The question whether courts have the power to condone delay in filing of appeals under section 260A of the Income-tax Act arose because of careless drafting. While all other provisions of the Act provide that the authority therein can condone a delay in filing an application/appeal, the draftsman forgot to add a similar provision in s. 260A. This bit of careless drafting lead to a spate of litigation.

The Budget 2010-11 has been presented at the turbulent time when the inflation is rising and economic growth has to grow overcoming the economic slow down. Every one had great expectations from the Finance Minister. The common man is worried about inflation, salaried class expecting a big tax relief, industry is worried about withdrawal of stimulus package and increase service tax rate.

Section 44 read with the First Schedule to the Income-tax Act provides the scheme of computation of income of insurance companies. According to Rule 5 of the said Schedule, the income of non-life insurance business is taken as ‘profit before tax and appropriations’ as per the profit and loss account of the company, prepared in accordance with the regulations made by the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority (IRDA), subject to certain adjustments.

Section 282B (Allotment of Document Identification Number) is a new section inserted by the Finance (No. 2) Act, 2009 in the Income-tax Act with effect from 1st October, 2010. Under the provisions of this section, an income-tax authority is required to allot a computer generated Document Identification Number before issue of every notice, order, letter or any correspondence to any other income-tax authority or assessee or any other person and such number shall be quoted thereon.

Under the existing provisions of section 245A(b), the term “case”, in relation to which an application can be made is defined as any proceeding for assessment, of any person in respect of any assessment year or assessment years which may be pending before an Assessing Officer on the date on which an application is made to the Settlement Commission. However, it excludes, among others, proceedings for assessment or reassessment resulting from a search or as a result of requisition of books of account or other documents or any assets, initiated under the Act.

The existing provisions of section 203(3) of the Income-tax Act dispense with the requirement of furnishing of TDS certificates by the deductor to the deductee on or after 1st April, 2010. Similarly, under section 206C(5) of the Act, a collector of tax at source will also not be required to issue tax collection certificate to the person from whom tax has been collected on or after 1st April, 2010.

Under the existing provisions of section 143(1 B), the Central Government may, for the purposes of giving effect to the scheme of centralised processing of returns under section 143(1A), issue a notification relating to such processing of returns. Such a notification can be issued up to 31st March, 2010.

Under the existing provisions of section 115JB of the Income Tax Act, a company is required to pay a Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) on its book profit, if the income-tax payable on the total income, as computed under the Act in respect of any previous year relevant to the assessment year commencing on or after the 1st day of April, 2010, is less than such minimum.

Section 80-ID of the Income-tax Act provides for 100 per cent deduction for five years, of profits derived by an undertaking from the business of a two-star, three-star or four-star category hotel or from the business of building, owning and operating a convention centre located in the National Capital Territory of Delhi and the districts of Faridabad, Gurgaon, Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad, provided such hotel has started functioning or such convention centre is constructed during the period 1.4.2007 to 31 .3.2010.

Under the existing provisions of section 80-IB(10), 100 per cent deduction is available in respect of profits derived by an undertaking from developing and building housing projects approved by a local authority before 31.3.2008. This benefit is available subject to, inter alia, the following conditions: