PRIVATE COMPANIES ALLOWED ADVANCE RULING

[Dr. Sanjiv Agarwal]

Resident Private Limited Companies can be applicant (w.e.f. 11.07.2014)

Vide Notification No. 15/2014-ST dated 11.07.2014, Central Government has notified ‘the resident private limited company’ as class of persons to be covered under the definition of 'applicant’.

Accordingly, a private limited company which is a resident company in India can also be an applicant for making an application to the Authority for Advance Rulings. For this purpose, the resident will have the same meaning as in the Income Tax Act, 1961

The meaning of private limited company will be the same as defined in section 2(68) of the Companies Act, 2013 which is reproduced hereunder –

(68) “private company” means a company having a minimum paid-up share capital of one lakh rupees or such higher paid-up share capital as may be prescribed, and which by its articles, -

1. restricts the right to transfer its shares;
2. except in case of One Person Company, limits the number of its members to two hundred:

Provided that where two or more persons hold one or more shares in a company jointly, they shall, for the purposes of this clause, be treated as a single member:

Provided further that -

(A) persons who are in the employment of the company; and

(B) persons who, having been formerly in the employment of the company, were members of the company while in that employment and have continued to be members after the employment ceased, shall not be included in the number of members; and

(iii) prohibits any invitation to the public to subscribe for any securities of the company;

Extracts of Notification

"….The Central Government hereby specifies “the resident private limited company” as class of persons for the purposes of the said clause.

Explanation.- For the purposes of this notification,-

(a) “private limited company” shall have the same meaning as is assigned to “private company” in clause (68) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013 (18 of 2013);

(b) “resident” shall have the same meaning as is assigned to it in clause (42) of section 2 read with sub-section (3) of section 6 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (43 of 1961)."