Taxpayer appreciation certificates issued to eligible taxpayers based on tax contribution and timely e filing/verification.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes issued a second round of Certificates of Appreciation to additional individual taxpayers, targeting those who filed returns within the due date and whose ITR V was received well before the 120 day submission period; the initiative distinguishes recipients by tiers based on tax contributed and encourages e filing and timely electronic or ITR V verification to qualify for acknowledgement.

Intimation under section 143(1) relaxed to permit late processing of refund claims with specified exclusions.
Administrative relaxation directs that valid non scrutiny returns claiming refund for specified assessment years, which were not processed within the statutory time for issuing intimation, be processed and intimations and consequential refunds issued expeditiously by a stated deadline. The relaxation excludes returns unprocessed under the special non processing provision and returns showing or likely to show a demand.

Tax exemption for land acquisition compensation extends to awards under RFCTLARR Act, ensuring non-taxability under income-tax law.
The tax authority clarifies that compensation exempted from levy of income-tax under the RFCTLARR Act shall also not be taxable under the Income-tax Act, 1961, even where the Income-tax Act contains no separate or specific exemption for that compensation, thereby addressing uncertainty on taxability of awards or agreements for compulsory acquisition of both agricultural and non-agricultural land.

Standing counsel engagement rules clarified: drafting and filing bills amended and dispute resolution makes regional fee determination final.
Modifications revise CBDT standing counsel guidelines: require recording diary and ITA numbers for appeals and other petitions; change wording from "For Drafting" and "Bills for drafting" to "For Drafting and Filing" and require bills for drafting and filing of appeals only after defects are removed and ITA number is available; amend proforma fields and academic-record marking; add a Dispute Resolution clause making the Principal Chief Commissioner's regional fee determination final and binding.

Extension of filing deadline: due date for income-tax returns and audit reports in Jammu & Kashmir extended to a later final date.
The tax authority extended the due date for filing income-tax returns and statutory reports of audit for all categories of taxpayers in the State of Jammu & Kashmir, responding to difficulties in meeting the original deadline and providing statewide procedural relief by prescribing a revised final submission date for the relevant assessment period.

Failure to remit TDS/TCS: risk based prosecution selection with mandatory processing, section 278AA consideration, and compounding priority.
Selection for prosecution of failures to remit TDS/TCS will follow a risk based approach reflecting deductor compliance behaviour; DGIT(Systems) will generate periodic lists of defaulters for processing by the TDS/TCS jurisdictional officer. Processing is mandatory in the sense of formal consideration but does not mandate filing; the CIT concerned must apply mind to facts. CIT(TDS) may also select cases from surveys, grievances or searches; defaults for other years may be included. Reasonable cause considerations must be weighed and compounding applications handled on priority.

Fee adjustment for delayed furnishing of certified judgments reduces prosecutor payment when certified copy is supplied late.
Modification to CBDT Instruction No. 6/2016 updates Part B of Proforma 'P4' for Special Public Prosecutor billing by adding entries for Date of Judgment and Date of furnishing the certified copy, and prescribes a deduction from hearing fees where the certified copy is furnished to the Department more than ten days after the judgment (court time excluded). Existing billing heads such as substantial and non effective hearings, conference fees, clerkage, out of pocket expenses and duties outside headquarters remain.

TDS on lease premium: lump-sum non-adjustable upfront charges for long-term leases are not treated as rent for deduction.
Lump sum lease premiums or one-time upfront lease charges paid for acquisition of long-term leasehold rights, where not adjustable against periodic rent, are not payments in the nature of rent under section 194-I and therefore are not subject to TDS under that provision; the Department has accepted High Court rulings treating such payments as capital or akin to deemed sale and has not filed further appeals.

Electronic service of Form-2 permitted; search or seizure after June 1 bars eligibility to declare for affected assessment years.
Electronic communication of Form-2 by email to the address given in Form-1 is authorized as valid service for electronically filed declarations under the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016. An assessee is ineligible to file a declaration where a search and seizure operation has been conducted on or after 01.06.2016 but before the declaration, for assessment years for which notices enabling assessment can be issued; the year of search is already excluded as declarations are allowed only up to A.Y.2016-17.

Extension of tax return due-date: applies to assessees required to file under clause (a) of Explanation 2 to section 139.
The circular clarifies that the previously issued extension of the income-tax return due-date applies to all assessees required to file their return by 30th September, 2016 under clause (a) of Explanation 2 to sub-section (1) of the Income-tax Act, 1961, reiterating applicability of the orders dated 9th and 14th September, 2016 (F. No. 225/195/2016/ITA.II).

