What must I pay before my appeal is admitted, and what happens if I file late?
Section 249(4) makes payment of the tax due on the returned income a condition for the admission of a first appeal - not a technicality but a bar the CIT(A) can and does apply. 'Tax' for this purpose does not include interest under sections 234A to 234C. Section 249(3) lets the CIT(A) admit a late appeal on sufficient cause, and the courts read that liberally.
Section 249(4) provides that no appeal shall be admitted unless, at the time of filing, the assessee has paid the tax due on the income returned - clause (a) - or, where no return has been filed, an amount equal to the advance tax payable - clause (b). The proviso to clause (b) allows the Commissioner (Appeals) to exempt the appellant from that requirement for any good and sufficient reason to be recorded in writing, so the exemption must be asked for expressly and reasons must be sought on the record. Two limits matter. The Bombay High Court has held that the word 'tax' in section 249(4) is used in the sense of section 2(43) and does not take in interest defined in section 2(28A), so unpaid section 234A/B/C interest is not a ground to refuse admission. And the Supreme Court has held that section 249(4)(a), though a mandatory condition at the first-appeal stage, cannot be read into section 253(1)(b), so the payment does not have to be made again to appeal to the Tribunal. Where there is no admitted or undisputed tax at all - for instance, income below the taxable limit and no return filed - Tribunal benches have held there is nothing to pre-deposit. On delay, section 249(2) gives thirty days from service of the notice of demand and section 249(3) empowers the Commissioner (Appeals) to admit a later appeal on sufficient cause; the liberal approach in Collector, Land Acquisition v Mst. Katiji applies, and delay caused by counsel's default rather than the assessee's has been condoned. Practitioners go wrong by filing the appeal without the challan, by treating 249(4) as curable at the hearing, and by filing a condonation petition with no affidavit and no day-by-day explanation.
Is payment of admitted tax under s.249(4) a condition that must be satisfied again when the appeal goes on to the Tribunal?
Your appeal is late. How strictly will 'sufficient cause' be read?
No return was filed and no advance tax was paid, but the Commissioner (Appeals) admitted the appeal and decided it. The department now says the appeal was never maintainable. Can the Tribunal presume that the Commissioner (Appeals) exercised her power to exempt?
Does the tax to be paid before an appeal is admitted under s.249(4) include interest under ss.234A, 234B and 234C?
My client wants to challenge the search itself and the jurisdiction to make a block assessment. He has filed a block return but has no funds to pay the tax on the returned undisclosed income. Can the Commissioner (Appeals) refuse to admit the appeal?
My client filed his appeal without paying the tax on the returned income, then paid it a fortnight before the Commissioner (Appeals) passed the dismissal order. Is the appeal gone?
Your first appeal is more than a year late because of illness. Is it too late?
I am filing a first appeal to the Commissioner (Appeals). What exactly must I have done before the appeal can even be admitted, and from what date do the thirty days run?
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