Rule 54 — Form of report of an accountant in respect of slump sale. Made under s.77, s.63 of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Rule 54 gives effect to Section 77 and Section 63 of the Income-tax Act, 2025. A rule cannot go beyond the section it serves: where the two seem to differ, the section governs.
The rule prescribes the accountant's report for a slump sale. In the case of a slump sale under section 77(4), every assessee is required to submit a report from an accountant as defined in section 515(3)(b), in Form No. 28, before the specified date referred to in section 63.
Section 77(4) requires the transaction to be reported on by an accountant but leaves the form and the timing to be prescribed. The rule fixes both, and it borrows the deadline rather than inventing one, tying it to the specified date in section 63 so that the slump sale report is in before the audit deadline that already governs the assessee's accounts.
| What | Figure | The condition on it | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time to submit the report | Before the specified date referred to in section 63 | In the case of a slump sale under section 77(4) | Rule 54 |
The obligation attaches to every assessee making a slump sale under section 77(4), not only to one whose accounts are audited on other grounds, and the deadline is the specified date referred to in section 63 whether or not that section otherwise applies to the assessee. The word is "before" that date, not by or on it. Who may give the report is narrowed by section 515(3)(b), so a report from someone outside that definition does not answer the rule. The rule prescribes the report; the computation of the capital gain on the slump sale is section 77's, and Form No. 28 reports on it rather than replacing it.
A company sells one of its two manufacturing divisions as a going concern for a lump sum in the tax year, without values being assigned to individual assets. Whatever else it files, it must obtain a report in Form No. 28 from an accountant as defined in section 515(3)(b) and submit it before the specified date referred to in section 63. Submitting the report on the return due date instead would be late, because the specified date under section 63 falls earlier.
You meet it in the year of a business transfer as a going concern, in the Form No. 28 report obtained from the accountant and submitted before the section 63 specified date, alongside the capital gains computation for the slump sale.
In case of a slump sale under section 77(4), every assessee is required to submit a report from an accountant as defined in section 515(3)(b), in Form No. 28 before the specified date referred to in section 63.