Income Declaration Scheme filing: system now allows uploading Form One declarations filed without PAN; officials must upload them.
The Income Declaration Scheme permits declarants without PAN to file manually by quoting their PAN application date and acknowledgment number; the ITD system now accepts uploading of such manually filed Form 1 declarations, and Principal Commissioners/Commissioners are directed to upload them using the new facility.

Scrutiny notices under section 143(2) must be issued before time barring for PANs selected in CASS.
Generation of scrutiny notices under section 143(2) is required for PANs selected by CASS-2016 and must be completed before the time-bar date; 991 selected PAN cases had not received notices, including cases tied to inactive or old/defunct AO codes and AO codes lacking employee numbers, and authorities are directed to migrate PANs to correct active jurisdictions and review AO assignments so notices can be issued on time.

PAN requirement: manual declarations accepted with PAN application details, Form-2 issued after PAN allotment, time limit reset.
Assessees without PAN may file manual declarations before the jurisdictional Principal Commissioner/Commissioner by quoting the date and acknowledgment number of their PAN application; such declarations must be accepted, but Form-2 will be issued only after PAN allotment and the time limit for issuance runs from the allotment date. Declarations are invalid if PAN is not allotted due to the declarant's non compliance.

Income Declaration Scheme: filing hours extended - paper counters to remain open until the filing deadline for declarations.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes directed that declarations under the Income Declaration Scheme may be submitted online or in printed prescribed form until the close of the filing period, and instructed all Principal Chief Commissioners of Income Tax to ensure counters and local arrangements are available to receive paper declarations until that time.

Fair market value rule: undisclosed income represented by assets measured by FMV on 01.06.2016, cash included.
Undisclosed income represented by investment in any asset shall be deemed to be the fair market value as on 01.06.2016 for the purposes of the Income Declaration Scheme, 2016; cash in hand is an asset. Treating original investment plus capital gains from a pre-01.06.2016 sale (with proceeds held in cash) as the amount to be declared is not in accordance with the Scheme and Board clarifications.

Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme awareness: append an informational flyer to Commissioner (Appeals) hearing notices to appellants.
Administrative instruction implementing the Direct Tax Dispute Resolution Scheme, 2016: Principal Chief Commissioners are to direct Commissioner (Appeals) to append an unsigned informational Flyer to hearing notices sent to appellants whose cases are before Commissioner (Appeals) to improve awareness among taxpayers likely to use the Scheme; the communication is issued with administrative approval.

Tax Evasion Petition management through centralized ITBA registration and categorization enabling targeted investigation and AO action.
The SOP requires centralized registration of all Tax Evasion Petitions at the jurisdictional Central Registry Unit, scanning and upload to ITBA to generate a Unique Identification Number, categorization into four categories (A-D) for determination of investigative responsibility, masking complainant identity on request, and retention of hard copy records in CRU custody while selected materials and inventories are uploaded to ITBA.

Approval under Section 35(1)(ii) rescinded, removing tax-benefit status for specified research organisations.
Central Government notifications granting approval under Section 35(1)(ii) of the Income-tax Act, 1961 to three Kolkata research organisations have been rescinded retrospectively; the rescissions state that the original approvals shall be deemed not to have been issued for any tax benefits. The approvals had been conditional on utilisation of sums for scientific research, research conducted through faculty or students, maintenance of separate books and audited accounts, and certified statements of donations and applications; the earlier notifications also listed specific grounds on which approval would be withdrawn.

Penalty mitigation under section 273A: declarations under the Income Declaration Scheme may qualify as cooperation, limiting prosecution.
The circular clarifies that a valid declaration under the Income Declaration Scheme for years not under assessment on an identical issue, coupled with an offer to pay tax and interest for the year pending assessment, shall be treated as having cooperated in any enquiry for the purpose of reducing or waiving penalty; revenue officers are advised to take a lenient view on applications for penalty reduction or waiver in such cases, subject to payment of the entire amount payable under the Scheme and appropriate application under the penalty relief mechanism.

Intelligence dossier submission requirement: agencies must step up forwarding of dossiers and file an action report to the Board.
Directive requiring investigation leadership to increase the frequency and quality of dossier submissions to the central economic intelligence institution and to furnish an action taken report to the Board within the timeframe specified, reiterating prior communications and supervisory follow up after an economic intelligence council meeting.