Preface

Of late, the practice in the income tax arena has become a challenging task for the tax professionals which include Chartered Accountants, Advocates and some others. Onerous responsibilities are being thrown upon but every challenge may bring with itself more of opportunities as well. Post the Taxation And Other Laws (Relaxation And Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 gazetted on 29th September, 2020, the tax admistration is going to be faceless in toto. Almost every activity in the Department is turning faceless and human contact will soon be a thing of the past. Consequentially, it becomes all the more important to maintain all tax records straight because any discrepancy therein will invite a query or notice from the Department and, in the faceless arena, there may be some practical issues in getting them settled.

This faceless system [Which has already been implemented in assessment proceedings, and in other proceedings, including first appeals is going to be effective from 1-11-2020], if properly implemented, would be bringing more and more persons into the tax net. In the faceless arena, the correct filing of tax return will be the key apsect and if rightly done so, then there may be no query raised or a query raised can be handled on the basis of available records, which would be including the opinion held by tax professional concerned while deciding about taxability of the given transaction. To carry out such a task, the tax professional has to be fully acquainted with every bit of the requisite law and procedure, which is in effect in the related assessment year of the return or providing consultation. The return filing season of this year has just taken off and in the current Covid times the Government may be scrutinising more and more transactions due to fall in tax collection, it may be presumed.

With the number of assessees going to rise by leaps and bounds in coming years, the responsibility on tax professionals to guide them for proper compliance of tax laws becomes all the more important. Here, therefore, occurs the need of a handy product by referring to which such professionals may arrive at a quick, precise and accurate solution of any query posed or arising out of the data provided by an existing or a new client. Keeping the precise requirements of the income-tax consultant in mind we have devised this single volume Income Tax Law and Practice--A Working Commentary, as a comprehensive yet compact tool so as to enable the professional to perform practically with full ease and comfort.

This book, contains the entire law of income-tax fully updated by law in the wake of the Finance Act, 2020 and the Taxation And Other Laws (Relaxation And Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 alongwith reference to the related Rules, Circulars and Notifications wherever felt necessary. The icing on the cake is Illustrations as to various computational issues sprinkled all over the text. The carefully packged illustrations are simple and easy to grasp. We have presented the complex law of the Income Tax Act in a lucid manner by subdividing the same in a large number of small paras, preceded by appropriate para headings and sub-headings to make it a user friendly product. The entire subject matter is supported by a good number of carefully select case law including the latest ones. As such this book comes as a combination of law and practice relating to Income Tax. We are sure that this will be of almost help to the user to quickly arrive at the right solution to the problem in hand, that too supported by case law and enable him to discharge his duty as a tax professional more effectively and purposefully.

The subject matter in this Book is arranged subjectwise though, sectionwise as well, to the extent possible. There are deviations but few and far between and they have occured in our attempt at placing the required material at the place where it will generally be looked for by the readers.

The subject matter of the entire book is divided in scientifically devised 42 Parts as under :

Part I

:

Basic Concepts, Chargeability of Incomes [Sections 2 to 9A]

Part II

:

Certain Exempt Incomes [Sections 10 & 10AA]

Part III

:

Charitable Trusts [Sections 2(15) & 11 to 13, 115BBC, 115TD to 115TF]

Part IV

:

Exemption to Political Parties and Electoral Trust

Part V

:

Heads of Income and Disallowance under Section 14A

Part VI

:

Income from Salary [Sections 5A, 15, 16 & 17]

Part VII

:

Income from House Property [Sections 22 to 27]

Part VIII

:

Profits and Gains from Business or Profession [Sections 2(13), 2(36), 28 to 44DB]

Part IX

:

Capital Gains [Sections 45 to 55A, 111A, 112 and 112A]

Part X

:

Rates of Tax on Capital Gains [Sections 111A, 112, 112A]

Part XI

:

Income from Other Sources [Sections 56 to 59]

Part XII

:

Clubbing of Income [Sections 60 to 65]

Part XIII

:

Cash Credits and Income from Undisclosed Sources [Sections 68 to 69D, 115BBE and 271AAC]

Part XIV

:

Losses [Sections 70 to 80]

Part XV

:

Deduction Under Chapter VI-A and Relief under Section 87A [Sections 80A to 80U and 87A]

Part XVI

:

Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (DTAA) [Sections 90, 90A, 91]

Part XVII

:

Transfer Pricing [Sections 92 to 92F]

Part XVIII

:

Tax Avoidance [Sections 93 to 94A]

Part XIX

:

General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR)

Part XX

:

Determination of Tax in Certain Special Cases

Part XXI

:

Corporate Taxation

Part XXII

:

Tax on Distributed Income, Etc. [Sections 115R to 115T, 115TCA, 115U to 115UB]

Part XXIII

:

Income Tax Authorities and Their Powers [Sections 116 to 133C]

Part XXIV

:

Return, Permanent Account Number and Assessment [Sections 139 to 144C]

Part XXV

:

Method of Accounting, Valuation of Stock and ICDS [Sections 145, 145A & 145B]

Part XXVI

:

Reassessment [Sections 147 to 152]

Part XXVII

:

Period of Limitation [Section 153]

Part XXVIII

:

Rectification of Mistake and Rectification in Certain Specified Cases [Sections 154, 155]

Part XXIX

:

Liability in Special Cases [Sections 159 to 179]

Part XXX

:

HUF and Taxation Thereof [Section 171]

Part XXXI

:

Taxation of Partnerships and LLPs [Sections 40(b), 184 to 189A]

Part XXXII

:

TDS and TCS [Sections 190 to 206CC]

Part XXXIII

:

Advance Tax and Recovery of Tax [Sections 207 to 229 and 232]

Part XXXIV

:

Interest and Fee [Sections 234A to 234F]

Part XXXV

:

Refunds [Sections 237 to 245]

Part XXXVI

:

Settlement of Cases and Advance Ruling [Sections 245A to 245L and Sections 245N to 245V]

Part XXXVII

:

Appeals [Sections 246A to 262 and Sections 265 to 268A]

Part XXXVIII

:

Revision [Sections 263 and 264]

Part XXXIX

:

Mode of Acceptance, Payment or Repayment in Certain Cases [Sections 269SS, 269ST & 269T]

Part XL

:

Penalties and Offences & Prosecution [Sections 270A to 280D]

Part XLI

:

Residuary Miscellaneous Provisions [Sections 281 to 294]

Part XLII

:

Other laws

The contents of this book are updated fully upto the recently enacted Taxation And Other Laws (Relaxation And Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020. Readers may recall that in recent past there was some controversy as to the extension of the due dates by the Taxation And Other Laws (Relaxation And Amendment of Certain Provisions) Act, 2020 and a lot of confusion was created among tax professionals. We have included a separate chapter on that issue in the Book. We have also included separate chapters on Direct Tax Vivad se Vishwas Act, 2020, Equalisation Levy and as well as the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.

We are confident that this effort of ours will be welcomed by one and all. This Working Commentary comprises reference to important Circulars, Case Laws available till the release of the book.

Return filing season of this year has just taken off and we are presenting this product at the right time to our readers and believe that the readers will take full advantage of it while discharging their compliance assignments.

Though we have tried to make it an error free and quality publication, however, we shall be grateful for any constructive suggestions and critical appreciation from our valued readers, so as to make the further editions all the more updated and useful.

JODHPUR

Dr. AVADHESH OJHA

OCTOBER 30, 2020

CA. MANOJ GUPTA

 

CA. (Dr.) NISHA BHANDARI