Dell International Services India Private Limited Vs DCIT (ITAT Bangalore)
Department Was Told of the Merger, Yet Passed the TDS Order on the Vanished Company: ITAT Quashes Section 201 Order
The Income Tax Department had been informed that EMC IT Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. had merged into Dell International Services India Pvt. Ltd. It even issued a show-cause notice to Dell. Yet the final order under section 201 was addressed to EMC, used EMC’s TAN and was uploaded to EMC’s account. The Bengaluru Tribunal held that the order had been passed on a non-existent entity and quashed it.
The ruling turned on more than an incorrect name appearing in one place. The successor company had notified the TDS office of the merger before the proceedings began and repeated that information during the proceedings. Despite those intimations, the authority concluded the case in the former company’s name.
The Merger and the TDS Proceedings
The National Company Law Tribunal, Bengaluru, approved EMC’s amalgamation into Dell by order dated 16 March 2023, with an appointed date of 1 April 2022. On 10 May 2023, Dell informed the office of the Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax, TDS Circle 1(1), Bengaluru, of the amalgamation and furnished the NCLT order. It asked that future communications concerning EMC be addressed to Dell and explained that future TDS compliance would be undertaken through Dell’s TAN.
