CA Anilkumar Shah has earlier explained the law relating to the taxation of donations to the corpus of a trust which is not registered under sections 12A/AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961. He has now answered queries on the effect of clause (x) to S. 56(2) of the Act on the taxability of corpus donations and also for donations from one trust to the other. A pdf version of the article is available for download

In response to my previous article published on itatonline.org, there were queries raising doubts on taxability of corpus donations, in view of insertion of cl. (x) to Sec.56(2) of the Act and also for donations from one trust to the other. In the following article, I have tried to analyse the issues for corpus donations.  

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Advocate Shashi Bekal has appreciated the efforts of the CBDT in issuing Circular No. 21 of 2020 and clarifying the several doubts that tax professionals and taxpayers had with regard to The Direct Tax Vivad Se Vishwas Act, 2020. The ld. author has explained the salient points of the Circular in a succinct manner. He has suggested that the CBDT may consider appointing a Centralised Nodal Officer in each city to speedily resolve any incremental difficulties that may arise

1. Introduction

The Vivad se Vishwas (VSV) Scheme was announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her budget speech on February 1, 2020 (2020) 420 ITR 115 (st) (146). This has been introduced as a way to reduce the pendency of litigation under the Income tax Act, 1961 (Act) with a golden shake hand.

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CA Mohit Gupta has pointed out that the Income-tax department usually relies on the extrapolation principle in search assessments to make arbitrary additions even for years where no incriminating material has been unearthed. He has considered whether the Department is justified in doing so and explained the entire law on the subject with reference to leading judicial precedents

Introduction:

During the course of a Search and Seizure action, it is seen in practice that incriminating material in the form of documents, diaries and other evidences are found which sometime reflects undisclosed income of an assessee only for a particular limited period of time and not for all the assessment years to be covered u/s 153A of the Income Tax Act’1961. However, it is seen that the during the course of search assessments, the finding of such undisclosed for a particular period is extrapolated to the entire block period of assessments as envisaged u/s 153A of the Income Tax Act’1961.  

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Advocate Shashi Bekal has explained the salient features of the amendments proposed by the Atmanirbhar Bharat Package 3.0 to the Income-tax Act, 1961 to provide relief to Real Estate Developers and home buyers. He has also considered whether the restrictive nature of the proposed incentive makes it ultra vires the Constitution

Abstract

On November 12, 2020, The Hon’ble Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman launched the Atmanirbhar Bharat 3.0 package. Several applaudable changes introduced. An amendment to the Income tax regime inter aliachanges was proposed. The amendment is with respect to the variance in real estate transaction on account of a variance from stamp duty value of the property.The Article aims at explaining the proposed amendment in the Income-tax Act, 1961 (Act) and the chalks out a time line as to how the said provisions was inserted& how they have evolved over time.

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CA Sujay Ajgaonkar has systematically set out the details of the stimulus package (Atmanirbhar 3.0) unveiled by the Finance Minister a few days ago. He has detailed how these stimulus measures will boost Employment and revive the Economy

Our honorable Finance Minister Smt Nirmala Sitharaman, in her press conference, highlighted the current state of the Indian economy while rolling out the Atmanirbhar 3.0 relief schemes.

Honourable Finance Minster stressed at a strong recovery in the health of our economy, stating certain facts as follows:

• Covid active cases declined from over 10 lakh to 4.89 lakh, with the case fatality rate at 1.47%.
• The Composite Purchase Managers Index (PMI) rose to 58.9 in October Vs. 54.6 last month, stating the strongest increase in output in around 9 years.
• Energy consumption growth rose 12% YoY in October.
• GST collections stood at around Rs. 1.05 Lakh Crore in October, a 10% growth YoY.
• Daily railway freight tonnage grew by an average of 20% YoY.
• Bank Credit  growth improved by 5.1% YoY.
• The markets are at record highs with FPI’s turning net investment positive and our Forex reserves stood at USD 560 Billion.
• FDI inflows between April to August was around USD 35.37 billion recording a 13% rise YoY.
• The RBI predicts the Indian economy retuning to positive growth in Q3 of this financial year, a quarter earlier than the last forecast.
• Moody’s revises India’s 2020 GDP forecast to -8.9% from -9.6%; raises 2021 forecast to 8.6% from 8.1%

