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Three-year renewal review limits scrutiny under Section 12AB, barring denial based solely on stale unverified allegations.
Renewal of registration under Section 12AB(1)(b) requires examination of the genuineness of activities and compliance with material laws during the three years immediately preceding the application. Rule 17A(2)(g) and the five-year registration framework confine the renewal review to that period, preventing reliance on earlier material to refuse renewal. Pre-2021 search allegations could not justify rejection where relevant-period evidence was neither discredited nor found deficient, and the institution established its educational and charitable activities. The Form 10AB application was required to be accepted, with consequential approval under Section 80G(5), based on the relevant-period record.
Charitable purpose requires public benefit, excluding resident associations serving only a closed group under mutuality arrangements.
A residents welfare association providing maintenance, security, housekeeping, sanitation, common-facility management and community activities solely to contributors and residents of a specified residential complex operates under the principle of mutuality. As its services are funded by and confined to a closed group, its objects lack public benefit or benefit to an indeterminate section of the public, which is required for charitable status. The absence of a profit motive does not independently establish a charitable purpose. Such an association therefore does not qualify for registration as a charitable institution.
Pure reimbursement of shared professional costs avoids tax withholding disallowance, while delayed compliance shifts deduction to a later year.
Pure reimbursement of common legal and professional costs, where the association had already deducted tax when paying service providers and recovered only actual member-wise expenditure without any income element, is described as not attracting tax deduction at source or related disallowance. Professional fees on which tax was deducted and deposited later are described as deductible only in the year of statutory compliance, subject to verification, rather than in the year under review. Year-end provisions require party-wise and documentary verification to establish that they represent ascertained liabilities accrued during the relevant year; the claim requires fresh adjudication.
Reassessment after four years fails without new material, while distribution-cost subsidies qualify as operating income for transfer-pricing benchmarking.
Reassessment initiated after four years following an assessment under section 143(3) is invalid where the taxpayer fully disclosed the subsidy transaction and the recorded reasons show neither failure of full and true disclosure nor fresh tangible material; reopening on the same material constitutes a change of opinion. A recurring subsidy from an associated enterprise that directly compensates unabsorbed distribution costs under a distribution agreement forms operating income where it is linked to annual performance, routinely received and recorded as operating revenue. It must therefore be included in transactional net margin method benchmarking of distribution transactions, eliminating the related transfer-pricing adjustment.
Dispute Resolution Panel objections must be decided before final assessment, invalidating premature assessment orders and consequential demand notices.
Objections to a draft assessment order must be considered by the Dispute Resolution Panel before finalisation of the assessment. Where objections were admittedly filed and the Transfer Pricing Officer was informed, faceless assessment proceedings had to remain in abeyance pending the Panel's directions. Issuing a final assessment order and consequential demand before disposal of those objections bypassed the statutory procedure and violated natural justice. The final order and demand notice were therefore invalid and quashed.
Political-party tax exemption fails where accounts conceal genuine transactions and mandatory reporting requirements are not properly met.
Bogus donation receipts, return of purported donations to contributors, and facilitation of improper deductions supported an addition representing income from the receipt-facilitation arrangement rather than the full donation amounts. Concurrent factual findings on these matters were not open to interference in an appeal confined to questions of law. The political party's accounts did not show a true and correct position, and mandatory Election Commission reports were improperly filed or not filed; it was therefore disentitled to exemption under Section 13A. The additions and denial of the political-party exemption were sustained.
Exempt-income requirement limits Section 14A disallowance, while genuine loan-hedging swap losses remain deductible as accrued liabilities.
Section 14A read with Rule 8D does not permit expenditure disallowance where no exempt income is earned or claimed during the relevant assessment year. Consequently, no related adjustment to book profit arises under the MAT provisions where the underlying disallowance does not survive, particularly where book profit is negative. Mark-to-market loss on foreign-currency swap contracts used to convert rupee borrowings and reduce interest costs is deductible when consistently recognised under Accounting Standard-11 and matched by taxation of corresponding gains. Such exchange-fluctuation loss represents an accrued, subsisting liability rather than a contingent or hypothetical loss.
Delayed Form No. 10 filing may be condoned where charitable accumulations were invested in prescribed modes.
Belated filing of Form No. 10 for accumulation of charitable income for Assessment Year 2016-17 may be condoned under Section 119(2)(b) where reasonable cause is established and the accumulated amount is invested in prescribed modes. Circular No. 7/2018 permits Commissioners to consider such delayed forms for the first year of mandatory electronic filing. Investment of surplus in eligible term deposits supports the exemption claim. Condonation should advance substantial justice where refusal would cause genuine hardship, particularly if the delay was neither deliberate nor unexplained, enabling exemption for accumulated income under Section 11.
Reassessment based on broker register failed because disconnected asking-rate entries did not evidence undisclosed land-purchase payments.
A reassessment notice based solely on a broker's seized inquiry-register entry alleging on-money payment for land purchase was unsustainable where the entry pre-dated the registered transaction, recorded asking rates rather than concluded sales, and did not identify or link the assessee or co-purchasers. Matching survey numbers alone did not establish a live and direct nexus between the seized material and the assessee's transaction. The statutory presumption for seized material could not transform a disconnected and unreliable entry into evidence of undisclosed payment. The notice under Section 148 was quashed.
