Recourses to Assessee after his Income Tax Return is processed

[Chetan Bhatt]

The income tax department examines the return of income for its correctness. The process of examining the return by the income tax department is termed as assessment. Amid of massive Income tax administration there are possibilities that the assessee may be aggrieved by the order of the Assessing officer (hereinafter referred as AO).Now the question arises about the remedy to this problem. Oodles still get tangled on which remedial weapon is to be employed when. So this article is to elucidate the situations under which various remedial weapons can be adopted for the departmental battles along with their salient features.

1. Section 154 : If the mistakes are apparent from records (Non-debatable mistakes), assessee can move for the rectification u/s 154. Salient features are enumerated below :

• Application for rectification can be made against Order passed by Income tax authority including CIT(A)/Intimations under section 143(1)/TDS Intimation(u/s 200A) or TCS Intimations (u/s 206CB).
• Rectification application can be done within 4 years from the end of the FY in which order containing mistake was passed.
• Rectification order should be passed within 6 Months from the end of the month in which application is received by the income tax authority.
• No Fees & Form has been prescribed for rectification application.
• Off course every rectified order is an appealable order.

2. Section 246A: Second recourse available is appeal to CIT(A).Salient Features with respect to the CIT(A) are enumerated below :
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   • Appeal application to CIT (A) should be filed within 30 days from the date of receipt of copy of order by the assessee.
   • CIT(A) shall pass the order within 1year from the end of the year in which appeal was filed. However the limit given is an advisory limit.
   • Appeal shall be filed in Form No.35 along with statement of facts, Grounds of appeal, Copy of Order of AO & Filing Fees. The whole set is commonly known as memorandum of appeal & it should be submitted in duplicate.
   • CIT(A) has powers to admit Additional grounds of appeal and also additional evidences during the ongoing proceedings.

NOTE : Filing of appeal does not prevents Income tax authorities from recovery of demand. In Case assessee wants Stay of demand, he can:

• File an application U/s 220(6) to AO or
• File an application to CIT(A)

3.  Section 264: The third remedy available to the assessee is Revision application to CIT. However assessee can apply for revision only if time limit u/s 246A (Referred in point 2) is expired or Assessee has waived his right to appeal in writing. Salient Features with respect to section 264 are enumerated below :

• • Assessee can make application within 1 year from the date of receiving order by the assessee.
  • CIT has to pass the order within 1 year from the end of FY in which the application was made by assessee.
  • Order u/s 264 is a Non-Appealable order.
  • Revision application u/s 264 can be made only against Orders & not against Intimation u/s 143(1).

NOTE: Assessee can either prefer an appeal u/s 246A or can apply to CIT u/s 264. Both Remedies are not available simultaneously, even if the pertains to different matter.