Section 530 — Act to have effect pending legislative provision for charge of tax. Successor to s.294 of the 1961 Act.
Section 530 is in Chapter XXIII — Miscellaneous, which runs from section 499 to section 536.
The section keeps the Act operative where the annual charging legislation is late. If on the 1st April in any tax year provision has not yet been made by a Central Act for the charging of income-tax for that tax year, the Act nevertheless has effect until such provision is made, as if the provision in force in the preceding tax year, or the provision proposed in the Bill then before Parliament, whichever is more favourable to the assessee, were actually in force.
The rates at which income-tax is charged are fixed each year by a Central Act, and if that Act is not in place on 1 April there would otherwise be no operative charge and no basis for deduction, collection or advance payment. The section supplies an interim basis so that the machinery of the Act keeps running, and resolves the choice between the two candidate provisions in the assessee's favour rather than the revenue's.
| What | Figure | The condition on it | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Date on which the section is tested | The 1st April in any tax year | If provision has not yet been made by a Central Act for the charging of income-tax for that tax year on that date | Section 530 |
| Interim basis of charge | The provision in force in the preceding tax year, or the provision proposed in the Bill then before Parliament, whichever is more favourable to the assessee | Operates only until provision is made by a Central Act for the tax year | Section 530 |
The section is temporary in terms — it operates "until such provision is so made", so once the Central Act arrives the enacted provision governs the year. The choice between the two candidates is not the Department's to make: the section itself selects whichever is more favourable to the assessee, comparing the provision in force in the preceding tax year with the provision proposed in the Bill then before Parliament. Its whole function is to preserve the operation of the Act during the gap, not to create any new charge.
On 1 April of a tax year, no Central Act has yet been passed charging income-tax for that year, though a Bill proposing the charge is before Parliament. Until the Act is passed, a person deducting or paying tax applies whichever of the preceding year's provision and the provision proposed in that Bill is more favourable to the assessee. Once the Central Act is passed, it governs the tax year and the interim basis ceases to apply.
You do not meet this section in any notice or form; it operates in the background in a year where the annual charging legislation has not been passed by 1 April, governing the basis on which tax is deducted, collected or paid in the interval until it is.
this Act shall nevertheless have effect until such provision is so made, as if the provision in force in the preceding tax year or the provision proposed in the Bill then before Parliament, whichever is more favourable to the assessee, were actually in force
See the full 1961 to 2025 concordance.
