Section 38. No tax assessed on any person liable to taxation shall be abated unless the person assessed shall have filed, at or before the time of bringing his application for abatement, a return as required by this chapter for the period to which his application relates; and if he filed a fraudulent return, or having filed an incorrect or insufficient return, has failed, after notice, to file a proper return, the commissioner shall not abate the tax below double the amount for which the person assessed was properly taxable under this chapter.