Human nature is such that many of us tend not to fully co-operate with the governmental effort of revenue generation or collection, all for our personal gains. As a matter of fact, violation of the rules or statutory provisions of any kind is almost the order of the day, more particularly in this country. That apart, certain unintended defaults may be committed even by right thinking persons, even though they may be intending to be on the right side of law. It is this factor which is the reason behind so many of the provisions in fiscal enactments being meant for imposing adverse penal consequences against violation of the rules which ought to be followed. Income Tax Act could not have been an exception and, therefore, a whole Chapter XXI, entitled "Penalties Imposable" and comprising as many as 38 Sections [spread between sections 270 to 275] are devoted thereto.
As Income Tax Act provides for various kinds of statutory, procedural or other obligations, corresponding penalties for not meeting out each of such obligations have been duly provided. This is why the number of penalty provisions is so large.
Of all the litigations being contested at various levels beginning with that of the Assessing Officer to Supreme Court, those relating to penalties constitute a sizable percentage. Assessments, particularly those which undergo scrutiny, and matters emerging from reopening of the assessments, surveys, searches seizures, etc., invariably generate initiations of penalty proceedings invariably culminating into imposition of penalty. What usually, though unfortunately, happens in practice is that the officers imposing penalties go overenthusiastic and quantums of penalties imposed attain fantastic proportions threatening the very existence of the assessees.
The Finance Act, 2016 had, made significant changes in penalty related provisions as penalty under section 271(1)(c) for concealment and furnishing of inaccurate particulars of income has now been replaced by the penalty for underreporting and mis-reporting of income. For this purpose two new sections 270A and 270AA have been inserted in the Income Tax Act with effect from the assessment year 2017-18 and simultaneously a sunset clause has been inserted in section 271 in order to make it inoperative w.e.f. the same assessment year 2017-18.
The subject matter of the present book aiming at providing a practice specific aid to the Income Tax Consultations, is divided in Seven Parts, as under :
Supplement : Post Finance Bill, 2018 Supplement
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Part I |
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Basic Issues as to Penalty Proceedings |
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Part II |
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Penalty for Underreporting and Misreporting of Income [Sections 270A and 270AA] |
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Part III |
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Penalties Other than Penalty for Underreporting and Misreporting of Income |
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Part IV |
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Waiver, Reduction and Non-Imposition of Penalty [Sections 273, 273AA and 273B] |
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Part V |
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Procedural Aspects and Limitation Vis-a-Vis Penalty Levy [Sections 274 and 275] |
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Part VI |
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Part VII |
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A sort of logical and systematic classification of the rather comprehen-sive subject-matter envisaged by us is likely to be of help in providing an easy grasp into, and appreciation of, the numerous penalty provisions that may be invoked. The newest of the penalty provisions inserted by the Finance Act, 2016, by the Taxation Laws (Second Amendment) Act, 2016 and also by the Finance Act, 2017 which include penalty for underreporting of income and penalty post demonetisation, have all been discussed elaborately with the view to providing deeper insights into them.
The unique feature of providing regular updates regarding significantly important Case Law, Circulars, Notifications, etc., pertaining to the subject matter of this book, through URL mentioned on page (iii) in the opening pages, is an icing on the cake. This, for free service, would be available till December 2018.
Comprehensiveness and all pervasiveness of the text in the book may be judged by over 1300 Case Law citations discussed and incorporated therein.
The Finance Bill, 2018 proposes to make only a few amendments in Penalty Related provisions. This Supplement covers these amendments. First amendment is proposed in section 271FA with a view to increasing the amount of penalty provided therein. The second amendment is proposed to make section 271J appealable before Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
We have tried our very best to make this book able to serve its objectives vis-a-vis assessees, consultants, assessing officers, courts, etc., without any prejudices or compromises. We hope that we will be blessed with enthusiastic response for this product as it certainly is of tremendeous use for each and every person having anything to do with direct taxes. We would however welcome constructive suggestions from our learned readers for any kind of improvement in our forthcoming editions.
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Jodhpur |
Dr. Avadhesh Ojha |
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13 February, 2018 |
CA. (Dr.) Nisha Bhandari |
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Mahashivratri |
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