Disposal of old appeals required: supervisory officers must enforce chronological clearance and verify records by year-end.
CsITs must enforce strict supervisory control over AACs, emphasising chronological disposal of old appeals and high-demand matters in monthly reviews, ensure effective annual administrative inspection of every AAC office, require AACs to dispose specified old appeals as fully as possible by the financial year-end, and verify compliance by examining appellate records; any appeal retained should have a valid reason and the instructions must be communicated to all AACs.

Provisional assessment must be recorded and checked to prevent tax undercharges and ensure accurate final assessments.
Failure to account for refunds arising from provisional assessment u/s.141A led to tax undercharges where provisional refunds were not reflected in regular assessments; assessing officers must verify provisional assessment registers and ITNS-150A entries so prior provisional assessment results are recorded before determining additional tax, and supervisory and audit checks must ensure top cases are reviewed to prevent such calculation and credit errors.

Proper accounting of government receipts: officials must follow treasury rules to ensure collections are credited to the public account.
Non crediting of tax collections from missing or uncontrolled receipt books contravenes prescribed treasury and departmental accounting procedures. The Board reiterates prior instructions requiring strict control of receipt books, accurate accounting of government moneys, and prompt payment into the public account, directs officers to ensure observance of treasury rules and earlier circulars, and requires acknowledgement of these instructions to secure administrative responsibility and compliance.

Annuity inclusion in professional income extended to all professionals, applying film-artist treatment to client-professional arrangements.
Instruction No.1440/CBDT withdraws the restriction limiting Instruction No.1310 to film artists and provides that, for professionals following the cash system, annuity instalments received in a year under an annuity policy meeting prescribed features are to be included in that year's total income. The instruction further directs that references to producers and artists be read as client-professional relationships for other professionals, and that Instruction No.1310 is modified accordingly.

Statutory time limits for interest tax assessments must be enforced, completing them alongside income tax assessments to avoid delays.
The Board directs Commissioners of Income Tax to identify pending assessments under the Interest Tax Act, 1974 and ensure they are completed within the statutory time limit applicable to assessments under the I.T. Act, 1961, and, where possible, to finalise Interest Tax assessments alongside Income tax assessments to avoid delays.

Acceptability of offset-printed memorandum and articles affirmed for company registration, permitting registrars to accept such documents.
The circular concludes that memorandum and articles of association printed by offset printing are materially equivalent to conventional printing and present no objection to acceptance for company registration; registrars should accept such documents in form for filing absent other defects.

Valuation discounts for non-marketable unquoted shares permitted within limits, higher discounts require Board reference under gift and estate tax rules.
Where the break-up method is used to value unquoted equity shares no discount for restrictions on alienability is allowed; for investment and holding companies, alternative valuation methods may permit a marketability discount to be determined on the facts, with the Board prescribing a typical range and requiring reference for higher discounts. The same guidance applies to gift-tax valuation under the corresponding rule.

Custody of original title deeds must be maintained by officers in personal locked custody with receipt and acknowledgement.
Original title deeds taken as security must be obtained in original because photostat copies may not prevent the assessee creating an equitable mortgage. Originals must be kept by the responsible officer in his personal custody under lock and key; the assessee must be given a simple receipt bearing the officer's official signature; on return the assessee's acknowledgement must be obtained, entered on the order sheet, and the receipt taken back.

Tax refund procedure: refunds of excess tax paid allowed only under appellate order and only to the extent ordered.
Realisation of proportionate demand depends on the scope of the appellate order: if the appellate authority sets aside the assessing officer's order entirely no demand survives, but where the appellate order upholds certain points the demand on those upheld points remains enforceable. Refunds: amounts found in excess of tax due are refundable while balances appropriated against liability are not refundable merely because the assessing officer's order is set aside; any refund from such appropriated sums requires and is limited by an appellate authority's order.

TDS on salaries: designate dedicated ITOs to strengthen deduction, ensure prompt deposit and report administrative arrangements.
Directs appointment of separate ITOs to handle TDS on salaries exclusively, requires Commissioners to report arrangements, and obliges officers receiving other TDS statements to ensure correct deduction, prompt deposit to government accounts and immediate action against defaulters.

Lower TDS certificate: ITO may allow reduced or nil deduction if total income justifies, verify partners' tax payment.
The Income-tax Officer may issue a certificate permitting lower or no tax deduction on payments to contractors/sub-contractors if satisfied that the applicant's total income justifies it. For registered firms, certificates based on the firm's tax position may continue, but officers must verify that partners have paid their proper tax before issuing certificates.

