Right to be heard and disclosure of binding directions ensures natural justice in tax assessment procedure.
The higher authority must consider the draft assessment order and the assessee's objections and may issue directions that are binding on the assessing officer; directions prejudicial to the assessee require an opportunity to be heard. Although the statute does not expressly mandate supplying those directions to the assessee, the process is quasi judicial and principles of natural justice require that the assessee be furnished a copy. Administrative instruction therefore directs supply of such directions, with completed assessments not to be routinely reopened solely for past nondisclosure, though copies may be provided on request.

Centralisation of tax investigations: prioritise fraud, organised evasion, repeat violations and asset transfers; extended retention needs approval.
Transfers to Investigation/Central Circles are to be guided by factors such as the likelihood of establishing tax fraud for prosecution, coverage of diverse direct tax offences across strata and regions, emphasis on notorious high bracket evaders and organised malpractices, evidence of repeated or flagrant violations, prior convictions for serious economic offences, and attempts to fritter away or transfer assets to evade liability; investigations should normally be completed within three or four years and retention beyond four years requires Board approval.

Refund of Voluntary Disclosure Payments: invalid declarations permit repayment when void ab initio, subject to claim procedure.
Refunds of tax paid or amounts invested in notified securities may be made where a declaration under the Voluntary Disclosure scheme is void under the Act's exclusionary provision, because the statutory bar applicable to valid declarations does not apply to declarations that are ab initio void; such refunds follow the same claim procedure as for late declarations. Erroneous investments made in bonds pursuant to post-search declarations may likewise be refunded after Commissioner certification and referral to the Reserve Bank, and Commissioners must obtain duplicate applications, verify bona fides, and maintain registers and prompt deposit procedures.

Assessment of chit fund taxation: verify agents, benami subscribers and expenses to secure correct tax treatment.
Assessing officers must verify agents and recurring subscriber names to detect benami dealings and check sources of contribution; directors and family suspected of siphoning funds should have their investments and wealth examined and company expenses vetted for inflation and disallowance. Genuineness of cash credits and bad debts must be scrutinised. Assessments should be completed on a priority basis. Windfall receipts by withdrawing bidders may be taxed as casual and non recurring receipts, while subscriber losses on discontinuance may be treated as capital losses not allowable for carry forward or set off.

Advance tax exemption for non-resident shipping income: no advance notices for income under the special shipping levy regime.
Non-resident shipowners and charterers subject to the special levy and recovery under section 172 need not be issued advance tax notices under section 210 for income deemed to accrue or arise in India under that provision; however, advance tax notices may be issued in respect of any other income of such non-resident shipping concerns not covered by the deemed shipping income provision.

Deduction of tax at source on salary is an employer's absolute duty; failure attracts interest and penalties.
Section 192(1) creates an absolute duty on any payer of salary to deduct tax at source; failure to deduct and pay attracts liability including interest on the defaulted tax and other penal provisions, and officers are directed to review similar cases and report results for remedial action.

Hundi payments treated as income when borrowed or repaid unless made by account payee cheque, changing tax treatment.
Section 69D treats any amount borrowed on or repaid by a hundi, and interest on such amounts, as the income of the taxpayer for the previous year if the transaction occurs otherwise than by an account payee cheque; the rule is confined to hundis and excludes other loan types, and it applies to payments made on or after the commencement date irrespective of when the hundi was executed.

Exemption for educational institutions barred where specific statutory exemptions exist, preventing reliance on the general charitable provision.
Because specific statutory exemptions exist for educational institutions and hospitals, those entities cannot claim the exemption available under the general charitable income provision; where Parliament has provided a targeted exemption for a class of institutions, the broader charitable-income exemption is inapplicable to that class.

Charitable purpose excludes activities carried on for profit, removing tax exemption when profit motive exists under income tax law.
Section 2(15) excludes activities involving the carrying on of any activity for profit from the definition of charitable purpose. The Supreme Court set a two-step test-(1) whether the object is of general public utility and (2) whether its advancement involves activities carried on for profit or without profit-and held that an affirmative finding of profit-oriented activity removes entitlement to exclusion from total income. Tax officers are directed to review completed cases under this test and report results to the Board.

