Tax credit for TDS on advance rent: apportioned across assessment years or allowed upon agreement termination or transfer.
Credit for tax deducted at source on advance rent must be allowed to the person on whose behalf TDS was deducted and to whom the TDS certificate was issued: apportioned across assessment years in the same proportions as rental income is offered to tax when advance covers multiple years; and the uncredited balance shall be allowed in the assessment year in which the rent agreement is terminated or the property is transferred and the balance advance refunded.

Tax surcharge and full charitable donation deduction allowed at TDS stage where employer remits consolidated disaster relief donations.
An additional surcharge on income-tax for 2000-01 must be included in TDS computations on salaries and applies to residents and non residents; tax after Chapter VI A rebates is to be increased by the surcharge. Employers who deduct consolidated donations from employees' salaries for approved earthquake relief funds may have the full charitable donation deduction allowed at the TDS stage only if the employer remits the consolidated donations to approved bodies by the specified deadline and issues receipts evidencing payment to employees.

Audit report filing requirement extended: late audit reports for affected assessment year may be filed before completion of assessment.
Where the statutory obligation to maintain books and obtain a tax audit and to furnish an auditor's report under the presumptive income provisions was inserted retrospectively after the prescribed filing date, affected assessees may furnish the required audit report anytime before completion of assessment for that year, and such filing will be treated as deemed compliance with the original filing requirement.

Finance lease ownership determines depreciation entitlement; accounting standard capitalisation does not alter income tax allowance treatment.
Ownership in finance lease transactions determines entitlement to depreciation under the Income-tax Act and is fixed by the terms of the contract between lessor and lessee; sham or non-existent assets created by hawala preclude depreciation, and sale-and-leaseback claims must be examined for substantive ownership. The Accounting Standard requiring lessee capitalisation in financial leases does not, by itself, alter the allowance of depreciation under tax law.

Enduring benefit test: ex-gratia payments under VRS treated as capital expenditure when they create lasting advantage.
Ex-gratia payments made to effect Voluntary Retirement Schemes or similar restructuring that create an enduring benefit or advantage for the business - such as improved profitability, competitiveness or technological induction - are properly attributable to capital and not revenue. Assessing Officers should decide the character of such expenditure on the facts and circumstances of each case, considering the nature and ordinary course of the business and the objects for which the payments were made.

Depreciation allowance must be separately computed when particulars are furnished; absent particulars, no depreciation is allowed.
If prescribed particulars have been furnished and depreciation claimed, the income should be estimated with gross profit assessed and deductions and allowances, including a separately worked out depreciation allowance, deducted; if net profit alone is estimated it must be subject to depreciation. If required particulars are not furnished and no depreciation claim is made, estimate income without allowing depreciation, note this exclusion in the assessment order, and retain the written down value of assets at the preceding year's level.

Auditors' report format: filing the revised Form No. 10CCAC during assessment cures old format defects for deduction claims.
Submission of the auditors' report in Form No. 10CCAC is required to claim the deduction under section 80HHC. Filing the pre revised (old) format is a defect that can be cured by filing the auditors' report in the revised Form No. 10CCAC during the course of assessment proceedings, permitting rectification and consideration of the deduction claim.