Circular No. 23/2022

Explanatory Notes to the provisions of the Finance Act, 2022

What this is

Circular No. 23/2022 was issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes on 3 November 2022. Its subject is Explanatory Notes to the provisions of the Finance Act, 2022.

These are the Board’s explanatory notes to a Finance Act. They are the department’s account of what the amendments were meant to do, and they are cited constantly — but the words of the Act govern where the two part.

The instrument itself

The department publishes this one as a scanned document rather than as text, so there is nothing here for us to reproduce. The signed document is on the department’s own site — this file.

← Circular No. 24/2022 · F. No. 370133/16/2022-TPL →

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.

What it means in practice. This page is the instrument. For the question it answers, what the Board decided and what to do about it, see CBDT Circular 23/2022 — the first year of the s.115BBH crypto charge.