A remedy by way of appeal from the orders of ITAT is provided both u/s.260A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 and u/s.15 (w.e.f. 6-1- 2006) of the N.T.T. Act, 2005. Although appeals from the orders of ITAT are supposed to be filed only in the National Tax Tribunal from 6-1-2006, yet appeals are being filed in the High Court for good reasons. Hence, wherever reference is made to N.T.T, it may be taken/understood that the date of filing the appeal would have to be on or after 6-1-2006.
The elections to the 21st Central Council and the 20th Regional Councils of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) ran into rough weather after a booth capturing incident. At least four unidentified men, including one toting a pistol, stormed an ICAI election booth atVaishali (near Ghaziabad) on Saturday, tampering the ballot box and stuffing ballot papers, sources said.
Tax dispute resolution in the Indian context hasn’t particularly been an encouraging experience. While a portion of this taint could be attributed to complexity of tax laws and efficiency levels of the administrative process, a material reason is delay in seeking resolution due to multiple layers of appeals, which currently is four.
All taxpayers are assessed u/s.143, u/s.147, u/s.148 and u/s.153 of the Income-tax Act, 1961. After filing of return, when an asses see is being assessed by an Assessing Officer, he/she is required to file his/her submissions before the respective authority during the course of assessment. All these assessments are popularly known as ‘Scrutiny’ assessments. In case of these assessments, the authority before whom these proceedings are going on is supposed to form his opinion after verifying books of accounts, documents, submissions, proofs, evidences, statement of cross-examination of the parties concerned, etc. by bringing on record all or some of these things from the assessee, his/her representative and also by collecting independent evidences, proofs, documents, etc. To collect information, the assessing authority also can call outsiders by taking his/her statement on oath u/s.131 or u/s.133.
S. 14A has been inserted in Chapter IV of the Income tax Act by the Finance Act, 2001, with retrospective effect from 1-4-1962. This Section provides for disallowance of expenditure incurred in relation to income which is not included in the total income of the assessee (i.e. exempt income). The operative part of this Section reads as under :
Normally every sovereign state provides a legal framework to decide about the accounting year. Every entity carrying on a business is required to prepare the final accounts as understood by us for pre-defined accounting year. [More…] Besides annual report to various stakeholders, collection of tax revenue is also based on this pre-determined accounting year. In India, such an accounting year is financial year starting from 1st April and ending on 31st March. Earlier in India, sentimental luxury relating to choice of an accounting year was given to every business entity. No longer is such a luxury permissible.
These are challenging times in many respects. A global financial meltdown in which India cannot escape without hurt, a gruesome terrorist attack on 26/11 on the financial capital of India i.e., our dear Mumbai, politicians’ continuous play and ensuing election and what not. In the field of Accounting and Auditing also we are expected to start a new reporting procedure, namely, IFRS. It is stated to be applicable from 1st April 2011. However in reality, one will have to start looking at the accounts in accordance with IFRS requirements much earlier, say, from 1st of April 2009.
Multinational corporations have been carrying on business in India through private limited companies (‘Indian Companies’) set up by them under the Companies Act, 1956 (‘the Act’). Often, such private limited companies are not subsidiaries of the principal holding company (which has public shareholding), but are step-down subsidiaries of subsidiary companies of such principal holding companies.
The article specified the criteria to determine whether an intra-group service has been rendered by a related entity. Once it has been concluded that a service has been rendered, the second of the two primary issues pertaining to intra-group services needs to be addressed, namely, the amount to be charged for the service rendered.
One of the most widely contested issues by Indian tax authorities during a transfer pricing audit is the amount paid for intra-group services to group companies often referred to as management or intra-group fees/charges. In fact, compensation for intra-group services has been one of the important transfer pricing challenges globally for taxpayer and authorities alike.
