Section 192(2A) — the law in short
What the courts have decided on section 192(2A), in one screen. Read this first; open an entry when you need the facts, the reasoning and the source.
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Hosur Bata Employees Union v Principal Chief Commissioner of Income Tax
High CourtCuts both waysValidity unconfirmed
My clients settled a wage dispute and took VRS and compensation for loss of future salary in two instalments. The company deducted TDS on the whole amount without giving s.89 relief. Can we make the employer refund it?
No — not from the employer. The Madras High Court held that the employer cannot be found at fault for deducting tax at source in the absence of an application in Form 10E under Rule 21A, because s.192(2A) is what obliges the employer to compute and give s.89 relief and it operates only on the particulars the employee furnishes. The Court's remedy was to direct the employees to file returns under s.139(1) within thirty days and the Income Tax Officer to process them under s.143(1) and refund within two months.
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Statutory position — s.89 with Rule 21A and Rule 21AA: the five categories of relief on arrears, the proviso that forfeits relief where the s.10(10C) exemption has been claimed, and what Rule 21AA actually says about Form 10E
CBDT Circulars & InstructionsCuts both waysValidity unconfirmed
My client received salary arrears and family pension arrears in one year and has been pushed into a higher slab. What relief is available, how is it computed, and is Form 10E a precondition?
Section 89 gives relief where an assessee receives a sum in the nature of salary paid in arrears or in advance, or salary for more than twelve months in one financial year, or a payment which under s.17(3) is a profit in lieu of salary, or a sum in the nature of family pension as defined in the Explanation to s.57(iia) paid in arrears, and his total income is on that account assessed at a higher rate; the Assessing Officer must, on an application, grant such relief as may be prescribed. Rule 21A prescribes five different computations depending on which of five categories the payment falls into. On Form 10E, be precise: Rule 21AA says that an assessee entitled to relief under section 89 "may furnish to the person responsible for making the payment referred to in sub-section (1) of section 192" the particulars specified in Form No. 10E — it is expressed as a permission, and it is directed at the employer for the purposes of tax deduction, not in terms as a condition precedent to the relief.
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.