Year: 2014

The following orders of the CBDT are available: (i) Order No. 172 of 2014 dated 23.09.2014 regarding postings of officers promoted to grade of Asst. CITs; (ii) Order No. 165 of 2014 dated 16.09.2014 regarding transfer/ posting of officers in the grade of CIT/ DIT; (iii) Order No. 163 of 2014 dated 15.09.2014 regarding transfer/ posting of officers in the grade of CIT/ DIT; (iv) Order No. 157 of 2014 dated 09.09.2014 regarding transfer/ posting of officers in the grade of Asst. / Dy. CsIT of International Taxation/ Transfer Pricing Directorates; (v) Order No. 4/FT&TR/2014 dated 22.09.2014 regarding Constitution of the DRP at Kolkata; (vi) Order No. 3/FT&TR/2014 dated 17.09.2014 regarding Constitution of the DRP at Bangalore.

The E-Book runs into 575 pages. It contains all the sections and schedules of the Companies Act 2013 as well as the Rules notified so far. The Forms for the Rules have also been given. For easy reference, a Table has been included which contains provisions of Companies Act 2013 as notified up to date. Further, a Table has been provided which shows Chapter-wise Sections of the Act which are not yet notified as well as the Rules for the Chapters which are notified/not notified. The amendments made so far by the MCA in the Schedules and Rules have been incorporated in their respective places

The CBDT has issued a handbook to explain the manner in which the Central Processing Cell (CPC) functions while processing TDS matters. The handbook explains the enormity of the task involved and how efficiently the same is managed by the CPC. It is stated that the CPC has more than 700 crore transactional data in its database and that it can process more than 1 crore deductee records in 24 hours at its state-of-the-art data centers at Noida and Pune. There are several other fascinating facts and figures provided to enable taxpayers to appreciate the work done by the CPC.

In response to the said order, the Council of the ICAI has issued a statement that the comments made by the ITAT on the profession and functions of the ICAI are not warranted. It is also stated that the “sweeping observations” made by ITAT about the Institute and the profession of Chartered Accountancy in a matter relating to a particular tax payer, are out of context

The Chamber of Tax Consultants filed a Writ Petition claiming that although the time to file the FORM No. 3 CD being the Audit Report has been extended, the time to file Return of Income has not been suitably extended to coincide with the date of filing of audit report. It was claimed that this would lead to inconvenience to tax payers who would be required to file their returns in the absence of audit report, with the result the determination of income would be subject to change on the basis of the audit. This would lead to a large number of tax payers having to file revised return of income besides may in some cases also be exposed to penal proceeding. It was also pointed out that similar Petitions have been filed in Gujarat and Delhi High Court and are likely to be heard soon

The CBDT has issued an Office Memorandum dated 15th September 2014 pointing out that Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) constitute a strategically important source of information for the Income Tax department. It is admitted that, however, the department has not been able to investigate all STRs promptly. With a view to take steps for better and quicker investigation in available STRs, the CBDT has invited feedback from the field officers on how the process can be made more effective

Vide Order No. 154 of 2014 dated 09.09.2014, the CBDT has ordered the transfer and posting of several officers in the grade of Assistant/ Deputy Commissioners of Income-tax with immediate effect and until further orders.

Vide order dated 28.08.2014 passed by the Hon’ble President pursuant to the consultations with the Collegium of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal consisting of the President and two senior most Vice Presidents, the following Members of the ITAT have been transferred/ permitted to continue in the same capacity to the respective Benches, mentioned below

The CBDT has issued Instruction No. 6 of 2014 dated 02.09.2014 and announced the procedure and criteria for compulsory manual selection of cases for scrutiny for FY 2014-15. The guidelines appear to have been issued pursuant to the direction of the Delhi High Court in Joginder Pal Gulati vs. OSD – CPIO

The CBDT has issued an Office Memorandum dated 22.08.2014 in which it has pointed out that some AO’s issues notices to taxpayers/ witnesses/ representatives etc. indicating a standard time of appointment. Thus, many persons called for hearing etc on a day by an officer are given the same time for appearance and the persons are made to wait for their turn. It is pointed out that such actions, apart from causing avoidable inconvenience to the taxpayers/ witnesses/ representatives etc cause great embarrassment to the Government. All officers have been advised to strictly maintain the appointment schedule in spirit with the Citizen’s Charter, 2014 of the Department which specifically provides that the Department shall endeavour “to adhere to the schedule of appointments with taxpayers”. All Supervisory officers, i.e. the CCsIT, CsIT and the Addl. CsIT have been requested to ensure that officers reporting to them strictly comply with this instruction and avoid fixing multiple appointments at the same time. Instances of disregard to these instructions may be viewed seriously, it is added