Consolidation of TDS entries at TAN level streamlines matching and allows later rectification of newly reported credits.
Consolidation groups TDS claims in the assessee's ITR and 26AS at the TAN level for assessees with over one thousand entries, matching them in advance to reduce rows shown to assessing officers and simplify computation; any fresh TDS credits reported after consolidation may be allowed later by rectification, and a list of consolidated cases is published on i-taxnet with instructions for early completion of assessments.

March residual transactions: banks must segregate and report year end receipts separately to secure accounting in the prior year.
Banks must treat receipts realised on or before the financial year end as March Residual Transactions and ensure these are accounted in the prior year even if reported in April; receiving branches should use special messenger/courier arrangements to forward challans to Nodal/Focal Point branches. From April 1 to April 10 Nodal/Focal Point branches shall segregate and serially label March Residual main scrolls, prepare separate daily summaries and Daily Memos for March Residual and April transactions, forward March Residual advices for settlement with the Reserve Bank, and submit two sets of submissions to departmental accounts officers.

Remedial action clarified: accept valid audit objections and restrict appeals where first instance orders are justified.
Modification directs that correct audit objections on fact or law must be accepted and remedial action initiated; officers must initiate remedial measures promptly and complete orders within administrative timeframes. If the PCIT/CIT does not accept an objection, they must record reasons and inform the audit authority, and no remedial action is required. Adverse first appellate orders involving audit objections must be scrutinised and appeals should not be preferred where the order is justified, with reasons recorded for not filing appeal.

Penny stock transactions: uploaded investigation data must inform assessments and consideration of reopening of assessments under tax rules.
Investigation data on manipulated penny stock transactions, including a Kolkata report, has been uploaded to the Individual Transaction Screen via a new 'Penny Stock' button; Assessing Officers and their supervisors must access and consider this information when finalizing assessments and when considering reopening of assessments, with technical support contact provided for access issues.

Leave sanction requirement: officers must obtain prior sanction and complete charge handover before proceeding on leave.
Officers shall not proceed on any kind of leave, including Earned Leave, unless the leave is sanctioned in a timely manner and a proper handing over of charge is completed where required; field formations must instruct personnel under their jurisdiction to ensure strict compliance.

Processing of time barred tax returns via online TMS enables resolution of PAN and system impediments while safeguarding tax credit rules.
Two separate online TMS functionalities permit processing of otherwise time barred returns: Online TMS (category 1) for returns with genuine PANs blocked by migration, de duplication, deletion or jurisdictional issues-allowing AOs to process returns outside PAN jurisdiction with online tax credits and later integration into AST; and Online TMS (category 2) for returns with invalid or mismatched PANs-disallowing tax credit integration, preventing refunds, keeping processed data standalone, and requiring the AO to record reasons and pursue PAN correction.

Tax credit mismatch protection: Assessing officers must not recover TDS demands from deductee when deductor failed to deposit.
Assessing officers are directed not to enforce or recover demands against a deductee to the extent tax has been deducted but not deposited by the deductor; Section 205 bars direct demand and coercive enforcement for tax-credit mismatches arising from the deductor's non-payment.

Agricultural income verification required to confirm genuineness, correct entry errors, and report adjusted claims promptly.
Assessing officers must verify high-value declarations of agricultural income to ascertain genuineness, correct inadvertent data-entry errors, and identify possible improper routing of funds; where scrutiny under section 143(3) is complete provide feedback from assessment records, and where proceedings are pending conduct thorough verification. A departmental list of cases is available on itaxnet for jurisdictional action and officers must submit a consolidated status report to the Directorate by the stated internal deadline to enable accurate reporting to the court.

Arm's Length Price determination governs when Assessing Officers must refer cases to Transfer Pricing Officers and follow procedural safeguards.
Determination of the Arm's Length Price requires Assessing Officers to refer cases to the Transfer Pricing Officer only in prescribed circumstances: mandatory referral when cases are selected on transfer pricing risk parameters; referral where transactions are undeclared or omitted from the accountant's report; where past transfer pricing adjustments are significant and contested; or where transfer pricing issues arise from search, seizure or survey. The AO must record satisfaction of potential income effect and afford the taxpayer an opportunity to be heard before seeking approval to refer. The TPO must determine ALP using the prescribed methods, issue speaking orders with reasons and data, and maintain detailed records.

Monetary thresholds for appellate filings limit departmental cross objections and High Court references; below limit filings may not be considered.
The Board clarifies that the increased monetary limit for appeals to the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal applies equally to departmental cross objections; cross objections below the monetary threshold already filed should be pursued for dismissal as withdrawn/not pressed and such filings may not be considered henceforth. The same monetary threshold rule applies to references to High Courts; references below the threshold should be pursued for dismissal as withdrawn/not pressed and future references below that limit may not be entertained.

