Some income tax payers have reportedly received notices under Section 148, which relates to reopening of assessments for the financial years 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18.
A former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the professional body for chartered accountants, believes that these tax notices are sent in error because the six-year statute of limitations expired on March 31, 2024.
“All these years have become barred from March 31, 2024 in view of the first proviso to Section 149(1),” wrote Ved Jain, former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter).
What are IT notices issued under section 148?
Article 148 of Income tax (IT) The Act gives an assessing officer the power to assess or reassess any taxable income which was wrongly calculated and was not valued in accordance with the provisions.
After the notice is delivered, the taxpayer must provide income tax returns (ITR) within a period of 30 days or any explicitly stated period.
Too important to ignore
Article 148 provides that the information provided to the evaluating officer must be of the utmost importance and must not consist of superficial facts.
Before issuing any notice to a Taxpayer Under Section 148, the assessing officer shall record and provide written reasons as to why he believes the taxpayer is evading income assessment.
What does the former president of ICAI say?
Ved Jain says these notices can be challenged through a writ petition as the six-year period expired on March 31, 2024. He is also hopeful that these notices can be quashed for the simple reason that the time period has already elapsed.
“All these notices can be challenged through writ petitions and can be quashed given that the 6-year period had already expired on March 31, 2024 (sic),” he wrote.
“Similarly, 148 notices issued now in search cases where earlier assistance under section 153A/153C was quashed by ITAT/High Court/SC in the absence of any incriminating material, are also barred by limitation and can be quashed by filing an appeal before the High Court,” he added.
Chirag Chauhan, a certified chartered accountant in Mumbai, expressed similar sentiments and said some of his clients had also received such notices.
Meanwhile, Pratibha Goyal, a Delhi-based chartered accountant, said: live mint that none of its clients have received such notification.
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