Section 115BBE

Section 115BBE — the law in short

What the courts have decided on section 115BBE, in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.

• Ankit Agarwal v PCCIT High CourtHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  My 148A notice says I never filed a return, but I did. Is that enough to get it quashed?
  Yes, on these facts. The Patna High Court held that where the Insight Portal flag is contradicted by the Department's own records, the 'information which suggests' escapement is missing and the s.148A(b) notice, the s.148A(d) order, the s.148 notice and the demand all fall.
• PCIT v Smt Krishna Devi High CourtHelps taxpayerHigh Courts differ
  The Assessing Officer has added my long-term capital gain on a share whose price rose 4,849%, relying on the Investigation Wing's penny-stock report. Is the price rise by itself enough?
  No. The Delhi High Court accepted that the price movement and the company's financials were odd, and still refused to sustain the addition. The assessee had bought online, paid through a bank, held the shares in demat form and sold through the demat account with sale proceeds received by banking channel. The officer issued notices under ss.133(6)/131 to the company and to the entity that had paid for the shares; they produced nothing and came back unserved, and he then went no further. On that record the Court held the finding that there was an arrangement to convert unaccounted money was an assumption based on conjecture, and that suspicion is not proof. Read it with the contrary Calcutta line in PCIT v Swati Bajaj, which the library also carries.
• PCIT (Central), Jaipur v Aacharan Enterprises Pvt Ltd High CourtHelps taxpayer
  The officer has added cash credits under s.68 and refuses to let me set my business loss against them. Can he do that for my year?
  It depends entirely on the assessment year. The Rajasthan High Court held that the bar in s.115BBE(2) on setting off any loss against income referred to in ss.68 to 69D was introduced by the Finance Act, 2016 with effect from 1 April 2017 and cannot be applied retrospectively, so for assessment year 2014-15 the set-off was allowed. From assessment year 2017-18 the statute forecloses the set-off and this decision is no help to you.
• Hirabhai Karshanbhai Solanki v ITO, Rajkot ITATHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  In a s.147 reassessment the Assessing Officer has thrown out my s.80U disability deduction along with 80C and 80TTA because I produced nothing during the assessment. Can I still prove it in appeal?
  Yes, on this order. The Rajkot Tribunal deleted the whole Chapter VI-A disallowance where the assessee produced LIC premium receipts and notified mutual fund receipts for s.80C, and for s.80U produced a disability certificate issued by the competent medical authority — the assessee also appearing personally before the Tribunal — holding that "such evidence cannot be ignored".
• Mohamed Asmi v ITO ITATHelps departmentValidity unconfirmed
  I filed under s.44AD and the officer has still added my whole bank credit under s.69A. Doesn't the presumptive return protect me?
  Not by itself. The Tribunal held that s.44AD and s.69A operate in distinct fields, and that a presumptive return cannot regularise deposits whose source and genuineness the assessee cannot establish; the entire addition of Rs 7,10,37,643 was sustained.
• Jagdish Kumar Arora v DCIT ITATHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  You surrendered income in a survey. Is it taxed at 60% under s.115BBE, or at your normal rate?
  Where the source is your own business, at your normal rate. The deeming provisions only bite where the source is unexplained; unrecorded debtors from the business are explained, so s.115BBE was held not to apply.
• Syed Maqsoodulla v ITO ITATHelps taxpayerValidity unconfirmed
  You file under s.44AD. Can cash deposits still be added under s.68 and taxed at the higher rate?
  On this reasoning, no. An assessee who offers income under s.44AD is not required to maintain books, and a bank statement is the bank's record. Without books there is no foundation for s.68, and the addition was deleted.
• CBDT letter of 29 May 2026 on invoking ss.68 to 69D with s.115BBE CBDT Circulars & InstructionsHelps taxpayer
  Is there anything from the Board telling the officer he has to establish the section before he makes a deeming addition?
  Yes. Following a C&AG compliance audit that found officers were invoking the wrong section and applying the wrong rate, the Board directed field offices that the Assessing Officer "has to satisfy himself as to the true nature and source of the amounts for which such sections are invoked", that the necessary enquiry — including under s.133(6) — may be carried out, and that "Based upon inquiry and facts of the case, relevant provisions of the Act may be invoked." The same letter maps each provision to its Income-tax Act 2025 counterpart.
• CBDT Circular No. 11/2019 — set-off of loss against s.115BBE income CBDT Circulars & InstructionsHelps taxpayer
  Is there anything from the Board itself I can put in front of the officer on setting off losses against s.68 or s.69 additions in an old year?
  Yes. Circular No. 11 of 2019 records the Board's view that an assessee is entitled to claim set-off of loss against income determined under s.115BBE up to assessment year 2016-17. It is the department's own instruction, so an Assessing Officer cannot take a contrary view for those years — and by the same document, the position from assessment year 2017-18 is that the set-off is denied.

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.