National e-Assessment Centre establishment centralises e-assessment functions under designated income-tax authorities and staffing provisions.
Establishment of a National e-Assessment Centre (NeAC) under the E-assessment Scheme, 2019, with headquarters at Delhi and a specified constitution of designated Income-tax authorities across senior and subordinate ranks; NeAC will be supported by ministerial, executive, or consultant staff provided by the Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-tax (CCA), Delhi in consultation with the Board.

Exemption from monetary limits for bogus penny stock capital gains cases - appeals must be filed and heard on merits.
Monetary limits fixed for filing appeals and special leave petitions shall not apply to cases alleging bogus Long Term Capital Gains and Short Term Capital Loss through penny stocks, and appeals/SLPs in such cases are to be filed and considered on their merits.

Compounding application deadline relaxation permits late filings to competent authority, subject to eligibility and non-compoundable offence exclusions.
One-time relaxation of the 12-month filing requirement for compounding applications allows late filings before the competent authority, excluding offences that are not compoundable. Applications filed by the earlier deadline are deemed timely. Eligible cases include prosecutions pending over twelve months, applications withdrawn solely for late filing, and applications rejected solely for technical reasons. Other compounding procedures and charges remain applicable while a specific guideline paragraph is not applied to these one-time filings.

Prosecution thresholds require collegium approval for lower-value defaults and ITAT confirmation before pursuing certain evasion offences.
The circular sets monetary and temporal thresholds and procedural safeguards for initiating prosecution under Chapter XXII, excluding prosecution in normal circumstances for defaults below specified thresholds or short delays, while requiring prior administrative approval of a collegium of two CCIT/DGIT officers for exceptional or below-threshold cases; prosecution for wilful tax evasion is to follow confirmation of the penalty order by the ITAT. The annexure lists prosecutable sections and the approving authority for each offence.

Exception to monetary limits for filing appeals permits filing on merits in identified organised tax evasion cases by special order.
Notwithstanding any circular prescribing monetary limits for departmental appeals, the Board will permit filing of appeals on merits as an exception where it issues a special order directing appeal in cases involving organised tax evasion activity involving bogus capital gains/loss schemes on penny stocks.

Manual selection for complete scrutiny sets thresholds and conditions and requires administrative approvals for intelligence-referred cases.
Rules set parameters for manual selection of returns for Complete Scrutiny: recurring additions in earlier years above specified thresholds and high-value transfer pricing additions where additions are final or confirmed on appeal; cases from surveys if disclosure retracted; assessments following search and seizure; claims of exemption despite cancellation of registration/approval (except where reversed on appeal); and returns flagged by law enforcement/intelligence/regulatory agencies subject to prior administrative approval.

Non-applicability of section 56(2)(viib) for DPIIT-recognized startups halts related tax demands and prescribes assessment process.
Consolidates CBDT guidance that DPIIT recognized startups with a filed Form No.2 are not subject to taxation of excess consideration as income under the equity premium rule; assessors must accept the assessee's contention in limited scrutiny, obtain supervisory approval before pursuing the issue in multi issue or non Form No.2 cases, and meet prescribed timelines. Past additions on this ground in earlier assessments should not be pressed on appeal where the declaration exists, related demands are not to be pursued absent appellate confirmation, and a Startup Cell is established for grievance redressal.

ITR filing: non-resident directors of foreign companies with no India nexus need not disclose directorship.
ITR forms require disclosure of directorship with company name, PAN, listing status and DIN; non-residents need not disclose directorship in a foreign company that has no income received in India or accruing or arising in India, while residents must disclose all directorships. Residents reporting foreign assets, signing authority or foreign income must complete Schedule FA, but only where the foreign assets were held both during the Indian previous year and during the foreign jurisdiction's relevant accounting period.

Treatment of farm in expenditure as intangible asset allows depreciation after deducting the tangible asset component for tax purposes.
The amount paid for acquiring a Participating Interest (PI) in an E&P contract approved by the Government of India represents payment to acquire underlying rights, licences and obligations, not a partnership share; after reducing the component attributable to tangible assets, the residual amount shall be treated as an intangible asset (a business or commercial right akin to a licence) and is eligible for claim of depreciation under clause (ii) of sub section (1) of section 32 of the Income tax Act.

Presumptive taxation under section 44AE: calculation based on gross vehicle weight for goods carriages, unladen weight for tractors and road-rollers.
Computation under section 44AE must follow Motor Vehicles Act definitions: a heavy goods vehicle is a goods carriage whose gross vehicle weight exceeds 12,000 kilograms; tractors or road-rollers are assessed by unladen weight. Presumptive income is Rs. 1000 per ton of gross vehicle weight per month for heavy goods vehicles, and Rs. 1000 per ton of unladen weight per month for tractors and road-rollers where gross vehicle weight does not apply.

