Unverified Third-Party Digital Evidence Insufficient to Sustain Additions for Alleged “On-Money” Payments The Issue Whether the Assessing Officer (AO) can make additions to a home buyer’s income under the head “unexplained investment” solely based on deleted-and-retrieved files from a laptop belonging to a third-party employee (of the developer), without independent corroboration or providing an opportunity… Read More »

Salary Reimbursements for Deployed Government Staff Qualify as Deductible Business Expenditure The Issue Whether the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) is entitled to claim a deduction for salaries paid to employees of the Department of Urban Estates (DUE). The Revenue challenged this, arguing that since DUE is a separate State Government department under different administrative… Read More »

Reassessment Notice Issued by Jurisdictional AO Instead of Faceless AO is Legally Void The Issue Whether a reassessment notice issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act by a Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO) is valid if it was issued after the notification of the Faceless Assessment Scheme on March 29, 2022. The Facts The… Read More »

Registration Under Section 12A Precludes Denial of Exemption on Commercial Activity Grounds The Issue Whether an Improvement Trust, possessing a valid registration under Section 12AA, can be denied tax exemptions under Sections 11 and 12 on the grounds that its activities (such as selling plots) are commercial in nature and violate the proviso to Section… Read More »

IMPORTANT INCOME TAX CASE LAWS 27.01.2026 Relevant Act Section Case Law Title Brief Summary Citation Income-tax Act, 1961 Section 36(1)(va) Rational Business Corp (P) Ltd v. DCIT [Retrospective Disallowance] Disallowance of delayed employees’ PF/ESI contributions is valid even for past years, as the SC ruling in Checkmate Services has retrospective effect. The relaxation of Section… Read More »

Case Summary: Quashing of JAO-Issued Section 148 Notice The Issue Whether a notice issued under Section 148 by a Jurisdictional Assessing Officer (JAO)—instead of through the Faceless Assessment Officer (FAO) or the National Faceless Assessment Centre (NaFAC)—is legally valid under the new faceless reassessment regime. The Facts The Regime Change: After the Finance Act 2021… Read More »