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From courtrooms to clicks: Rethinking why simple GST rectifications require Court intervention

The Goods and Services Tax (“GST”) regime was introduced with the promise of a seamless, technology-driven tax system aimed at reducing cascading effects and ensuring smooth compliance. However, after seven years of its introduction, businesses and taxpayers have found themselves burdened with the rigidity of a tax regime, which makes the subsequent correction of even the smallest of clerical errors in returns quite difficult and requires litigation to have them rectified.

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AMT: Does It Impose Additional Taxes Under Income Tax Bill, 2025?

Background

The Alternate Minimum Tax (“AMT”) has its genesis in the Minimum Alternate Tax (“MAT”), which was introduced to ensure that taxes were paid by even those companies that intended to avoid payment of taxes by engaging in ingenuous tax planning methods despite having earned significant amount of book profits. These companies, called “zero-tax companies”, while reporting significant book profits, paid minimal or no income tax by leveraging various exemptions and deductions available under the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“IT Act”).

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Revolutionising Import Clearance: The 2025 Customs (On-Arrival Movement for Storage and Clearance at Authorised Importer Premises) Regulations, 2025

Background

The government has implemented various measures to promote the growth of India’s manufacturing sector, such as the Production Linked Incentive schemes that were announced for the electronic industry under the Make in India initiative. It has also taken several steps to smoothen and fast track the import process, through digitalisation and faceless assessments. However, some issues remain.

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GST liability on the benefits arising out of land: The conundrum continues

The applicability of Goods and Services Tax (“GST”) on various land-related rights has been a subject of ongoing debate, leading to uncertainty for businesses, developers, and policymakers. While the GST framework seeks to tax the supply of goods and services, transactions involving land and immovable property present unique challenges due to their distinct legal nature.

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Legal debate at tipping point over Notification extending GST deadline

The legal validity of the contentious CGST Notification No. 56/2023 (“Notification“), is facing challenges across multiple High Courts in India. The Notification, issued by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), extended the timeline for passing orders under Section 73(10) of the Central Goods and Services Tax Act, 2017 (“CGST Act“) for financial years 2018-19 and 2019-20.

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Crypto Sales Prior to AY 2022–23: Taxable as Capital Gains?

The Raunaq Prakash Jain v. Income Tax Officer case addresses a significant cryptocurrency transaction-related taxation issue in India, i.e., whether gains arising from cryptocurrency sales should be taxed as “capital gains” or “income from other sources”. This decision is particularly important because it clarifies the tax treatment of cryptocurrency gains before the introduction of the specific tax regime for virtual digital assets (“VDA”) with effect from April 1, 2022.

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Tax reassessment proceedings: Supreme Court puts TOLA controversy to rest

The Supreme Court (“SC”) recently addressed the validity of reassessment notices in Rajeev Bansal[1], issued under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act, 1961 (“IT Act”), from April 1, 2021, to June 30, 2021, even though the reassessment regime had been overhauled with effect from April 1, 2021. The Revenue argued that these notices fell under the Taxation and Other Laws (Relaxation of Certain Provisions) Ordinance, 2020 (“TOLA”), which relaxed the time limits for reassessment due to the COVID-19 pandemic (“Pandemic”). However, several High Courts, including the Allahabad and Gujarat High Courts,[2] had ruled that such notices were subject to the new reassessment provisions introduced by the Finance Act, 2021, and hence, without the applicability of TOLA, were time-barred. The SC, in this landmark decision, ruled in favour of the Revenue, by upholding the validity of TOLA and laid down several jurisprudential observations in its judgement.

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Delhi High Court rules on taxability of a PE’s profits despite global loss

In a landmark ruling, the Hon’ble Delhi High Court (“Delhi HC”) has held that profits generated by a Permanent Establishment (PE) in India shall be liable to tax in India, even if the parent enterprise has incurred losses on a consolidated basis. This decision overturns the previous judicial position set forth in the Nokia Solutions judgment and carries significant implications for global corporations operating in multiple jurisdictions.

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The India–Mauritius Double Tax Avoidance Agreement (“DTAA”), entered into in 1983, has since been the subject matter of contentious litigations. The well-drafted and reasoned ruling of the Delhi High Court (“Delhi HC”), which explains the availability of benefits to a Mauritius-based investor, the significance of the tax residency certificate (“TRC”), the limitation of benefits (“LoB”) clause, and the grandfathering provision in the treaty, has provided much-anticipated relief and certainty to the taxpayers.

Continue Reading Delhi High Court grants tax-treaty benefits to Tiger Global’s Flipkart exit
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Union Budget boost to GIFT IFSC: Looking at a golden future

With numerous legislative reforms, the government has demonstrated a sincere commitment towards achieving Viksit Bharat, or ‘Developed India’ by 2047. While presenting the Union Budget for financial year 2024-25, on July 23, 2024, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced significant changes to enhance ease of doing business in the International Financial Services Centre (“IFSC”), Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (“GIFT City”). This Budget promises a supportive environment for growth and development, thus giving a fillip to aspiring entities, desiring to have a presence in GIFT IFSC.

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