Yes, if the penalty is for under-reporting and not for misreporting under s.270A(9). You must pay the tax and interest in the assessment order within the time in the demand notice, not file an appeal against that order, and apply in Form 68 within one month from the end of the month in which you received the order. If immunity is granted, you cannot later appeal under s.246A or apply under s.264 against that assessment.
The trade. Section 270A charges penalty of 50% of the tax payable on under-reported income, and 200% where the under-reporting is in consequence of misreporting. Section 270AA lets you avoid the 50% penalty and prosecution under ss.276C and 276CC by accepting the assessment and paying.
The two conditions. First, the tax and interest payable as per the order of assessment or reassessment under s.143(3) or s.147 must have been paid within the period specified in the notice of demand. Second, no appeal against that order has been filed.
The exclusion that decides most cases. Immunity is not available where the penalty proceedings are for under-reporting in consequence of misreporting under s.270A(9) — misrepresentation or suppression of facts, failure to record investments in the books, unsubstantiated claims of expenditure, false entries, failure to record receipts affecting total income, or failure to report international or specified domestic transactions. So the first thing to read is the penalty show-cause notice: does it allege under-reporting simpliciter, or misreporting?
Procedure and timing. Application in Form No. 68 under Rule 129, within one month from the end of the month in which the order was received. The AO must pass an order accepting or rejecting the application within one month from the end of the month in which the application is received, and cannot reject it without giving you an opportunity of being heard. The order under s.270AA(4) is final.
What you give up. Where an order accepting the application has been made, no appeal under s.246A and no application for revision under s.264 is admissible against that order of assessment or reassessment. You have bought certainty by surrendering the merits of the addition for that year.
What protects you if it fails. Section 249 excludes, in computing the 30 days to appeal, the period during which a s.270AA application was pending. So a rejection does not automatically cost you the appeal. CBDT Circular No. 5/2018 dated 16 August 2018 also clarifies that seeking immunity does not preclude contesting the same issue for earlier years where penalty is under s.271(1)(c).
When it is the right move. When the addition is small relative to the 50% penalty and the litigation cost, when the facts are against you but the conduct is not fraudulent, when the same issue is not recurring across years, and when you can fund the tax and interest inside the demand-notice window. It is the wrong move when the issue repeats in later years, or when the addition is one you would win on appeal.
The window is short and unforgiving — one month from the end of the month of receipt, and the tax must already be paid within the demand-notice period. Miss either and the only route left is a full penalty defence under s.270A. Equally, applying without reading whether the notice alleges misreporting means paying the tax, giving up the appeal, and still facing 200%.
How wide are the first appellate authority's powers when it disposes of an appeal?
Is payment of admitted tax under s.249(4) a condition that must be satisfied again when the appeal goes on to the Tribunal?
The provision can be read two ways. Which reading wins?
Your appeal is late. How strictly will 'sufficient cause' be read?
The Commissioner dismissed my revision and the officer will not issue a demand notice so I cannot appeal. Is the revisional order beyond the reach of a writ because it is administrative?
My assessment was reduced in appeal after the officer had already sent a recovery certificate to the Collector and my property was attached. Can he carry on with the old certificate?
My assessment order does not compute the tax — the figures are only on the ITNS-150. Does that make the assessment bad?
I did not tick s.115BAA in the return and filed Form 10-IC late. Can I still get the concessional rate?
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