Document Identification Number requirement mandatory for tax communications; manual exceptions require prior approval and timely regularisation.
No income-tax communication may be issued on or after 1 October 2019 without a computer-generated Document Identification Number (DIN) quoted in the body; limited exceptions allow manual issuance only with written reasons and prior written approval of the Chief Commissioner/Director General, and manual communications must state the absence of a DIN. Non-conforming communications are invalid. Manual communications under specified exceptions must be regularised within 15 working days by uploading to the system, generating and communicating the DIN; a seven-day intimation is required to the Systems authority for functional unavailability, and pending manual notices must be uploaded by 31 October 2019.

Verification checklist for demonetisation cash deposits standardizes AO scrutiny to identify and quantify unexplained cash deposits for assessment.
Standardized verification checklist directs assessing officers to verify depositor information, classify taxpayer type, assess return filing history and income, compute ratio of cash deposits to gross total income, and identify nature of deposits to determine quantum of unaccounted deposits. For businesses it requires comparison with earlier sales profiles, review of stock records and internal controls, month wise analysis of cash sales and bank deposits across pre and peri demonetisation periods, computation of percentage increases, and follow up on atypical cash patterns; completed checklists must be uploaded in prescribed electronic format.

ITR-6 filing: report passport if no foreign TIN, disclose foreign directorships, and follow Schedule FA/AL/CG rules.
Non-resident taxpayers without a local TIN must report passport number and issuing country. Report foreign directorships and unlisted foreign shareholdings (also in Schedule FA) even if no Indian income arises. Listed overseas shares need not be reported as unlisted equity; delisted companies' PAN may be furnished or default "NNNNN0000N" used. For gifts/mergers/bonus, cost/sale consideration may be zero since entries are for reporting only. Schedule FD covers only foreign-currency payments/receipts for business operations in India. ISIN/scrip-wise LTCG tools in the utility are optional; aggregate LTCG may be entered directly in Schedule CG.

Monetary limits for departmental income-tax appeals increased, restricting appeals to assessment years with tax effects above prescribed thresholds.
The circular raises the monetary thresholds for departmental filing of income tax appeals at successive appellate fora and prescribes that the Assessing Officer must calculate tax effect separately for each assessment year for every assessee; appeals may be filed only for those assessment years where the separately computed tax effect exceeds the prescribed monetary limit, including in cases of composite orders and where multiple assessees are involved.

Applicability of section 56(2)(viib) clarified: DPIIT recognized startups' share premium not scrutinised in limited assessments.
The circular instructs that where a DPIIT recognized startup is selected under limited scrutiny solely on applicability of section 56(2)(viib), Assessing Officers shall not verify that issue and shall accept the startup's contention; where such recognition exists but scrutiny includes other issues, clause (viib) shall not be pursued and other inquiries may proceed only after supervisory approval; for unrecognized startups, verification on clause (viib) or other issues requires supervisory approval and adherence to due procedure under the Income tax Act.

Relaxation of time limits allows processing of time barred tax returns with refund claims subject to administrative approval.
Relaxation of the statutory time limit under section 143(1) permits processing of validly filed returns with refund claims up to assessment year 2017 18 that became time barred for reasons not attributable to the assessee; such returns may be processed and intimations issued by 31.12.2019 with prior administrative approval of the Pr.CCIT/CCIT and enablement to the Assessing Officer via Pr.DGIT(Systems), while exclusions apply for scrutiny cases under section 143(1D), returns showing or likely to give rise to demand, and returns delayed for reasons attributable to the assessee.

Due-date extension for filing income-tax returns under section 139(1) grants taxpayers an extra month to file.
The Central Board of Direct Taxes, under section 119 of the Income-tax Act, extends the due-date prescribed under section 139(1) for filing income-tax returns for Assessment Year 2019-20 from 31 July 2019 to 31 August 2019 for all taxpayers required to file by the original due date, citing difficulties such as delayed issuance of Form 16.

Perquisite exclusion for employer-paid medical treatment at approved hospital, tax withholding not required while approval is conditional on compliance.
Approval is granted to Samford Hospital Pvt. Ltd., Kokar Chowk, Ranchi under sub clause (b) of clause (ii) of the proviso to clause (viii) of sub section (2) of section 17 read with Rules 3A(1) and 3A(2). Employer payments for medical treatment at the approved hospital for diseases specified in Rule 3A(2)(e) shall not be treated as a perquisite for sections 15, 16 and 17, and the employer need not deduct tax at source under section 192. The approval is effective from the date of issue for three years and is conditional on continued compliance and may be withdrawn for misrepresentation.

Deemed payment rule: bank-holiday delayed transfers treated as timely under Income Disclosure Scheme when credited within prescribed window.
Clarification grants procedural relief under the Income Declaration Scheme by deeming payments effected on the next working banking day after consecutive bank holidays to be paid on the original due date, and by treating payments tendered by declarants and credited by banks within a specified subsequent window as paid on the due date; the concerned Principal Commissioner/Commissioner must verify and report to the Principal DGIT (Systems).

Deemed direct investment through AIFs prevents Indian taxation of non resident offshore income, and such losses are not set off.
Income of a non resident investor from offshore investments routed through a Category I or Category II AIF is deemed to be a direct investment by the investor under section 115UB and, therefore, is not taxable in India under section 5(2). Losses from such offshore investments are exempt and cannot be set off or carried forward against the income of the Category I or Category II AIF.