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Belated audit-report filing does not bar employment deduction when the report is available before return processing.
Deduction under section 80JJAA cannot be denied solely because Form 10DA was electronically furnished after the return-filing due date, where the prescribed audit report had been obtained before that date and was uploaded and e-verified before return processing. Rule 19AB's furnishing requirement is directory in these circumstances. Delayed electronic filing constitutes a procedural lapse that does not prejudice the Revenue when the report is available during processing. The claimed deduction must therefore be granted in accordance with law.
Capital gains transfer expenditure: payment to extinguish an agreement holder's enforceable property rights is deductible from consideration.
Capital-gains computation permits deduction of expenditure incurred wholly and exclusively in connection with transfer. Payment to an agreement holder for relinquishing enforceable property rights, including rights capable of specific performance, clears and improves the transferor's title before conveyance. Where the transferor receives the full sale consideration and pays part of it to secure extinguishment of those rights, the payment is allowable transfer expenditure in computing capital gains under the Income-tax Act, 1961.
Section 80P(2) deduction covers co-operative society interest from surplus-fund investments with banks and co-operative institutions.
Section 80P(2) permits a co-operative society to claim a deduction for interest income. The deduction extends to interest earned from investing surplus funds with co-operative banks, other co-operative societies, and nationalised banks. Coordinate-bench decisions support this treatment, and interest received from those investments qualifies for deduction where the society's claim falls within that established position.
Treaty technical-service fees exclude services rendered entirely outside India despite remote delivery to an Indian affiliate
Article 12(4) of the India-China Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement covers consideration for managerial, technical or consultancy services provided by a resident of one Contracting State in the other Contracting State. Management and technical services rendered from China to an Indian affiliate, where the Chinese resident has no permanent establishment in India, fall outside that definition. Delivery through email, conference calls and video conferencing does not constitute physical rendition of services in India without a specific treaty or legal provision. Consequently, the fees do not constitute fees for technical services under Article 12(4).
Slump-sale goodwill qualifies for depreciation, while acquiring only software and intangible assets does not trigger property-transfer withholding.
Excess consideration paid to acquire a software division as a going concern under a slump sale was treated as goodwill attributable to transferred software, licences, business rights and other intangible value, making it eligible for depreciation under section 32(1)(ii). Acquisition of computer systems and intangible business assets without land or buildings did not constitute a transfer of immovable property; consequently, no withholding obligation arose under section 194-IA and no related disallowance under section 40(a)(ia) applied. The excess was recorded as goodwill rather than charged to profit and loss, and its contractual source and commercial basis excluded treatment as unexplained expenditure under section 69C.
Penalty initiation under the wrong statutory regime invalidates a later penalty notice and defeats the resulting levy.
Penalty under section 271AAC(1) could not be sustained where the assessment order repeatedly recorded satisfaction for misreporting of income and initiated penalty proceedings under section 270A. The two penalty regimes are not interchangeable because section 271AAC(2) excludes section 270A penalty for income covered by section 271AAC(1). A subsequent notice under section 274 cannot retrospectively replace the statutory basis or satisfaction recorded in the assessment order. Failure to provide a meaningful hearing, where electronic registration and postal service were unsuccessful, also breached section 274. The penalty was therefore invalid and liable to deletion.
Functional comparability governs software service benchmarking, permitting onsite filters and DRP directions to refine arm's length pricing.
Functional comparability under the Transactional Net Margin Method requires exclusion of software companies with mixed product and service revenue lacking reliable segmental data, materially different functions, or brand value and scale affecting profitability. An onsite filter may be used to identify suitable comparables for software development services where no basis establishes that it is inappropriate. The DRP may apply a new filter consistent with accepted comparability principles and direct the inclusion or exclusion of comparables to determine the correct arm's length price. The challenged exclusions and approved filters remain effective for arm's length pricing.
Defect rectification relates back to the original return date, invalidating delayed scrutiny notices and consequential assessments.
Timely rectification of defects in a return under Section 139(9) validates the original return rather than constituting a fresh return. The rectified return relates back to its original filing date, so defect removal does not restart the limitation period for issuing a scrutiny notice under Section 143(2). Where the assessment proceeds on the original return, treating that return as valid, a later scrutiny notice issued beyond the applicable period is time-barred and the consequential assessment cannot stand.
Dependent-agent permanent establishment requires habitual contractual authority; liaison and pre-approved communications did not create Indian taxable presence.
Dependent-agent permanent establishment status under Article 5(5)(i) of the India-Switzerland tax treaty requires proof that an Indian agent has, and habitually exercises, authority to negotiate and enter contracts for the foreign enterprise. Group affiliation alone is insufficient. Overseas leadership approved commercial terms and non-standard proposals; Indian personnel conveyed pre-approved terms and performed liaison, account-management, and administrative functions. Portal-based contracts were concluded without local personnel determining their terms, and limited supplier enquiries and correspondence did not establish habitual contractual authority. The Indian associated enterprise therefore did not constitute a dependent-agent permanent establishment. Arm's-length remuneration did not itself prevent such status, but remained relevant to profit attribution.
Reassessment limitation excludes taxpayer response time, while unchanged facts may preclude dependent-agent permanent establishment and Indian profit attribution.
Reassessment limitation excludes the period allowed for replying to a notice seeking explanation, including any extension. After that exclusion and the statutory extended period are applied, an order and notice issued within three years require approval from the Commissioner as the specified authority. Separately, an Indian associated enterprise does not create a dependent-agent permanent establishment where the identical business model and facts previously established no such presence. Business profits therefore cannot be attributed to India on a dependent-agent permanent-establishment basis.
