INCOME TAX
Supreme Court Refuses To Interfere With Bombay HC Order Quashing IT Assessments Against Merged Reliance Entities
The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to interfere with a Bombay High Court ruling that had quashed income tax assessments issued in the names of Reliance Polyethylene Ltd. and Reliance Polypropylene Ltd. even after their merger with Reliance Industries Ltd., noting that the Revenue has issued a fresh notice pursuant to the High Court's decision. A Bench of Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice Alok Aradhe dismissed the Revenue's special leave petitions after recording that the...
CBDT Clarifies Principal Commissioner Can Condone Delay In Filing Form 10A
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has clarified that the jurisdictional Principal Commissioner of Income-tax or Commissioner of Income-tax may condone delay in filing Form 10A for registration of trusts and institutions under the Income Tax Act, 1961. The Board issued the clarification through Circular No. 01/2026 dated 23 March 2026 to resolve ambiguity regarding the competent authority to condone such delay. Section 12A of the Act prescribes the conditions for claiming tax exemption...
ITAT Ahmedabad Remands ₹97.35 Lakh Addition To Income For Cash Deposits, Imposes ₹10 thousand Cost On Taxpayer
A motorcycle sub-dealer from the Panchmahal district, Gujarat, has secured a fresh opportunity before tax authorities after the Ahmedabad Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) set aside an addition of ₹97.35 lakh towards unexplained cash deposits, while imposing a cost of Rs 10,000 for earlier non-compliance. A coram of Judicial Member Siddhartha Nautiyal and Accountant Member Narendra Prasad Sinha observed that the addition was made largely due to non-compliance and lack of...
Virtual Services Treated As Rendered In India: Bombay High Court Denies NIL TDS Certificate To China-Based Entity
The Bombay High Court has refused to grant a nil withholding tax certificate under Section 197 to a China-based company, holding that services delivered through emails and video conferencing can be treated as rendered in India, while also declining to interfere as the core tax dispute is pending before appellate authorities. A bench of Justices B. P. Colabawalla and Amit S. Jamsandekar observed that “the rendition of these services, even if done virtually, equate to and is the same as a...
Delhi High Court Quashes Reassessment Against Sports Events Company As Time-Barred, Calls It Change of Opinion
The Delhi High Court has quashed reassessment proceedings against a Delhi-based sports events company, holding that the notice issued on July 30, 2022 was time-barred and that reopening the case on issues already scrutinized amounted to a mere change of opinion, rendering the entire exercise invalid.A Division Bench of Justices Dinesh Mehta and Vinod Kumar allowed the writ petition filed by the company, setting aside the reassessment notice, subsequent orders, and the ex-parte assessment order...
Delhi High Court Quashes Reassessment, Special Audit Against Huawei For AY 2013-14; Upholds Reopening For AY 2015-16
The Delhi High Court has granted partial relief to Huawei Telecommunications (India) in a batch of petitions challenging special audit directions and reassessment proceedings initiated by the Income Tax Department.A Division Bench of Justices V. Kameswar Rao and Vinod Kumar partly allowed the petitions, setting aside the special audit directions and reassessment notices for Assessment Year (AY) 2013-14, while sustaining the proceedings for AY 2015-16.The case arose from a search and seizure...
Limitation To Pass Transfer Pricing Order Cannot Be Extended By Treating Remand As Fresh Reference: Karnataka High Court
Rejecting the income tax department's attempt to treat a Tribunal remand as a fresh transfer pricing reference to extend limitation, the Karnataka High Court has held that no order can be passed once the statutory time limit expires. A single-judge bench of Justice Nagaprasanna emphasised that there is a “world of difference” between a reference made by the Assessing Officer to the Transfer Pricing Officer under Section 92CA(1) and a remand of the matter by the Tribunal, rejecting the Revenue's...
Search Year Included In Extended 10-Year Limit For Reopening Income Tax Assessments: Gujarat High Court
The Gujarat High Court has recently held that while computing the extended ten-year period for reopening income tax assessments following a search, the assessment year in which the search was conducted must be included in the reckoning.The bench stated that "..... the assessment year relevant to the previous year of search becomes the reference year and the ten-year period is counted from the end of that assessment year. This necessarily includes the search assessment year within the ten-year...
No TDS Under Section 194-IA On Rural Agricultural Land Transactions: ITAT Ahmedabad
The Ahmedabad Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) 26 March, held that buyers of rural agricultural land are not required to deduct TDS under Section 194-IA of the Income Tax Act, and interest under Section 201(1A) is not leviable. The Bench, comprising Vice-President Dr. B.R.R. Kumar and Judicial Member Suchitra Kamble, dismissed the Revenue's appeal while confirming that Tarun Santramdas Varma (taxpayer) did not owe TDS on certain rural agricultural land transactions. The...
Disallowance Irrelevant Where Tax Liability Arises Under MAT: ITAT Ahmedabad
The Ahmedabad Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) on 26 March, reiterated that a disallowance computed under Rule 8D of the Income Tax Rules cannot be imported into the computation of book profit under the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) provisions. The Bench, comprising Judicial Member Suchitra Kamble and Accountant Member Narendra Prasad Sinha, allowed the appeal filed by Shalby Ltd., observing that even if the alleged disallowance were made, it would not impact the taxpayer's...
Reassessment Beyond Three Years Without PCCIT Approval Invalid: ITAT Chennai
The Chennai Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) on 25 March held that reassessment proceedings initiated beyond three years from the end of the relevant assessment year are invalid if the Assessing Officer does not obtain prior approval from the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax (PCCIT), as mandated under the Income Tax Act. The Bench, comprising Judicial Member Aby T. Varkey and Accountant Member S.R. Raghunatha, set aside the reassessment notice issued against Vasanthi...
Overall Assessment Time Limit Applies Even In Dispute Resolution Panel Cases: ITAT New Delhi
The Delhi Bench of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal has ruled that final assessment orders under Section 144C (DRP route) must comply with the overarching time limit under Section 153 (assessment deadline), holding that orders passed beyond this limit are time-barred.A coram comprising Judicial Member Vikas Awasthy and Accountant Member Sanjay Awasthy was dealing with appeals filed by BT India Pvt. Ltd. for Assessment Years 2017-18 and 2018-19, wherein the primary issue was whether the...