Tax Law

Background and Facts A buyer who paid its supplier in full, took delivery and claimed credit can still lose that credit because the supplier never paid the tax over. The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that this cannot be done by reflex. Deciding a batch of 424 writ petitions, the Court upheld the provision that makes credit conditional on the tax having been paid to the Government, but ruled that the mechanical reversal of input tax credit is not open to the authoriti

Background and Facts An assessee whose cash is taken in a search has thirty days to ask for it back and the statute says the seized assets shall be released within one hundred and twenty days. What happens when the Assessing Officer simply does not decide within that period has now been referred for authoritative answer. A Division Bench of the Gujarat High Court has referred to a larger bench the question whether assets seized under the Income-tax Act must be released once t

Background and Facts An assessee who pays the demand and gives up its right of appeal in exchange for immunity from penalty should not then be asked to prove a negative. The Delhi High Court has set aside an order rejecting an immunity application under Section 270AA of the Income-tax Act, 1961 on the ground that the assessee had produced no documentary evidence that it had not filed an appeal. The judgment in Shantijanak Estates Private Limited v. Assistant Commissioner of I

Background and Facts An assessee cannot build a deduction on a departmental memorandum that the statute does not support. The Supreme Court has restated that CBDT circulars reflect the Executive's understanding of the law, bind the officers who administer it, and do not bind a court at all. The judgment in Orient Crafts Limited v. Commissioner of Income Tax, New Delhi [Civil Appeal Nos. 143-144 of 2013, heard with Civil Appeal Nos. 137-138, 139-140 and 141-142 of 2013] carrie

Background and Facts The Supreme Court has stayed a Punjab and Haryana High Court judgment that declared Section 147A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 unconstitutional, but has done so on terms that stop the Revenue from pressing ahead in the meantime. The order was passed on September 18, 2026 in Union of India and Others v. Bharat Industrial Enterprises Private Limited [Special Leave Petition (Civil) No. 33196 of 2026]. Section 147A was inserted into the Income-tax Act, 1961 by

Background and Facts The Supreme Court has held that once the Income Tax Settlement Commission passes a final order, the Assessing Officer has no jurisdiction to reopen a Settlement Commission order through ordinary reassessment, and that the Revenue's only route lies within the settlement chapter itself. The judgment in Assistant Commissioner of Income Tax and Another v. M/s Omaxe Limited [Civil Appeal No. 9190 of 2013] carries the neutral citation 2026 INSC 1000. The assess

An Advance Pricing Agreement (APA) is a binding agreement between a taxpayer and the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) that fixes the transfer pricing methodology for international transactions for a prospective period of up to five years, with the option of rolling the agreed methodology back by four years. The APA framework was introduced in India in 2012 and is now codified in Sections 168 and 169 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 (which replaced the earlier Sections 92CC and

Record 219 APAs Signed in FY 2025-26 The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) signed a record 219 Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) in FY 2025-26, taking the cumulative total past the 1,000 mark since the programme's inception in 2012. FY 2024-25 had already set a milestone for bilateral engagement, with 65 Bilateral APAs (BAPAs) signed in a single year. The acceleration reflects both growing taxpayer confidence in the programme and CBDT's investment in dedicated APA teams wi

On August 20, 2026, the Supreme Court of India (Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Prasanna B. Varale) dismissed the Revenue's review petition challenging the Delhi High Court's landmark ruling that telecom towers qualify as "plant and machinery" for the purposes of Input Tax Credit (ITC) under GST. The ruling, which quashed a tax demand of Rs 5,454.6 crore covering FY18 to FY24, has opened the door for infrastructure intensive businesses across India to reclaim substantial ITC

Introduction In a decisive ruling that brings finality to one of the most contentious disputes in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the Supreme Court of India has dismissed the Centre's review petitions challenging the eligibility of telecom companies to claim Input Tax Credit (ITC) on mobile telecommunication towers. The order, delivered on August 19, 2026, by the Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Prasanna B. Varale, reaffirms the position that telecom towers qualify

In a ruling with significant implications for the dual-qualified professional community, the Delhi High Court has held that advocates who serve as insolvency professionals under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 (IBC) must obtain GST registration and discharge their GST liability under the forward charge mechanism, not the reverse charge mechanism that ordinarily applies to legal services. The judgment, delivered on August 13, 2026 by a Division Bench of Justices Prath

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has notified the Foreign Assets of Small Taxpayers, Disclosure Scheme (FAST-DS) Rules, 2026 through Notification No. 114/2026 dated 14 August 2026. The scheme, which came into force on 16 August 2026, provides a one-time, time-bound window for eligible taxpayers to voluntarily disclose specified foreign assets and foreign income that were not previously reported in their income-tax returns. The disclosure window will remain open until

On July 24, 2026, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) released a comprehensively revised Guidance Note on the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) and the Common Reporting Standard (CRS). Issued by the Ministry of Finance's Foreign Tax and Tax Research Division, the revised Guidance Note aligns the reporting framework for financial institutions with section 508 of the Income Tax Act, 2025, Rules 238 to 240, and Form 166 of the Income Tax Rules, 2026. The document i

Foreign businesses operating in or with India face the critical question of whether their activities create a "permanent establishment" (PE) under India's network of double taxation avoidance agreements. A PE determination has significant consequences: if a foreign enterprise is found to have a PE in India, profits attributable to that PE become taxable in India. This guide provides a step-by-step framework for identifying, evaluating, and mitigating PE risk under the major c

The Goods and Services Tax Network (GSTN) issued Advisory No. 664 on June 17, 2026, announcing a significant change to India's e-Invoice and e-Way Bill ecosystem. Starting August 1, 2026, the Ship-to GSTIN field will become mandatory in all e-Invoice and e-Way Bill API transactions where ship-to details are furnished. This change, originally scheduled for June 15, 2026, was deferred by approximately six weeks following extensive industry representations from trade bodies, sof