The Tribunal held that reassessment notices issued by the Jurisdictional AO after the faceless regime came into force are invalid. The key takeaway is that only faceless authorities can initiate reassessment post-29 March 2022.
It was ruled that once books are accepted, expenses supported by ledgers, vouchers, and bank payments cannot be disallowed on suspicion. Ad-hoc estimation without rejecting books was held invalid.
The tribunal held that reliance on an investigation report cannot override the statutory requirement of section 68. Where the assessee maintained no books, additions based solely on bank credits were invalid.
The ruling clarifies that penalty cannot be levied merely because expenses are partly disallowed on estimation. Absence of under-reporting or misreporting defeats the penalty action.
It was ruled that reassessment proceedings must be initiated only through the faceless mechanism after the CBDT notification under section 151A. The concept of concurrent jurisdiction between JAO and FAO was expressly rejected.
The case examined penalty levied on estimated additions and statutory disallowance. The Tribunal held that neither category amounts to concealment or inaccurate particulars.
The Tribunal found that key evidences furnished by the assessee were not adequately considered by lower authorities. The issue was restored to ensure fair examination and compliance with natural justice.
The Tribunal ruled that penalty under Section 270A cannot stand where income is enhanced purely by estimation. Additions made by applying a higher profit rate, without incriminating material, fall outside under-reporting.
This case addressed the allowability of commission paid to non-resident agents without TDS. The Tribunal held that since the income was not chargeable to tax in India and agents had no PE, Section 40(a)(i) could not be invoked.
Once the cash credit addition failed, the special tax under Section 115BBE could not survive. The Tribunal deleted the entire addition, reaffirming that consequential provisions fall with the primary addition.
