Monthly Archives: May 2026

Unexplained investment addition cannot be sustained solely on a DVO valuation report without independent evidence of on-money payment. Issue Whether an addition under Section 69 for unexplained property investment can be sustained based solely on an Insight portal alert or a Departmental Valuation Officer (DVO) report, when the registered sale deed reflects a lower purchase… Read More »

Reopening based on a vague loose paper chit lacking a live link to the assessee is invalid. Issue Whether the Revenue can validly initiate reassessment proceedings under Section 148 based on a vague loose paper chit seized from a third party that lacks identifiable names or figures, without establishing a direct, live link between the… Read More »

Reopening notice based on unverified, third-party digital material without a direct link to the assessee is invalid. Issue Whether a reassessment notice issued under Section 148, based entirely on an uninvestigated draft PDF complaint and a cash receipt image found on a third-party’s mobile phone during a survey, is legally sustainable when no direct link… Read More »

Tribunal rightly remanded share premium dispute for factual verification rather than using human probabilities. Issue Whether the High Court should interfere with the Tribunal’s procedural order remanding a share premium addition under Section 68 back to the Assessing Officer for a strictly fact-based verification of cash flows, rather than relying on the “test of human… Read More »

Property holding period runs from possession date, and maintenance security is excluded from acquisition cost. Issue Whether the period of holding for a capital asset should be calculated from the physical possession and full payment date (2013) rather than the official registration date (2016), and whether registration charges and interest-bearing maintenance security deposits can be… Read More »

The choice to claim bad debt deductions under Section 36(1)(viia) rests exclusively with the assessee-bank. Issue Whether the phrase “at its option” in the proviso to Section 36(1)(viia) grants an exclusive right to the assessee-bank to choose between the main clause and the proviso for bad debt provisions, and whether the Assessing Officer has the… Read More »

Exempt income expenses must be strictly carved out from book profits to compute minimum alternate tax Issue Whether expenses incurred in relation to earning tax-exempt income, which are disallowed under Section 14A of the Income-tax Act, can be automatically added back to compute the “book profit” for Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) under Section 115JB, and… Read More »

Substantial engagement in charitable activities protects an educational society from trust exemption denial and retrospective registration cancellation. Issue Whether an educational society’s tax exemption under Section 11 can be denied under Section 13(1)(b), and its charitable registration retrospectively cancelled under Section 12AB(4), solely because certain specific expenditures like school construction and auto distribution allegedly benefited… Read More »

Assessee is entitled to infrastructure deductions, interest-free fund disallowance relief, and consistent capital receipt treatment. Issue Whether an assessee is entitled to Section 80-IA infrastructure deductions when the underlying dispute has attained finality in earlier years through unappealed or quashed revisionary orders. Whether interest disallowance under Section 14A read with Rule 8D is warranted when… Read More »

Depositing demonetized cash into another’s account for banking-channel return constitutes a benami transaction. Issue Whether handing over demonetized currency to another party to deposit in their proprietorship bank account, with the understanding that it will be transferred back through regular banking channels, qualifies as a “benami transaction” under Section 2(9)(A) of the PBPT Act, and… Read More »