Perquisite classification: bonus and cash allowances treated as perquisites and aggregated with other perquisites for limiting deductions.
Bonus, commission and other cash allowances are to be treated as perquisite and not remuneration. Such payments are "profits in addition to salary" and must be aggregated with other perquisites for applying the statutory limit that restricts disallowance. Earlier circulars inconsistent with this view are superseded to that extent, and the instruction is not applicable from the date the revised statutory definition of salary and perquisite came into effect.

Deductibility of interest: interest paid for late statutory provident fund deposits treated as penalty and not deductible.
Interest paid for failure to deposit statutory provident fund contributions is characterised as a penalty for non compliance and does not meet the conditions for an allowable business expenditure; such payments are punitive rather than incidental to income generation and must be excluded in computing total income.

Trust distinct legal entity: transfers from an HUF to a trust may attract gift tax if consideration is inadequate.
A trust constituted for the benefit of members of a Hindu Undivided Family is a distinct legal entity separate from the HUF, and a transfer of property by the Karta to such a trust is a bilateral transaction between two separate legal persons; if such transfers are for no consideration or for less than adequate consideration, gift tax provisions will be attracted.

Direct references to Supreme Court urged where High Courts conflict; Commissioners to prompt Tribunals through departmental representatives.
The Board instructs Commissioners to have Departmental Representatives request the Tribunal to draw up a statement of case and refer directly to the Supreme Court where conflicting decisions of two or more High Courts exist; Representatives may also request such direct reference when an assessee seeks a reference, and Commissioners must state whether they deem a case fit for a direct reference when forwarding proposals for filing a reference application.

Deduction of tax at source: enforcement urged to identify deductors and ensure prompt withholding and reporting.
The instruction directs strict enforcement of deduction of tax at source under Sections 194-B, 194-C and 194-D for lottery winnings, contractor/sub contractor payments and insurance commission; recalls prior circulars and proformae for data collection; mandates internal and external surveys to locate deductors; requires use of coercive measures under the Act to secure compliance; and directs reporting of survey results via prescribed proformae for the year.

Capital employed valuation: exclude uninstalled plant and book created fictitious assets from tax holiday computation.
Tax holiday relief is confined to capital actually employed in the undertaking on the first day of the computation period. Plant and machinery not put to use for the business as of that day and book-created or non real assets (fictitious assets such as prepaid charges arising from internal adjustments) must be excluded from the computation of capital employed for the purpose of the tax-holiday deduction.

Encashment of leave excluded from relief under section 89(1); payment accrues when employee elects monetary compensation.
Payment on encashment of accumulated leave results from an employee's voluntary election to surrender leave for monetary compensation and does not fall within the scope of salary received in arrears or advance for the purposes of relief under section 89(1); such amount accrues in the year the option to receive payment is exercised and therefore does not qualify for relief under that provision.

Deduction under section 80C for Public Provident Fund contributions in a minor's name permitted, subject to overall 80C limit.
Deduction under Section 80C(2)(iv) applies where an assessee deposits in the Public Provident Fund Scheme, 1968 in the name of a minor of whom he is guardian. Such contributions by the assessee on his own behalf or on behalf of a minor qualify for relief, but the total deductionable amount for Public Provident Fund contributions together with life insurance premiums, provident fund and similar contributions is subject to the aggregate limit set out in Section 80C(4).

Transfer of assets: dissolution distributing assets among partners is not a transfer; third-party transfers trigger rebate withdrawal.
The Board clarifies that division and distribution of a dissolved firm's assets among partners does not constitute a transfer, so distribution of the development rebate reserve to partners before the prescribed period does not attract liability and the rebate is not to be withdrawn; however, where assets are transferred to a third party on dissolution, the development rebate should be withdrawn.

Capital gains tax treatment of rubber trees on agricultural land clarified as taxable capital asset transfer.
Capital gains tax applies to profit arising from the transfer of a capital asset, and agricultural land is excluded from the definition of capital asset except in specified areas. Rubber trees standing on agricultural land are treated as distinct from the land itself and cannot be regarded as agricultural land. Profit from the transfer of such trees is chargeable under the head "capital gains", with reference to Travancore Tea Estate v. C.I.T. as supporting authority.

Independent scrutiny of head office expense claims: RBI review and its views to be considered in income-tax assessments.
The Reserve Bank of India is directed to undertake independent scrutiny of head office expense claims by foreign concerns irrespective of Income-tax Department acceptance, with remedial action where allowances are improper and RBI views to be considered in pending income-tax assessments.