Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee held discussions on ways to step up revenue collection for 2011-12 with top officials of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) and Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in Chennai. An official release said the meeting discussed steps for augmentation for revenue in the remaining part of the financial year.
CIT vs. SPL’s Siddhartha Ltd (Delhi High Court) – The argument of the assessee before the Tribunal was that the approval was not granted by the Joint Commissioner for reopening U/s. 147. Instead, it was taken from the CIT, Delhi-III, New Delhi, who was not competent to approve even when he was a higher Authority inasmuch as Section 151 of the Act specifically mentions Joint Commissioner as the Competent Authority. This contention of the respondent-assessee has been accepted by the Tribunal thereby quashing the assessment proceedings. The contention of the Revenue that it was merely an irregularity committed by the AO and was rectifiable under Section 292B of the Act, has not been found convincing by the Tribunal. Where the Assessing Officer does not himself exercise his jurisdiction under Section 147 but merely acts at the behest of any superior authority, it must be held that assumption of jurisdiction was bad for non-satisfaction of the condition precedent.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has been fined £1.4 million by regulators, after it signed off a report containing serious rule-breaking client money practices at JP Morgan Chase – the result of a major IT switchover that failed to keep pace with changed business processes. The Accountancy and Actuarial Discipline Board (AADB) issued the fine as it ruled that PwC wrongly reported over a seven year period that JP Morgan had maintained the right systems to correctly separate clients’ money from its own.
To facilitate the trade, STC number/Registrations were issued to those assessees also who were not having PAN Numbers. To them registrations were given by creating TEMP (Temporary) Numbers by the department. This was done so that genuine tax payers will be able to pay their tax on time. These assessees were required to subsequently obtain PAN Number from Income Tax authorities and apply to the department to convert Temp based Registration Number into PAN based Registration Number. Trade Notice No.15/2011-ST,
Three years after the multicrore Satyam accounting fraud came to light, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India on Thursday found the chief financial officer of the erstwhile Satyam Computer Services Ltd guilty of professional misconduct. The ICAI also found Talluri Srinivas, partner, Price Waterhouse Coopers, then statutory auditors of Satyam guilty for not complying with professional standards.
Twinstar Jupiter Co-op. Hsg. Soc. Ltd. Vs ITO (ITAT Mumbai) – In the case of Sindh CHS Ltd (supra) the Honble High Court made it clear that in the said case the bye-laws provide that the amount has to be paid by the transferor Member. In the present case, nowhere it is the case of the A.O. that there is a provision that only the transferor has to bear the amount of the transfer fees. We, further, find that nowhere it is the case of the A.O. that no commerciality is involved in the objects or activities of the assessee society as the assessee has credited the amount to the general reserve funds to be used for the repairs and maintenance of the society. Their Lordships have also considered the Notification given by the Government of Maharashtra and the reference made is to only to extent of argument of the parties to the on Govt notification dated 9.8.2001. As per the notification dated 10.12.1989 if the bye-laws are amended then only the society could not charge what was set out in the notification.
Chadha Finlease Ltd. Vs. ACIT (ITAT Delhi) – At the time of hearing of the appeal, neither the assessee nor any of his authorized representative were present, although, the last notice for hearing the appeal on 11.08.2011 was sent at the address given by the assessee in form no.36. The same has not returned unserved. It is thus inferred that the assessee is not interested in pursuing the appeal. The appeal of the assessee is, therefore, dismissed as unadmitted.
Revised draft Bank Branch Auditors’ Panel for the year 2011-12 has been hosted at www.meficai.org and will be available till 10th January, 2012. MEF00001 to MEF10000 MEF10001 to MEF20000 MEF20001 to MEF30000
ITO Vs. Nasir Khan J. Mahadik (ITAT Mumbai)-Mumbai ITAT has in the following case deleted the additions made on account of opening balances of unsecured loans and the notional interest on such loans. The Tribunal held that only fresh loans or additions to the loans during the year in question can be considered for the purpose of addition. Previous years loans cannot be added to subsequent year’s income by claiming them to be unexplained.
In the biggest ever disclosure of black money stashed abroad, a Delhi-based businessman has disclosed and surrendered Rs 73 crores to the Income Tax department and also gave holding details of lockers in Swiss banks and the US. The disclosure by the businessman identified as Satish Swahney came today after a team of Income Tax(I-T) sleuths from the newly created Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) carried out simultaneous searches at his posh Sainik Farms bungalow and South Extension-I premises.