Verification timeline under section 245 reduced to expedite refunds by halving response period for taxpayers and assessing officers
CPC will issue reminders to assessing officers or taxpayers to confirm, correct or accept arrear demands; failure by an assessing officer to respond will lead CPC to issue refunds without adjustment with the assessing officer remaining responsible for non adjustment, while failure by a taxpayer to respond will permit CPC to adjust the demand and issue any balance refund. The prescribed response period has been temporarily reduced to a shorter timeframe for notices issued in the remaining part of the financial year to expedite clearance of refund backlog.

Consortium not an AOP where members have separate work, risk and profits, clarifying tax treatment.
A consortium for EPC/Turnkey contracts is not to be treated as an AOP if each member independently executes and bears risk for its demarcated scope of work, incurs expenditure only for that scope, earns profits or bears losses based on its performance, retains control of men and materials for its work, and common management is limited to administrative inter-se coordination; sharing of contract price at gross level for billing convenience does not alter this. The circular excludes cases involving Associated Enterprises, where the Assessing Officer will decide on AOP status.

Revisional powers of Commissioner under section 263: departments must report pending litigation on pre amendment assistant commissioner orders by deadline.
Revisional powers of the Commissioner under section 263 are in question where orders were passed by the Inspecting Assistant Commissioner before Explanation (a) and (b) were added; departments must report any pending litigation on that issue to the designated legal office by the prescribed internal deadline, and failure to report will be treated as confirmation that no such litigation is pending.

Infrastructure readiness for tax investigation IT modules required, with local procurement and data entry deadlines to ensure rollout.
The Board directed local procurement of network and computer infrastructure up to Inspector level and submission of network node requirements to ADG (S)-4 by 15 March 2016 to ensure readiness for the revamped Investigation and Search & Survey Modules of ITBA. Systems Directorate will release Excel offline utilities for pending TEPs and STRs, and PD account deposit data must be captured in the prescribed Excel format; all data-entry tasks and infrastructure provision are Top Priority with a compliance report due to the Board by 15 March 2016.

Categorization of suspicious transaction reports updated: legacy category 'A' to be treated as category 'F1' under post-Finnet rules.
The Board directs that pre-Finnet category 'A' Suspicious Transaction Reports shall be read as category 'F1' in the post-Finnet period; references to P1 STRs in the SOP on STRs and related feedback communications are to be interpreted as F1, pursuant to an explanatory letter from the Financial Intelligence Unit and communicated to all DGsIT (Invest.) and DGIT(l&CI).

Time-barring under section 143: centralised lists provided for identifying pending assessments and ensuring completion on the system.
Directorate extracted AST data to identify cases pending scrutiny and processing that are approaching time bar and placed detailed lists on itaxnet and ITD/AST MIS Reports. Supervisors and Assessing Officers are instructed to use these centralised lists to ensure assessments are completed on the system, upload order details to correct discrepancies, and lodge Helpdesk complaints for system issues so that AST/ITBA reflects the accurate position.

PAN allotment in arrear demand cases: routed procedure requiring AO certification and RCC forwarding to PAN service provider.
PAN allotment in arrear demand cases will be facilitated through the PAN service provider on receipt of AO-submitted PAN application forms with certification that the assessee has not obtained PAN and that arrear demand has been recovered. Applications must include status, sex and AO code, the AO's official address, and be routed via JCIT/Addl. CIT, CIT/PCIT and the RCC, which will scrutinize and forward complete applications with contact details to the Directorate for PAN allotment. Direct requests to the Directorate from field formations will not be processed.

Stay of tax demand: prescribed lump sum payment allows stay pending first appeal; exceptions permit higher or lower pre deposits.
Default rule: where a demand is disputed before the first appellate authority, the assessing officer shall grant stay of demand until disposal of the first appeal upon payment of 15% of the disputed demand. If the assessing officer considers the nature of the addition warrants a different lump sum, the matter must be referred to the administrative Pr. CIT/CIT to determine the quantum. An assessee dissatisfied with the assessing officer's decision may seek review by the jurisdictional Pr. CIT/CIT.

Promotion of digital payments: incentivising card and electronic transactions while mandating cashless collections and stronger consumer protections.
Guidelines promoting non cash payments mandate strengthening acceptance infrastructure, rationalising Merchant Discount Rate and authentication rules, introducing tiered KYC and identity based eKYC, equipping government collection points with POS/mobile POS and a unified payments portal, mandating digital/cashless payments beyond set thresholds, and implementing consumer protection, fraud assurance and awareness measures to incentivise migration from cash to digital transactions.

Characterisation of share sale proceeds: capital gain or business income depends on holding and taxpayer election.
For listed shares and securities, where an assessee elects to treat holdings as stock-in-trade, transfers will be treated as business income regardless of holding period; where such listed shares and securities are held for more than twelve months and the assessee elects capital treatment, the Assessing Officer shall accept capital gains and the election must be consistently applied in subsequent years. Other cases remain fact-specific under existing CBDT guidance, and transactions of questionable genuineness are excluded.