Cash transaction limits: persistent cash loans without reasonable cause result in confirmed penalties and fact-specific review.
Persistent acceptance and repayment of loans in cash beyond statutory limits, unsupported by any business exigency or reasonable cause and often unrecorded in books, justified imposition of penalties; the High Court affirmed that deliberate non compliance cannot excuse penalty except in exceptional cases, and that penalty determinations are fact specific so co ordinate bench precedents do not bind when facts differ. (AI Summary)

GST rate changes and procedural reliefs adjusted; returns, ITC and refund processes clarified to ease compliance burdens.
The Council recommended operative changes to GST rates and exemptions for specified goods and services, procedural reliefs including extensions for filing annual and other returns, waiver of late fees for specified past periods, introduction of a revised monthly return system, and clarifications on classification and scope (including treatment of EPC contracts for renewable energy, RCM adjustments, ITC time-limits, and refund procedures). It also proposed governance measures to study revenue trends and referred specific tax policy issues to committees. (AI Summary)

GST rate rationalisation announced, reducing highest slab and introducing simplified returns and composition schemes for select sectors.
Announcements include GST rate rationalisation transferring numerous consumer items to lower slabs while limiting items at or above the intermediate rate; the Council also proposed a centralized Advance Ruling authority with binding decisions for conflicting views, piloted refund and return systems, deadline extensions and fee waivers, input tax credit allowance for prior fiscal invoices up to the cutoff, and development of composition schemes for small service providers and real estate, with MSME threshold review deferred to the next meeting. (AI Summary)

Empanelment of Advocates sets eligibility, selection and fee structure for Board representation and counsel engagement.
The Guidelines establish two panels of advocates-senior and junior-with minimum years of practice and specified disqualifications; selection is by an Empanelment Committee assessing experience, specialization in insolvency, conduct and integrity, and may involve Bar verifications. Engagements include use of government law officers when necessary. Terms set fee categories, outstation allowances and procedural obligations; empanelled advocates undergo six monthly performance review and face suspension or removal for misconduct, conflicts of interest, non compliance or misappropriation. Termination requires notice and return of case records, with post-termination remedies preserved. (AI Summary)

Taxability of ancillary supplies: inpatient medicines and food as composite healthcare supplies treated as exempt, outpatient pharmacy sales taxable.
Medicines, consumables, implants and dietary food supplied to in-patients as part of supervised diagnosis or treatment are integral to the treatment and constitute a composite supply whose essential character is health care services and are exempt; by contrast, pharmacy sales to out-patients are treated as separate taxable supplies unless the bundle with consultation is naturally bundled with healthcare as its dominant element. (AI Summary)

TDS on property transfer threshold applies per transferee; no deduction where each purchaser's share falls below the statutory threshold.
The obligation to deduct tax at source on transfer of immovable property is determined with reference to each transferee as a separate income-tax person; if the consideration attributable to each transferee does not exceed the statutory threshold, no deduction is required for each transferee's individual share, irrespective of the aggregate consideration paid by all purchasers. (AI Summary)

Delegation of powers for company conversion may conflict with mandatory Tribunal approval, raising legal uncertainty about validity.
A government notification delegates to Regional Directors powers to approve conversions from public to private companies to advance ease of doing business, but a statutory proviso conditions any such conversion on approval of the Tribunal, raising a legal tension about whether administrative delegation can displace the Tribunal approval requirement or whether further legislative or procedural steps are necessary. (AI Summary)

GST compliance alerts: data mismatches and input tax credit anomalies can trigger administrative scrutiny and enquiries.
Triggers for GST enquiries include substantial carry forward or lapsed input tax credit claims, incorrect transitional credit entries, major changes in discount or accounting policies, sudden supplier changes or business closures, extensive related party transfers and potential fictitious billing. Authorities use data analytics and electronic records-reconciliation of audited financial statements with GST returns, detection of mismatches across returns, linkage of invoices with e way bills, and auditor discrepancies-to identify irregularities and prompt further scrutiny, with anti profiteering non compliance and adverse compliance ratings as additional triggers. (AI Summary)

Country-by-country reporting requires international groups to file per-country financial and constituent details within prescribed procedures.
Mandatory country-by-country reporting requires the parent entity or designated alternate reporting entity of an international group to furnish an annual report to the Director General (Risk Assessment) in Form No. 3CEAD presenting per-country aggregates of revenue, pre-tax profit or loss, tax paid and accrued, stated capital, accumulated earnings, employee numbers and tangible assets, plus constituent-entity details and business activities; filing rules, designation procedures, notice and document production powers, exemption by consolidated revenue threshold, foreign currency conversion method and electronic filing responsibilities are prescribed. (AI Summary)

GST relief measures propose rate rationalisation and procedural simplifications to ease compliance for small taxpayers.
Proposals urge GST Council to reduce and rationalise rates, clarify taxability of widely consumed items, improve GSTN functioning, simplify export and refund procedures, and remove fees for advance rulings. For small taxpayers and MSMEs the recommendations include easier registration and surrender, fewer returns, cash or quarterly tax payments, suspension of TDS/TCS and RCM withholding, expansion of the composition scheme, increase of the aggregate turnover threshold, higher GST audit threshold, exemption from duplicate audits, consolidated repetitive billing, no GST on advances or inter company transfers, broader input tax credit, reduced interest, penalty immunity for procedural lapses, simpler e way bill scope, and incentives for compliant MSMEs. (AI Summary)

