Tax
Beyond Kartavya: Union Budget 2026 And The Legal Quietude
The Union Budget is no longer a neutral fiscal statement confined to revenue and expenditure. It has become a central instrument through which governance priorities are asserted, social choices are structured, and constitutional values are indirectly shaped. Union Budget 2026-27 must therefore be read not merely as an economic exercise, but as a document of constitutional consequence....
Supreme Court Rejects Plea For Safeguards Against Inadvertent TDS Default By Buyers In Property Purchases Above Rs. 50 Lakh
The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea seeking directions to introduce safeguards so that property buyers do not unknowingly default on their obligation to deduct and deposit tax at source while purchasing property valued at more than Rs. 50 lakhs.A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta heard the matter.Section 194IA of the Income Tax Act, 1961 requires a buyer of...
Understanding Secondment Under The GST Regime In India
In recent years, several Indian subsidiaries of multinational corporations have received show cause notices (SCNs) from GST authorities seeking to levy tax on salaries paid to employees seconded from foreign group entities. These notices, typically issued under the reverse charge mechanism (RCM), proceed on the premise that secondment arrangements amount to a supply of manpower services by...
Appeal Without Remedy: GST Appellate System's Fatal Flaw
When the Goods and Services Tax (GST) launched in July 2017, policymakers hailed it as a "good and simple tax" to streamline compliance and unify India's fractured indirect tax landscape. Eight years later, however, a glaring procedural defect in its appellate framework forces taxpayers into a grim dilemma: accept flawed orders or endure endless restarts. Under Section 107(11) of the...
New FEMA Compliance Framework for Service Exports
Currently, service exports from India (excluding software) are largely exempt from EDF/SOFTEX filings and related FEMA compliances. Service Exporters (including software) have generally been proactive in realizing proceeds because their GST refunds are strictly linked to the export realizations. If not realized, such exporters face the burden of GST and interest under Rule 96A of the...
Can Employer Claim Income Tax Deduction On Delayed PF-ESI Deposits? Supreme Court To Settle Conflicting Decisions
The Supreme Court agreed to examine the contentious issue under the tax law of whether an employer is entitled to claim income tax deductions for employees' Provident Fund (PF) and Employees' State Insurance (ESI) contributions that are deposited after the prescribed due date. A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Sandeep Mehta issued notice in an appeal filed against the Delhi High...
Supreme Court Redraws The Tax Line On Amalgamations
The Supreme Court's judgment in Jindal Equipment Leasing Consultancy Services Ltd. v. Commissioner of Income Tax (2026) Livelaw (SC) 37 arrives with a seeming contradiction. It simultaneously widens the net of business-income taxation while raising the evidentiary drawbridge the Revenue must cross to haul it in. This is its defining feature. The decision performs a decisive...
Beyond The TRC: A Veil-Piercing Moment In International Tax Law
The Supreme Court's judgment in Authority for Advance Rulings (Income Tax) & others v. Tiger Global International Holdings 2026 LiveLaw (SC) 50 marks a moment where the long-standing tension in Indian tax law between form and substance is not merely acknowledged, but decisively addressed. Quietly, and without theatrics, the Court applies to international tax law an instinct long familiar...
Repeated IT Reassessment Against NDTV Founders Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy Amounts To Harassment: Delhi High Court
The Delhi High Court has observed that repeatedly reopening income tax assessments against NDTV founders Radhika Roy and Prannoy Roy for the same year amounted to their "unnecessary harassment" A Division Bench of Justice Dinesh Mehta and Justice Vinod Kumar made the observation while dealing with reassessment proceedings initiated by the Income Tax Department for the Assessment Year...
Delhi High Court Quashes Income Tax Notices Against NDTV Founders Prannoy Roy And Radhika Roy; Imposes ₹2 Lakh Cost On Dept
The Delhi High Court has set aside the income tax reassessment notices issued to New Delhi Television Ltd. (NDTV) founders Prannoy Roy and Radhika Roy (petitioners), relating to a transaction involving RRPR Holding Pvt. Ltd, a promoter group of the news network.The bench further imposed Rs. 2 Lakh costs on tax authorities, directing that Rs. 1 Lakh be paid to each petitioner.Senior...