Any set off of refund under Income tax without intimation to assessee is illegal

[bpagrawal]

Any set off of refund under Income tax without intimation to assessee is illegal

A reading of the section would indicate that for the purpose of any adjustment of the amount due to the assessee by way of refund against an outstanding demand due from the assessee to the Revenue an intimation in writing is required to be given to the concerned person of the action proposed. Proposed action would mean a notice before making the adjustments and not an intimation of making the adjustment. It is not in the nature of information, It has to be an intimation that the Revenue proposes to adjust the amount of refund due to the assessee towards the amount of tax due from the assessee. An order passed purporting to set off an amount of refund due to the assessee without a prior intimation would be against the express provisions of law and therefore bad in law. The provisions of section 245 are mandatory in nature. In the present case there was no prior intimation of the proposed action of adjusting the amount of refund due to the assessee towards any other amount due from the assessee. It was an intimation informing th
//http://www.lawweb.in/2013/04/any-set-off-of-refund-under-income-tax.html

[srinivasan]

Sir
Now a days we have started getting  the notice under section 245 but any reply to CPC is not being entertained.When we go to the assessing officer with the details , they are not able to trace the old files and nothing is being done
It is back to square one .
regards
srinivasan