Unaccounted sales are taxable only to their embedded profit, while reconciled cash turnover cannot be added twice.
Unaccounted business sales are gross receipts, not taxable income in full, unless related costs or investment are independently shown to be unexplained. Taxation should therefore be confined to the reasonably estimated profit embedded in such turnover. Profit estimation should rely on functionally comparable evidence, with the taxpayer's accepted historical net-profit ratio and accounted-business profitability providing stronger internal benchmarks than an unsupported external gross-profit rate. Cash sales already included in seized accounting data, reconciled with declared annual turnover and supported by GST disclosures, cannot be treated as additional turnover or subjected to a separate profit addition.
Duplicate expenditure disallowances cannot reduce a charitable trust's application of income twice during return processing.
Charitable income applied to charitable objects is exempt under section 11(1). Where a trust has already excluded expenditure involving tax-deduction-at-source defaults and cash payments when computing net application of income in Form No. 10BB, the same amounts cannot be disallowed again while processing the return under section 143(1). Repeating disallowances under sections 40(a)(ia) and 40A(3) duplicates the adjustment and improperly reduces the stated application of income. The duplicate adjustments were deleted.
Unexplained cash deposits require verification of fresh evidence before an addition can be sustained under tax law.
Section 69A addition for unexplained cash deposits requires fresh adjudication where confirmations and affidavits on catering receipts and inherited jewellery sales are first produced in appeal. The assessee must substantiate the catering activity through evidence of gross receipts, expenses and customers. For jewellery sales, the assessee must prove receipt of ornaments through inheritance and establish the purchaser transactions' identity, creditworthiness and genuineness. Verification of this fresh material is necessary before determining whether the addition can be sustained, with the burden of proof remaining on the assessee.
Section 80P deduction protects member-credit income of non-bank co-operative societies without an RBI banking licence.
Section 80P(2)(a)(i) permits deduction for profits attributable to providing credit facilities to members. The exclusion under section 80P(4) applies to a co-operative bank operating as a banking institution with an RBI licence, not to a credit co-operative society lending only to members without such licence. Member-credit income of such a society therefore remains eligible for deduction. For first appeals, sections 249(2) and 249(3) allow delayed filing on sufficient cause; a bona fide belief that appeal was unnecessary while demand remained in abeyance may support condonation where the delay confers no advantage.
Third-party seized material assessments require Section 153C proceedings, rendering regular assessments without jurisdiction for covered assessment years.
Where seized documents belong to a person other than the searched person, the first proviso to Section 153C(1) treats the date on which that person's Assessing Officer records satisfaction after receiving the material as the date of search. Assessment years within the six preceding years, including Assessment Year 2021-22 where satisfaction was recorded on 11 May 2022, must be assessed through Section 153C proceedings. Resort to regular assessment under Section 143(3) for such a covered year is jurisdictionally invalid.
Pecuniary jurisdiction defects invalidate assessment notices issued contrary to binding income-tax administrative instructions for non-corporate taxpayers.
Jurisdictional notice issued by an officer lacking pecuniary jurisdiction under CBDT Instruction No. 1/2011 constituted an inherent illegality. For non-corporate assessees with returned income up to the prescribed threshold, jurisdiction lay with an Income-tax Officer. Territorial-jurisdiction objections under section 124(3) did not preclude a challenge to pecuniary jurisdiction, and section 292BB could not cure the defect. The notice and consequential assessment were void ab initio.
Unexplained investment additions fail when documented loan, redemption, withdrawal and bank evidence explains the entire property consideration.
Section 69 applies only where an investment remains unexplained. In a jointly acquired residential property, housing-loan proceeds, mutual-fund redemptions, provident-fund withdrawals and matching bank-account payments of the assessee and spouse established both the source and application of the purchase consideration. Materials already on record supported the explanation; failure to respond to a later show-cause notice did not displace that evidence. The investment was treated as fully explained, and the Section 69 addition was deleted.
Unexplained loan-credit additions fail where lender identity, creditworthiness and transaction genuineness are proved through unrebutted banking evidence.
Unexplained loan-credit additions require proof of the creditor's identity, creditworthiness and the genuineness of the transaction. Lender confirmations, income-tax returns, source details and banking records may establish these elements where they remain unrebutted and no contrary material or further lender inquiry exists. Continued non-repayment of interest-free loans may be explained by the borrower's health and financial difficulties. Restoration to lower authorities is unnecessary where the existing record contains all material needed to decide the addition and no further factual inquiry or evidence is required.
Agreement-date stamp value applies under section 43CA when non-cash consideration is received before agreement execution.
Section 43CA requires stamp-duty value to be treated as the full value of consideration where it exceeds the stated sale consideration. Where the agreement date differs from the registration date, section 43CA(3) applies the stamp-duty value prevailing on the agreement date, provided that section 43CA(4) is satisfied through whole or part receipt of consideration by non-cash means on or before that date. Receipt of part consideration through RTGS before execution of the agreement, coupled with unchanged sale consideration and transaction terms until registration, supports adoption of the agreement-date stamp-duty value.
Short Tax Deduction Does Not Trigger Expense Disallowance; Recovery Must Proceed Through Withholding-Default Provisions Instead
Tax deducted at source on interest payments prevents expense disallowance for non-deduction, even where the deduction is alleged to be at a lower applicable rate. Section 40(a)(i) addresses failure to deduct tax or failure to deposit tax after deduction; it does not apply solely to a shortfall in the rate deducted. Alleged short deduction is to be addressed through proceedings under section 201 rather than by directing disallowance under section 40(a)(i). Revision under section 263 cannot rest on an assertion that an assessment is erroneous and prejudicial to revenue merely because tax was deducted at a lower rate.