Composite supply treated as works contract, attracting service-rate GST on turnkey solar plant contracts under GST.
AAAR decisions characterised contracts for setting up and operating solar photovoltaic plants as works contracts and, where applicable, as composite supplies combining goods and services. Because Schedule II treats works contracts as supply of services, these contractual arrangements are to be taxed under the service-rate provisions of the IGST/CGST/SGST framework. Questions on concessional rates for standalone parts and entitlement of sub-contractors were left open due to absence of supporting documents. (AI Summary)

Non passing of input tax credit found profiteering under GST, triggering refund and administrative penalty proceedings.
The supplier imported goods after GST subsumed erstwhile countervailing duties into IGST and was eligible for ITC on IGST, yet maintained the pre GST base price (which included CVD) and charged IGST on that unchanged base; DGAP found the taxable value should have been reduced to reflect the non payment of CVD and availability of ITC, resulting in a quantifiable failure to pass on the benefit to the buyer. (AI Summary)

Pre-GST joint development agreements: transition rules can exclude GST where service tax would have applied, often leaving no tax liability.
For JDAs entered before GST with SAs executed after GST began, Section 142(11)(b) CGST excludes GST where the activity was leviable to service tax. Construction services and the service portion of works contracts are declared services, and consideration in the form of development rights crystallizes on identification of units in the SA. Point of Taxation rules therefore make the SA date the typical triggering event for service tax, but because no right to collect service tax had accrued before the repeal, no enforceable service tax or GST liability ordinarily arises. (AI Summary)

Reversal of input tax credit requires annual apportionment of common ITC between taxable and exempt supplies under rule 42.
Reversal of input tax credit applies where supplies are used for both taxable and exempt activities: common ITC must be apportioned under Rule 42 using the ratio of exempt turnover to total turnover, with monthly computations subject to an annual reconciliation that adjusts any shortfall or excess for the financial year. (AI Summary)

Input tax credit apportionment for capital goods: apportioned over statutory life with adjustments for exempt and non business use.
Rule 43 prescribes apportionment of input tax credit for capital goods by reference to use: credit is available to the extent of taxable or zero rated use and disallowed for exempt or non business use, with assets treated as having a five year useful life and allocation expressed as periodic reductions (5% per quarter or 1/60th per month). The rule creates a common credit pool for commonly used capital goods, requires proportionate addition to output tax liability for exempt use (with interest under the rule), and contains drafting inconsistencies and silences-notably on non business use and whether reductions should be quarterly or monthly-which must be resolved by reference to section 17 and related rules. (AI Summary)

Anti-profiteering measures: suppliers must pass tax reductions and input tax credit benefits to consumers, charging higher prices breaches law.
Section 171 mandates that any reduction in tax rates or the benefit of input tax credit must be passed to recipients by commensurate price reductions; suppliers who enhance base prices equal to the tax/ITC benefit and issue incorrect invoices thereby deny that benefit. The Authority held that such appropriation by the supplier is unlawful, that depositing excess tax does not absolve liability, and that computation of profiteering is case-specific though enforceable through the established anti-profiteering machinery which can direct deposit, recovery with interest, penalties and compliance reporting. (AI Summary)

Corporate Social Responsibility obligation requires prescribed annual expenditure, specified activities, committee formation and mandated public reporting under law.
The Companies Act and CSR Rules require eligible companies to form a board-level CSR Committee, adopt a CSR Policy aligned to Schedule VII subjects, recommend and monitor CSR expenditure through approved implementing routes, and disclose project-level details and reasons for any shortfall in the Board's report. CSR spend must fund activities in India outside the ordinary course of business; qualifying and non qualifying expenditures are specified and CSR outlays are excluded from business deductions for tax purposes. (AI Summary)

Interest calculation on returned income should govern pre-assessment interest, not assessed income after scrutiny period
Interest for defaults in payment and filing should be computed on Returned Income for the period before an assessing officer raises a demand, because taxpayers pay and self-assess based on their filed return, assessment outcomes are uncertain until determined, and interest is compensatory; recalculation of interest on Assessed Income should occur only after assessment and service of demand, while penalties may follow proven concealment or inaccurate particulars. (AI Summary)

Denial of Input Tax Credit and tax-rate benefit found to constitute profiteering under Section 171, requiring consumer restitution.
The article summarizes an NAA finding that a restaurant chain did not pass on benefits from a GST rate reduction and input tax credit availability, leading to systematic base price increases across most products. The DGAP's investigation compared pre and post reduction prices and returns data to quantify higher sale realization attributable to those increases, and the piece recounts the company's contractual, constitutional and cost based defenses alongside DGAP's view that such defenses did not negate the obligation to pass tax benefits to consumers. (AI Summary)

TDS on immovable property: buyer must deduct tax at source on payment or credit and remit via prescribed challan.
TDS on transfer of immovable property requires the purchaser to deduct tax at source at the time of payment or credit to a resident transferor; the rate depends on the transferor's PAN and a prescribed monetary threshold exempts certain transactions. Deducted tax must be remitted via the designated challan cum statement and a prescribed certificate issued to the deductee within the stipulated period; failures attract interest for late deduction and late payment. The provision excludes TAN, mandates online payment, and applies separately to each property, including instalment and financed transactions. (AI Summary)