Tax
Depositing Electricity Bills & Property Tax In Previous Owner's Name Demolishes Claim Of Ownership By Adverse Possession: Allahabad High Court
The Allahabad High Court has held that a person claiming ownership of a property by adverse possession cannot succeed where he has been depositing electricity bills and property tax in the name of the previous owner, observing that such conduct amounts to an acknowledgment of the previous owner's title and demolishes the plea of adverse possession. Justice Sandeep Jain made the observation...
Same-Sex Couples Can't Claim 'Spouse' Benefits Under Income Tax Act Without Legal Recognition Of Marriage: IT Dept Tells Bombay High Court
To get the benefit of 'exemption' under section 56(2)(x) of the Income Tax (IT) Act, which grants exemption from tax on gifts between heterosexual couple, a same sex couple must first get its union legally recognised as a 'marriage' or 'spouse' etc, the Income Tax Department recently told the Bombay High Court. The Income Tax Department has opposed a plea filed by a same sex couple, which...
Beyond Boilerplate: GST Indemnities In Commercial Contracts And Allocation Of Tax Risk
A company has signed a supply contract with a vendor at a fixed price. The vendor raises a tax invoice on which GST is charged. The company pays the entire amount, including GST, and accounts for it in its books. After a few months, on a tax audit or departmental inspection of its records, the company is informed that the vendor has either not remitted the GST collected, has not reported...
Taxing Entry: H-1B Surcharge And Constitutional Limits On Executive Revenue Power
On June 8, Judge Leo Sorokin of the U.S. District Court for Massachusetts[1] vacated Presidential Proclamation 10973, which had imposed a $100,000 surcharge on new H-1B petitions.[2] The ruling is analytically interesting less for what it decides and more for how specifically the doctrinal move the Court makes in calling the charge a tax rather than a regulatory fee, and why that judgment has consequences well beyond this case.The result gives employers immediate relief. However, the more...
S.35L Central Excise Act | Only Supreme Court Can Decide Appeals On Question Of Excisability; Not High Courts: SC
The Supreme Court has held that disputes relating to the excisability of goods fall within its exclusive appellate jurisdiction and cannot be decided by High Courts under Section 35G of the Central Excise Act, 1944.“An appeal from an order passed by the Appellate Tribunal relating to the determination of any question having a relation to the rate of excise duty or to the value of goods for...
GST Arrests Post Radhika Agarwal V. Union of India: Has Supreme Court Redefined Tax Investigations?
For many businesses facing GST investigations today, the process itself often becomes the punishment. Notices are issued; documents are asked for; top management is being called upon so many times, and arrest, even without the final assessment, is a looming possibility. Many taxpayers have already alleged that the threat of arrest is itself used as a pressure tactic during the...
'n-Hexane' Not 'Motor Spirt' For Customs Duty : Supreme Court Dismisses Revenue Appeal Against Reliance Industries
The Supreme Court has observed that the imported product 'n-hexane', mainly used in making chemicals or extracting vegetable oils, could not be classified as a petroleum product/motor fuel, to attract lower duty, merely because it has a low flash point. Dismissing the Custom Department's appeal, a bench of Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Prasanna B. Varale granted relief to...
Supreme Court Surprised Over Vacancies In ITAT Administrative Staff, Seeks Attorney General's Intervention
The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed surprise over the large number of vacancies in the administrative staff of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunals (ITAT) and sought the intervention of the Attorney General for India to ensure that the posts are filled at the earliest.A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing a writ petition filed by...
Interim Profits In CIRP: EBITDA Allocation Dilemma
The major headline from the Supreme Court's decision to restore JSW Steel's resolution plan for Bhushan Power and Steel Limited (BPSL) on 26 September 2025, was the rescue of a ₹19,350 crore acquisition that the same court had set aside five months earlier.Another issue that came to the forefront but gained little traction was the consequential question: Who is entitled to the EBITDA...