All About Income Tax Appeals in Faceless Era Including GST Appeals by CA NISHA BHANDARI & CA SATYADEV PUROHIT – Edition 2023

Description

Under the income-tax law whenever a person feels aggrieved by any order of the income-tax authority, he has the right to take certain actions against such order, like filing of appeal, go for rectification or revision or file application before Dispute Resolution Committee etc.The action which is required to be taken depends upon the facts and circumstances of the case.

The most common and frequently used remedy by the aggrieved person is filing of appeal. There are four stages of appeals under the Income Tax Act.

Prior to amendment made by the Finance Act, 2023, the first appellate authority was only Commissioner (Appeals). The Finance Act, 2023 has introduced a new appellate authority i.e. the Joint Commissioner (Appeals) and for this purpose substituted section 246 w.e.f. 1-4-2023 for enabling filing of appeal before the Joint Commissioner (Appeals).

The objective of introducing new appellate authority is to reduce the burden of the Commissioner (Appeals) as a large number of appeals are currently pending before him and it is being carried forward every year. As a result of introduction of new appellate authority, early disposal of appeal will become possible in cases where appeal is filed against assessment orders, orders relating to TDS/TCS matter, orders for imposing penalty, etc.

The second appeal against the order of CIT (Appeals) lies before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), which is a final fact finding authority. Appeal before Income Tax Appellate Tribunal can be filed by the revenue as well as by the assessee.

The third appeal is of appeal before the High Court which lies against the Tribunal’s order. The High Courts are also vested with writ jurisdiction which where invoked and admitted, becomes a potent redressal mechanism with, more often than not, welcome results.

The final stage of appeal is the appeal before the Supreme Court.

Apart from these four appeals certain other mechanisms are also there to resolve the disputes, i.e., Dispute Resolution Committee, Advance Rulings, Rectification, Revision, etc.

Previously, Settlement Commission was also one of the avenues available for resolving disputes. But effective from 1-2-2021 settlement commission has been abolished and hence this mechanism is not covered in the present book.

The present treatise is an attempt to present totality of the subject matter in regard to the Income Tax Redressal Mechanisms of all sorts, from all angles, namely Commentaries on the related Statutory Provisions, appropriate descriptions and discussions of the relevant Procedural Provisions, as also incorporation of corresponding Conveyancing samples, as and where required. Apart from remedies available under the Income Tax Law, filing of appeals under GST law has also been included. The subject matter is presented in two Books. Book 1 is relating to Appeals and other remedies under Income Tax Law and Book 2 is relating to GST Appeals.

Book 1 comprises as many as Nine Parts encompassing the entire spectrum of the Issues relevant to Redressal Mechanisms available under the income-tax and some other Laws for the income-tax assessees to adopt with a view to seeking redressal as per the needs arising to them from time to time, from case to case, and from occasion to occasion.

Part I namely, Appeals – Introductory, deals with Right of appeal, Its stages, Monetary limits for filing Departmental Appeals etc.

Part II deals with Appeal to First Appellate Authority. It begins with commentaries on sections 246 to 251 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 and Rules 45 to 46A of the Income Tax Rules, 1962, apart from practice specific hints and Conveyancing Samples enabling proper pursuance of appeal proceedings. The related matter is divided into six Sections A to F, comprising 51 Chapters.

Part III deals with Appeal to ITAT. It comprises commentaries on sections 252 to 255 of the Income Tax Act, Rule 47 of the Income Tax Rules, and on all of the ITAT Rules, 1963, apart from the related Conveyancing Samples, Practice Specific hints, etc. The related matter is divided into nine Sections namely, A to I comprising 50 Chapters.

Writ/Appeal to High Courts provides an identical treatment of the subject matter along with collateral aspects, in relation to Article 226 of the Constitution of India in regard to admissibility of a Writ Petition, and appeal provision in section 260A of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The related matter is covered in nine Chapters in all which forms Part IV of the book.

Part V deals with Appeal to the Supreme Court. It incorporates appropriate discussion from practice angle of the Sections 261 and 262 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 as also that of Article 136 of the Constitution of India in regard to filing of Special Leave Petition before the Apex Court. The related matter is presented in eight Chapters.

Part VI deals with Dispute Resolution Committee. This part comprises eight chapters dealing with constitution, procedure and other issues relating to dispute resolution committee along with e-dispute Resolution Scheme.

Part VII deals with Sections 245N to 245W of the Income Tax Act relating to Advance Rulings. The related matter is presented in 9 Chapters.

Part VIII dealing with Rectification comprises discussion of section 154 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 with a view to harnessing rectification as a redressal measure at the lowest level, where the order in question may be shown to be suffering from a mistake apparent from record. The related matter is covered in 4 Chapters.

Part IX deals with Revision under section 264. This measure is statutorily made available to assessees for approaching the higher administrative authority i.e. Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner or Principal Commissioner or Commissioner and which can be invoked even where filing of appeal before Commissioner (Appeals) has got time barred, more so as it would yield a result in favour of assessee. The related subject matter is covered by 11 Chapters.

Book 2 provides a detailed guide on law and practice relating to  filing appeals under the GST regime. More than six years have elapsed since the introduction of the new indirect taxes regime called ‘Goods and Services Tax’, with effect from 1-7-2017. The GST authorities have almost completed the scrutiny proceedings of the GST returns pertaing to the financial years 2017-18 and 2018-19 and consequently have issued assessment orders under section 73 as well as section 74 of the CGST Act, demanding tax/seeking reversal of input tax credit, imposing penalty, late fees and interest. The taxpayers have also been facing other inflicting orders such as cancellation of registration, imposition of penalty for various contraventions mentioned under section 122, detention of goods and imposition of penalty under section 129, confiscation of goods under section 130, etc.

This Book 2 comprises four chapters. First chapter relates to Appeal to Appellate Authority, as provided under section 107 of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 and corresponding State/Union Territories Goods and Services Tax Act. Second Chapter deals with Special Procedure for Filng Appeal against the TRAN-1 Orders, Third chapter is devoted to Appeal to Appellate Tribunal and Fourth Chapter deals with the Filing of appeal before High Court and Supreme Court. 

Further the tax administration in India is going to be digital or faceless. The government has already come out with Faceless Assessment Scheme, Faceless Appeal Scheme, Faceless Penalty Scheme, E-Advance Ruling Scheme, E-Dispute Resolution Scheme, etc. Considering the importance and relevance of these schemes, the book incorporates all the schemes which are relevant to the subject matter with desired discussion at relevant place of the book.

The present book is updated as per law enunciated in wake of amendment brought by the Finance Act, 2023.

This book is further enriched with case law as available upto 31st August 2023. The discussion and reference to a very large number of Case Law on all the issues concerned shall provide opportunity to the reader for locating cases favouring his case.