Tax matters: Big victory for IT dept in apex court

Jaipur: The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the Income Tax Department regarding the reassessment of tax cases affected by the COVID-19.

During the pandemic, the department issued notices under Section 148 of the Income Tax Act to thousands of taxpayers, signaling their cases for reassessment. However, due to delays caused by the pandemic, the original deadlines for responses and hearings passed. The department decided to extend deadlines, which some taxpayers felt was unfair. Consequently, they filed appeals against the department’s actions, leading to various high courts providing relief in certain cases.

This ruling will impact around 90,000 taxpayers, allowing the department to reassess cases of tax evasion of over Rs 50 lakh of 11-year-old cases.