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The All India Federation of Tax Practitioners (AIFTP) (West Zone) organized a virtual National tax conference where one of the subjects for discussion was,“Admission and Retraction in Income-tax survey and search, and relevancy of electronic evidence”  The session was chaired by Dr. K. Shivaram, Senior Advocate, and the paper was presented by Advocate Narayan Jain, Kolkata.  For the benefit of the tax professionals a brief summary is prepared by Advocate Shashi Bekal

The Introduction & Concluding remarks were presented by the Chairman, Dr. K. Shivaram, Senior Advocate, for the benefit of the readers, the same are consolidated and presented as under:

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The All India Federation of Tax Practitioners (AIFTP Western zone) had organized a Webinar on June 14, 2020 on the subject of “Principles of Natural justice as applicable to Tax proceedings and Writs in taxation”. The speaker was Advocate Mr. Manish J.Shah, Ahmedabad and Chairman was Dr K. Shivaram, Senior Advocate, Mumbai. For the benefit of the readers, a brief summary of the proceedings has been prepared by Advocate Shashi Bekal

Chairman in his introduction referred the Article 265 of the Constitution of India 1950. 

“No tax shall be levied or collected except by authority of law”

Article 265 is the foundation for various Writ Petitions under the Income tax Law.

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Advocate Aditya Ajgaonkar has described the Faceless Assessment Scheme & the Faceless Appeal Scheme as a big tax reform and game-changer because they seek to streamline, and bring greater transparency and accountability into, the tax administration. He has, however, cautioned that the non-grant of a personal hearing via video conference as a default choice vested in the assessee may be a violation of the principles of natural justice and may put the schemes into jeopardy. He has given convincing reasons for his views

The Delhi High Court in the case of Lakshya Budhiraja v. UOI & Anr. W.P.(C) 8044/2020has issued notice on 16th October 2020, on the grounds of the Petitioner that the mechanism where the approval of the Chief Commissioner or the Director General of Income-tax is required for video conference facility is discriminatory in nature as it gives them the discretion to deny the same and that no person should be judged without a fair hearing in which each party is given an opportunity to respond to the evidence against them.

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Advocate Shashi Ashok Bekal has explained the applicability of the Scheme of TCS, its compliance procedure and the consequences of non-compliance. He has also highlighted the concerns of taxpayers regarding the levy of TCS on sale of goods above specified limits. He has also identified certain lacuna and ambiguities in the law and requested that these be addressed at the earliest so as to avoid unwanted litigation

Abstract

The Article attempts at explaining the evolution of the Tax Collection  at Source (TCS) provisions, and the intention of the Parliament, each time the widened the TCS base. Further, it explains the applicability of the Scheme of TCS, its compliance procedure, and consequences of non-compliance. The Finance Act, 2020 has amended the provisions of TCS by widening its base with new transactions. Some aspects of the new transactions can be held ultra vires the Constitution. Further, the Article explains the current concerns with the issue of levy of TCS on sale of goods above specified limit. Although the Administration has issued certain clarifications, a minor lacuna still exists. It is imperative to address these ambiguities at the earliest so as to avoid unwanted litigation.

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The disruption caused by Covid-19 has compelled the Government to extend from time to time the due dates for various compliances. Advocate V. P. Gupta has methodically set out in a tabular format all the extended due dates. This will help avoid confusion and prevent unintended breaches of the law by taxpayers. The ld. author has also identified a few important issues which need the attention of CBDT and suggested the action required to be taken by it

On account of COVID-19 there was complete lockdown w.e.f. 25.03.2020 and all the offices etc. could not work. Therefore, an Ordinance dated 31.03.2020 called “The Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provision) Ordinance, 2020” was promulgated providing that any action or compliance, due date for which was falling between 20.03.2020 to 29.06.2020, shall be extended to 30.06.2020 or any other date as may be further extended by the Central Government by way of notification. Thereafter, a notification dated 24.06.2020 was issued by the government further extending time limit for certain compliances under the Income Tax Act.A notification dated 29.07.2020 was also issued subsequently by the Central Government further extending time limit for filing return of income for A.Y.2019-20. In order to validate the Ordinance and above refereed notifications, a Bill called “The Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provision) Bill, 2020” was introduced in the Parliament. The aforesaid Bill was duly passed by the Parliament and on receiving assent of the President of India on 29.09.2020 it became the Act. Thereafter, notification dated 30.09.2020 has also been issued by the Government further extending time limit for filing return of income of A.Y.2019-20.

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