Income tax: Scores of taxpayers get I-T notices under section 148; can be challenged, says ICAI ex-chief Ved Jain

Some income taxpayers have reportedly received notices under section 148, which is related to the reopening of assessments for the assessment years 2014-15, 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18.

A former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ((ICAI), the chartered accountants' professional body, believes that these tax notices are wrongly sent since the limitation of six years expired on March 31, 2024.

“All these years stand barred by limitation as on 31.03.2024 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 I-T notices issued under section 148?

Section 148 of the Income Tax (I-T) Act grants an assessing officer the power to either assess or re-assess any taxable income that was wrongly computed, and has not been assessed as per the provisions.

After the notice is served, the assessee is required to provide income tax returns (ITR) within a 30-day period or any period explicitly stated.

Too important to ignore

Section 148 states that the information provided to the assessing officer must be of the utmost importance and must not consist of superficial facts.

Before issuing any notice to an assessee under section 148, the assessing officer will be meant to record and provide reasons in written form stating why he or she is of the belief that the assessee is escaping assessment of income.

What does the ex-president of ICAI say?

Ved Jain says that these notices can be challenged in a writ petition since 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 lapsed.

“All these notices be challenged by way of writ petitions and can be quashed since period of 6 years stood already expired on 31.3.2024 (sic),” he wrote.

“Similarly, 148 notices now issued in search cases where earlier asstt under section 153A/153C was quashed by ITAT/High Court/ SC in the absence of any incriminating material, are also barred by limitation & can be got quashed by filing writ before High Court,” he added.

Chirag Chauhan, a chartered accountant in Mumbai, echoed similar sentiments and said that some of his clients have also received these notices.

Pratibha Goyal, a Delhi-based chartered accountant, meanwhile, told Livemint that none of her clients has received any such notice.