Month: September 2015

The Central Board of Direct Taxes, in compliance to the orders of Hon’ble Punjab and Haryana High Court dated 28.09.2015 in case of Vishal Garg & Ors. vs. Union of India & Anr.; CWP 19770-2015 and order of Hon’ble Gujarat High Court dated 29.09 .2015 in case of All Gujarat Federation of Tax Consultants vs. CBDT; Special Civil Application No. 15075 of 2015 and in exercise of powers conferred under section 119 of the Income-tax Act , 1961 (‘Act’), hereby orders that the returns of income due to be E-filed by 30th September, 2015 may be filed by 31st October, 2015 in cases of Income-tax assessees of the State(s) of Punjab and Haryana and Union Territory of Chandigarh and the State of Gujarat. This order shall be subject to the outcome of any further appeal/SLP which the CBDT may file against the said judgment

It is clarified the order is fraudulent. The Government has not extended the due date for filing of returns and audit report due by 30th September 2015. Tax payer and practitioners are advised not to give any credence to the fraudulent order purportedly signed by one Upmanyu Reddy

Vide Order No. 171 of 2015 dated 16.09.2015 of the CBDT, several officers in the grade of Additional Commissioner/ Additional Director of Income Tax have been promoted to the grade of Commissioner of Income Tax (CIT) in the Pay Band-4 – Rs. 37,400-67,000 + Grade Pay of Rs. 10,000/- with immediate effect and actually from the date of assumption of charge of the post until further orders.

The CBDT has issued Instruction No. 10/2015 dated 16.09.2015 stating that in view of the very large number of Dossier cases (about 1,55,000) requiring periodic reporting and review by various Income Tax Authorities and the fact that the monetary threshold for classification of a case of outstanding demand as a Dossier case has not been revised in last about 30 years, it has been decided to raise the primary threshold for Dossier cases from Rs. 10 lakh to Rs.30 lakh and re-adjust intermediate thresholds for focused monitoring and rationalization of workload

According to a report in livelaw.in, the Bar Council of India has resolved to extend the date for filing of application for verification throughout the country under the ‘Certificate and Place of Practice (Verification) Rules, 2015’ to 31st December, 2015. The notification says that the Council took note of the letter dated July 21, 2015 received from the Secretary, Bar Council of Maharashtra that the process of verification is not likely to be completed by 30th September 2015.

The Ministry of Finance has issued a press release dated 09.09.2015 stating that there will be no extension of the date for filing of returns due by 30th September for Assessment Year 2015-16. The Ministry has advised taxpayers to file their returns well in time to avoid last minute rush

Hon’ble Shri. Mohit S. Shah, Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, retired from judicial office on 9th September 2015. To mark the occasion and to felicitate the learned Judge, a function was organized by the Bombay Tax Bar. The function was graced by several sitting and retired judges of the Bombay High Court and also by distinguished members of the Bar.

The learned Chief Justice candidly revealed that he is fascinated by the nuances and intricacies of income-tax law and that he joined the LL.M course with the specific purpose of conducting a formal study of Nani Palkhivala’s treatise “The Law & Practice of Income-tax Law”. The learned judge also revealed that he was in awe of Nani Palkhivala’s mastery at making complex issues sound simple and that he never missed an opportunity to attend Nani Palkhivala’s speeches on the Budget Speech and that he would listen spellbound to the late Jurist.

Livemint has revealed interesting details about the fees charged by eminent senior advocates like Fali Nariman, Harish Salve, P. Chidambaram, A. M. Singhvi and others for a single appearance in the High Courts and the Supreme Court

Taxindiaonline.com conducted a programe to examine the problems being faced by the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (“ITAT”). The programme was attended by Mr R. P. Garg, Former Senior V-P, ITAT, Mr G. C. Srivastava, Advocate and former DG (International Taxation) and Mr Ajay Wadhwa, President, ITAT Bar Association, Delhi. The discussions were moderated by TIOL’s Founder Editor, Shailendra Kumar. The experts have explained the reasons for the problems being faced by the ITAT also also given practical solutions on how to resolve the said problems

The CBDT has issued a letter dated 4th September 2015 setting out the guidelines for compounding of offences under the Income-tax Act, 1961 and the Wealth-tax Act, 1957 in cases of persons holding undisclosed foreign bank accounts and assets