First appeal – online form 35 needs suitable changes in format, size, fonts, and permitted characters from key board. In miscellaneous attachment clarification about timely filing and /or condonation of delay petition, stay petition , detailed statement of facts and detailed grounds of appeal can be incorporate.

[DEV KUMAR KOTHARI]

First appeal – online form 35 needs suitable changes in format, size, fonts, and permitted characters from key board. In miscellaneous attachment clarification about timely filing and /or condonation of delay petition, stay petition , detailed statement of facts and detailed grounds of appeal can be incorporate.

First appeal under Income-tax Act:

First appeal against many type of orders passed by Assessing Officer (AO) is to be filed before Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) / CIT.A.

The scope of appeal can be extensive or limited depending on nature of assessment order and proceeding under which it is framed like original assessment, re-assessment, re-assessment on remand or revision, assessment as per directions of other authorities etc.

Therefore size of appeal document can be small to very large.

Statement of facts (SOF):

In e-appeal SOF is to be given. Limitation provided is of 1000 words. This can be very short space in many cases where assessment orders are lengthy and issues of additions, disallowances are varied and require lot of narration.

Grounds of appeal (GOA)

In e-appeal GOA are  to be given issue wise and addition wise. In some situations for each issue there can be several grounds on technical, procedural, legal and factual aspects. Limitation provided is 100 words for each ground.

Therefore, in many cases grounds are to be split.

Limited special characters are allowed:

Very limited characters are allowed to be used while typing any documents. It seems that such limitations are also not uniform but vary from form to form while filling online form.

Why such limitations:

There should not be such limitation of words and special characters like  / * -  + ! @ # $ % ^ & () _ \ | ~ `  ; : < > , . “  ‘ etc.

 Why a larger form cannot be provided for SOF and GOA is to be examined by software experts who are designing and improving software.

Due to these limitations we are facing lot of difficulties in drafting, finalizing and uploading appeal. At the time of submission error message may appear in spite of reasonable care taken while drafting appeal document.

The honorable FM and CBDT must take steps in this regard to make working online easy.

For drafting in short way many ways and means are to be applied to make SOF and GOA concise and complete. Still it may not be possible in many cases where large orders and related orders are to be considered by appellate authority.

Miscellaneous attachment

A miscellaneous attachment in PDF format can be attached with appeal. In this attachment stay petition (SP), clarification about timely filing of appeal detailed petition for condonation of delay, detailed SOF and detailed  GOA can be submitted as a way out to put document elaborately and at one place.

A specimen miscellaneous attachment is given for brain storming and improvement of appeal document.

AAAA Assessee                          PAN              AY    2018-19 First appeal in e proceeding 

Before the honorable CIT(A)

Sir,

Sub: clarification for timely filing, request for stay of recovery of disputed dues, detailed  Statement of facts and  detailed grounds of appeal to place in one place for convenient handling.

Timely filing – We are/ I am e-filing appeal against order u.s. 143.3   ……    within the extended date in view of lock down and consequent order of the Supreme Court and CBDT Circular etc.

 Without prejudice we/ I submit that we were prepared for filing of appeal, had paid appeal fees much earlier, however, due to problems in new portal of department, we could not upload appeal in spite our efforts.  In any case a delay of few days, if any, may be condoned because we all are working in very restricted conditions and time is also reduced due to limited hours of working, extra precautionary measures required  in view of COVID19 related problems.

From the statement of facts and ground of appeal and assessment records your honor will appreciate that the appeal is full of merits and addition made by LD. AO are not sustainable because the same are against factual and legal position and precedence in our case and other reported cases of binding nature.

It is worth to mention that Ld. AO made very in-depth enquiry on a large number of other issues also and he has not found any defect or shortcomings and no addition has been made except addition  on matters covered in  survey, or  SCN issued or based on some wrong information and due to certain prejudices and  wrong policy decision followed by officers to make some or such additions..

In view of facts entire demand deserves to be stayed.

Kindly direct the ld. AO not to treat assessee in default, not to recover any amount of disputed dues in view of merits of case.

In the e-form 35 there are limitations for size of SOF and GOA and many special characters are not allowed. This makes difficult drafting. Therefore, we are alos giving detailed SOF and detailed GOA in this miscellaneous attachment.

Detailed STATEMENT OF FACTS       ………

Detailed Grounds of Appeal…..

Concept underlying can be used in other forms also

Concept underlying in above write-up  can also be  used in other online forms and reports etc. wherever possible.