CBDT circular 26 April 1985
Circular No. 417
Section 6 l Valuation of Gifts
What this is
Circular No. 417 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 26 April 1985. Its subject is Section 6 l Valuation of Gifts.
What it does
Extends the valuation guidelines for coffee plantations in Circular No. 357 dated 26th May 1983, framed for wealth-tax, to pending cases under the Estate Duty Act and the Gift-tax Act in the State of Karnataka, for valuing agricultural land comprised in tea, coffee, rubber and cardamom plantations.
Why it was issued
The Board decided that the same guidelines should serve for the two other Acts rather than have separate bases of valuation for the same plantations.
Who it reaches
- Owners of plantation land in Karnataka assessed to gift-tax
- Accountable persons in estate duty cases involving plantations
- Valuation officers and departmental valuers in that State
- Assessing authorities with pending plantation valuation cases
The provisions it speaks to
Left, the provision of the Income-tax Act, 1961 as the instrument itself names it. Right, the section of the Income-tax Act, 2025 that the department’s own concordance maps it to — which is where the same ground is now covered.
| Under the 1961 Act | Now |
|---|
| s.6 | s.6 |
The instrument, as the Board published it
The words below are the department’s own, reproduced from its published text. Where the department’s copy carried a publisher’s notes after the instrument, those are not reproduced.
SECTION 6 l VALUATION OF GIFTS
1454. Valuation of agricultural land comprised in tea, coffee, rubber and cardamom plantations - Whether guidelines laid down in Circular No. 357 are to apply for the purposes of gift-tax
The Board have decided that the guidelines for valuation of coffee plantations laid down in Circular No. 357, dated 26-5-1983 for wealth-tax purposes may be made applicable for valuation of such assets in respect of pending cases in the State of Karnataka under the Estate Duty and Gift-tax Acts also.
Circular : No. 417 [F. No. 296/8/84-ED],dated 26-4-1985.
What to watch
- This is a gift-tax and estate duty circular, issued from the Estate Duty file, not an income-tax one; section 6 here is of the Gift-tax Act.
- It is limited to pending cases and to the State of Karnataka.
- It borrows guidelines framed for wealth-tax; the guidelines themselves are in Circular No. 357 dated 26th May 1983, not here.
- Estate duty and gift-tax have both since been withdrawn, so this speaks to the cases of its own period.
Where you meet it
In a gift-tax or estate duty valuation dispute over Karnataka plantation land of that period.
On the same provision
Other instruments in this library that name the same provision of the 1961 Act. They are not necessarily still operative, and a later one may have replaced an earlier one without saying so.
A circular binds the department, not you and not a court. The Board issues a circular to its own officers. An assessee may hold the department to a circular that helps him; the department cannot hold an assessee to one that hurts him, and the Tribunal and the courts decide the law for themselves.
Source: the Income Tax Department’s own published text — its page for this instrument.