a chronology with the date, event, document reference, sender or recipient, and next action. Link earlier submissions to their acknowledgements. Keep a separate list of documents requested but not yet available, including the person responsible for retrieving each one.
For tax matters, the income-tax notice checklist and GST notice checklist provide more specific preparation questions. Use the guide matching the actual notice, rather than treating all authority correspondence as one process.
3. Prepare the response
Map each issue to supporting records and obtain qualified advice where needed. Approve factual statements before submission.
- List each question or allegation separately and identify the relevant period or transaction.
- Assign the factual answer to the person who owns the underlying records.
- Reconcile the figures in the proposed answer with the books, returns and supporting schedules; explain differences explicitly.
- Index the supporting documents and make each response point refer to the relevant evidence.
- Keep factual confirmation and specialist procedural or legal assessment visible as separate responsibilities.
- Check the final version and attachments against the intended submission before filing.
Where a document is missing, record that fact and the retrieval action. Do not replace a missing record with an unsupported statement that it has been verified. The tax-dispute document checklist can help organise a larger evidence pack.
4. Retain and follow through
Save the submission acknowledgement and track hearings, queries and orders. Review any separate payment, appeal or stay action instead of assuming the reply resolves it.
Archive the actual submitted response, attachment set, submission reference and the status shown by the receiving system. If an upload or submission fails, keep the error evidence and assign the next action; a saved draft is not proof of delivery. Monitor the designated correspondence channel and route later communications to the matter owner.
Bring these facts to the first discussion
- Notice and service evidence
- Earlier correspondence and filings
- Relevant accounts and transaction records
Watch the dependency
If an order has already been issued, replying as though it were an initial query may miss the appropriate remedy. Confirm the procedural stage first.
Example: a notice asks about a difference between a return and the ledger. Prepare a reconciliation for that period, link its adjustments to the original records and explain any remaining unresolved amount. A later corrected ledger alone does not show how the earlier filed figure arose.
How responsibilities are agreed
You confirm business facts and approve decisions. Kosha’s engagement identifies the documents, coordination and filings included, together with any specialist adviser or authority dependency. The service links below explain the relevant workstreams and their limits.
Kosha.Services · Updated 2 October 2026