Misreporting penalty requires specific factual allegations and reasoned findings; tax evasion computation must reflect the relevant assessed income difference.
Penalty for misreporting of income requires the notice to disclose the statutory and factual basis for alleging misrepresentation or other bad faith under Section 270A(9), and the penalty order must provide supporting reasons. A bare assertion of misreporting or a general reference to Section 270A is insufficient, particularly because misreporting attracts a higher penalty and excludes immunity under Section 270AA. Tax sought to be evaded must also be computed on the relevant assessed difference rather than the entire assessed normal income where the figures differ only to a stated extent. Invalid proceedings may be restarted in accordance with law, subject to the assessee's available contentions.
Satisfaction-note requirement for section 153C notices upheld, with delayed recording rendering the notices invalid.
Recording a satisfaction note is mandatory before issuing a notice under section 153C. The High Court quashed notices for the relevant assessment year because the requisite satisfaction was recorded after a 22-month delay rather than within the immediate period required under the Calcutta Knitwears principle and Circular No. 24/2015. The Supreme Court found no ground to interfere with that determination and dismissed the special leave petition, leaving the quashing of the section 153C notices in force.
Bogus share trading loss disallowance stood where supporting documents and taxpayer participation before the Assessing Officer were absent.
Bogus share trading loss was disallowed because the taxpayer neither substantiated the claimed loss with documents nor appeared before the Assessing Officer. The High Court treated the Tribunal's deletion of the disallowance as perverse, finding that its reliance on retraction of an oath statement and its conclusion on cross-examination ignored material factual deficiencies and reflected non-application of mind. The Supreme Court condoned delay and dismissed the Special Leave Petition, finding no ground to interfere with the High Court's order.
Input tax credit benefit pass-through satisfies anti-profiteering rules when credit notes exceed eligible homebuyers' calculated entitlement.
Passing on input tax credit benefits to eligible pre-GST homebuyers satisfies the anti-profiteering requirement where the supplier reduces prices commensurately with the determined benefit. The revised computation, including the pre-GST goods component, determined an additional input tax credit benefit of 4.23% for 31 eligible homebuyers. Documentary credit notes showed that the supplier passed on an amount exceeding the calculated entitlement. Accordingly, no contravention of the anti-profiteering requirement under Section 171 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 was established.
Condonation of delay restored the statutory appeal for merits adjudication after dismissal beyond the condonable period.
Condonation of delay was warranted where a statutory appeal against an adjudication order had been dismissed solely for filing beyond the condonable period. Applying binding and coordinate decisions in materially similar circumstances, the delay was condoned and the appeal restored so that the statutory appellate remedy could be determined on merits.
GST registration revocation remains available after return filing and payment of outstanding tax liabilities.
GST registration cancelled for non-filing of returns and non-payment of tax may be restored through revocation, subject to filing pending returns and paying tax due. The petitioner was permitted to apply for revocation of registration, and the registering authority was directed to consider the application with consequential action after compliance with these conditions.
Input tax credit relief permits merit-based processing for supplier tax payment and extended September return deadlines, while statutory conditions remain valid.
Input tax credit claims may be examined under the specified GST circulars where recipients establish that suppliers paid the tax to the Government, addressing bona fide claims from the period when GSTR-2A was unavailable. The extended deadline for furnishing the September return is treated retrospectively as 30 November for the relevant period; eligible claims cannot be rejected solely because the return was filed after 20 October but by 30 November. However, the statutory conditions requiring tax payment and imposing a time limit for input tax credit are constitutionally valid. Claims within the circular-based or extended-deadline relief require individual consideration on merits.
Statutory GST appeal remedy must be exhausted before writ review of a demand order, with limitation-time exclusion available.
Statutory appellate remedy under the Central Goods and Services Tax Act must ordinarily be exhausted before invoking writ jurisdiction against a GST demand order. An appeal lies to the Appellate Authority against the adjudication order, and the writ petition was not entertained because that remedy had not been pursued. If an appeal is filed within 30 days, the time spent prosecuting the writ petition must be excluded for limitation purposes. The disposal does not determine the merits of the underlying GST demand.
Separate notices for each financial year required; consolidated multi-year proceedings and consequential orders were quashed.
Separate show cause notices are required for distinct financial years; a composite notice covering multiple years is inconsistent with the governing procedural principles. The consolidated notice for financial years 2018-19 to 2021-22 and consequential orders were quashed. Fresh separate proceedings may be initiated for the relevant financial years, with exclusion of the specified period when computing limitation.
Consolidated GST show cause notices across multiple tax periods remain valid, subject to consideration of objections during adjudication.
Consolidated or common show cause notices covering multiple GST tax periods are permissible under the GST enactments. Where proceedings remain at the response stage, objections to such notice require consideration by the Adjudicating Authority, followed by adjudication in accordance with law. The validity of a consolidated notice for the relevant tax periods is affirmed, with the issue resolved against the assessee.
Temporary GST ID application must be considered promptly to facilitate the taxpayer's statutory appellate remedy.
Consideration of a temporary GST ID was required to facilitate access to the statutory appellate remedy. As the status of the application could not be confirmed, the respondents stated that the competent authority would decide it in accordance with law, which the petitioner accepted. The competent authority was expected to pass appropriate orders on the temporary-ID application within 30 days.