Section 100

Section 100 — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 100, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• Ayodhya Rami Reddy Alla v PCIT High CourtHelps departmentUnder appeal
  The AO invoked GAAR even though a specific anti-avoidance section covers my transaction. Can he do that?
  Yes, on this ruling. Chapter X-A is not shut out because a specific anti-avoidance rule occupies part of the field: s.95(1) opens with a non-obstante clause, which displaces the usual presumption that the special provision excludes the general one, so GAAR can supersede a SAAR. The Court also refused to interfere at the initiation stage because s.144BA gives the assessee a reference to the Principal Commissioner and the Approving Panel.
• DCIT, Central Circle 8(3), Mumbai v Sanjana Cryogenic Storages Ltd ITATHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  The Approving Panel held that my client's arrangement is NOT an impermissible avoidance arrangement, but the Assessing Officer has taxed the same transaction under another section anyway. Can he do that?
  The Mumbai Tribunal did not decide the wide question, but it held that the Assessing Officer could not, while giving effect to the statutory process under section 144BA, proceed on a factual premise diametrically opposed to the findings returned by the Approving Panel on the very arrangement referred to it. It then dismissed the Revenue's appeal on the narrower ground that a company buying back its own shares, which must then be extinguished, does not 'receive' property within section 56(2)(x) at all.
• Statutory position — sections 100 and 101: Chapter X-A applies in addition to or in lieu of any other basis, and only in accordance with prescribed guidelines CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both ways
  Can the department run GAAR and a specific anti-avoidance provision on the same transaction, and is there anything that limits how GAAR is applied?
  Section 100 provides that the provisions of Chapter X-A shall apply in addition to, or in lieu of, any other basis for determination of tax liability — so GAAR is not an alternative of last resort and can be invoked alongside, or instead of, a specific charging or anti-avoidance provision. Section 101 provides that the Chapter shall be applied in accordance with such guidelines and subject to such conditions as may be prescribed, and it is under that section that rules 10U to 10UC are made.

Listed strongest first: Supreme Court, then High Court, then Tribunal, then CBDT. Nothing here has yet been read in full by a chartered accountant — open an entry to see where it came from.