The CBDT has issued an order dated 30.09.2013 u/s 119 of the Act stating that in view of the reports of dislocation of general life caused due to recent heavy rains and floods in the State of Gujarat, the ‘due-date’ for filing Returns of Income in the cases of Income-tax assessees in the State of Gujarat who are liable to file their Income tax returns by 30th September, 2013 is extended to 14th October, 2013.

Further to Order F.No.225/117/2013/ITA.II dated 26.09.2013 requiring the Tax Audit Report to be filed by 30.09.2013, the CBDT has issued an Order dated 30.09.2013 directing all CCsIT /DsGIT to ensure that all Income Tax Offices shall remain open til1 8:00 p.m on 30th September, 2013 for the convenience of taxpayers, who wish to file Report of Audit manually for assessment year 2013-2014, as per the said order

The Ministry of Finance has vide letter dated 17.09.2013 invited applications for appointment to the post of “Income Tax Ombudsman”. There are posts of “Income Tax Ombudsman” at 12 stations, namely, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bhopal and Kochi and some of the posts will fall vacant during the period 1.10.2013 to 31.3.2014. The post of “Income Tax Ombudsman” carries a pay scale of Rs.75500-80000. Interested candidates are requested to forward their application by 07.10.2013 indicating their preferred location

Vide Notification dated 23.09.2013 issued by the CBDT, Rules 10U to 10UC have been inserted in the Income-tax Rules, 1962 to provide for the entire procedure for monitoring the General Anti Avoidance Rules (GAAR). The relevant forms have also been notified. The said Rules will come into effect on 1st April 2016.

Further to the Order dated 26.09.2013 issued u/s 119(2)(a) of the Act extending the due date for the electronic filing of the Tax Audit Report to 31.10.2013, the CBDT has issued a Press Release dated 26.09.2013 clarifying that the print copy of the Tax Audit Report as well as the Return of Income has to be filed by the prescribed due date of 30.09.2013 and that there is no extension of that time limit

The CBDT has issued an order u/s 119(2)(a) of the Act extending the due date for the electronic filing of the Tax Audit Report to 31.10.2013. However, a print copy of the Tax Audit Report is required to be furnished manually to the jurisdictional Assessing Officer within the prescribed due date of 30.09.2013.

The handbook contains a series of articles by well known tax experts. For instance, Philip Baker, the acclaimed authority on international taxation, has written a detailed article on “Improper use of tax treaties, tax avoidance and tax evasion” in which he has dealt with the theoretical and practical aspects of treaty shopping and provided authoritative guidance. Similarly, other experts like Ariane Pickering and Peter A. Harris have written articles on important and topical issues like “Taxation of non-resident service providers” and “Taxation of residents on foreign source income” etc

The CBDT has issued Instruction No. 14/2013 dated 23.09.2013 by which it has created a “Standard Operating Procedure for cases under Non-filers Monitoring System”. The Instruction points out that the existing procedure for monitoring cases of ‘Non-Filers of IT Returns’ as identified by Director General of Income Tax (System) results in Non-Filers not being uniformly monitored by the Assessing Officers due to lack of consistency in approach in dealing with such cases. In order to streamline the processing Of such cases and to ensure consistency in monitoring NMS cases by the Assessing Officers, the Board has laid down a detailed Standard Operating Procedure.

The CBDT has issued a letter dated 20.09.2013 to the Chief Commissioners of Income-tax pointing out that despite earlier instructions to pay over the refunds due for FY 2011-12 the progress so far has been tardy. The CCsIT have been directed to take necessary action and direct the Assessing Officers to issue the refunds for AY 2011-12 without further delay. The CCsIT have also been directed to personally monitor the progress in the above respect and send a report on the matter by 15.10.2013 with reasons for non-issue of refunds, if any.

The CBDT has issued Instruction No. 13 of 2013 dated 20.09.2013 by which it has modified the norms for compulsory manual selection of cases for scrutiny in FY 2013-14 as specified in Instruction No. 10 of 2013 dated 05.08.2013. The scrutiny norms have been made public pursuant to the directions of the Delhi High Court in Joginder Pal Gulati vs. OSD – CPIO