Voluntary disclosure: relief depends on whether assessment findings reflect detection, not merely receipt of confessions or search.
Clarifications stress that voluntary disclosures qualify for relief only if they precede departmental detection in completed assessments; allegations of concealment must be supported by evidence creating a reasonable belief and, where assessment orders do not include the alleged items, such allegations do not bar relief. Disclosures after receipt of confessional statements or after searches are evaluated by whether the relevant assessments include additions based on those materials; if assessments do not incorporate such additions, relief may still be available. New taxpayers filing before local enquiries can be voluntary disclosers, and Commissioners may continue to give non-binding guidance to officers.

Deductibility under section 57(iii): selection fees for test cricketers partly allowable; foreign tours and other matches treated differently.
Where a cricketer who is not a professional receives a selection fee it is assessable as income from other sources, and expenditure wholly and exclusively incurred for earning that income is deductible. For domestic Test matches a substantial portion of the selection fee may be treated as deductible expenditure; foreign tour receipts attract a lower presumptive deduction only where none is credited to a benevolent fund; fees for non-Test domestic matches are deemed wholly expended.

Estate duty exemptions: both clause-based exemptions may be claimed concurrently for eligible rulers under Section 33.
The Board instructs that both exemptions under clause (1) and clause (n) of Section 33 may be granted concurrently where the respective conditions of each clause are satisfied. This position rests on the statutory phrasing providing exemptions "to the extent specified against each," the absence of any textual restriction limiting applicability to a single clause, and the interpretive principle favouring the taxpayer where two readings are possible; taxation by implication is not recognised absent explicit statutory language.

Safe custody of title deeds: originals must be held in officer's locked personal custody with receipt and acknowledgment.
Original title deeds taken as security against tax dues or for other purposes must be retained in the officer's personal custody under lock and key. The assessee must be given a simple receipt signed by the officer; upon return of the originals the officer must obtain the assessee's acknowledgement, record an entry on the file/order sheet and take back the earlier receipt.

Dissolution of two partner firm on death: separate tax assessments required for pre and post death periods under assessment law.
Where a two partner firm is involved, the firm is ipso facto dissolved on the death of one partner; if the surviving partner continues business in partnership with others the apportionment provision for composite assessment does not apply and two separate income tax assessment orders must be framed for the pre death and post death periods.

Rectification under section 154 prompts administrative emphasis on accurate assessments and immediate appraisal in CCRs.
A marked increase in applications for rectification under section 154 is attributed to failures to credit pre-assessment tax payments, incorrect interest charging, arithmetical computation errors, and non-consideration of reduction or relief claims without reasons. The Board has accepted DOMS recommendations and directs IACs to emphasise care in assessments, proper crediting and computation, and to factor the incidence of rectifications into Confidential Character Rolls (CCRs) and annual appraisals of ITOs; officers under charge must be informed.

Taxability of special allowance: replacement allowances for perquisites treated as salary income; rent-paid deduction may apply.
Replacement special allowances paid in lieu of free furnished accommodation and limited personal use of official cars are to be treated as income chargeable under the head "salaries." If the recipient pays rent out of that special allowance, a claim for deduction in respect of rent paid may be considered, with the deduction provision applying only from the financial year beginning 1 April 1976 and assessment years thereafter.

Simultaneous assessment procedure: ensure firm-assessed partner share is communicated, recorded and adopted in partner assessments.
Procedure mandates simultaneous assessment of firms and partners by recording and adopting the partner's share of income determined in the firm's assessment. Assessing officers must note names and designations of officers handling partner assessments; where partners are in the same ward, the partner's share is to be noted on the partner's return at firm assessment completion. If assessed elsewhere, the firm's officer must communicate the share and a capital account summary to the partner's officer and obtain acknowledgement. A provisional share income register must be maintained and checked monthly.

Minor's liability for partnership losses clarified: upon election to become a partner, the minor shares in losses.
A minor who elects on attaining majority to become a partner takes the same share he was entitled to as a minor and, upon election, shares in losses as well as profits. If the partnership instrument foresees the minor becoming major and specifies distribution then it evidences changes in shares; where the instrument does not allow ascertainment of shares by reasonable construction it will not evidence the change. Instruction No.1161 is withdrawn and the revised position applies from the change occurring in the previous year relevant to assessment year 1982-83 onward.