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Disputes, and the record they are won on.
The practice is organised around contested direct tax matters. Advisory work is taken where it bears on a dispute — existing, anticipated, or being positioned against.
Sections 132 · 153A · 153C
Search & Seizure Assessments
The flagship area of the practice, treated at length on its own page — incriminating material, satisfaction notes, statements and retraction, cross-examination, dumb documents, book rejection and section 271AAB penalty.
Developers · Builders · Land aggregators
Real Estate Tax Litigation.
Real estate attracts a particular kind of assessment: heavy on estimate, light on reconciliation. The recurring contests are about receipts the Department believes exist, values it prefers to the consideration recorded, and books it declines to accept.
On-money and unrecorded receipts
Additions on the footing that consideration exceeded the recorded sale value, often derived from a seized sheet or a purchaser’s statement and then extrapolated across a project. The contest is over the sample, the extrapolation, and the double taxation of receipts already offered.
Rejection of books under section 145(3)
Where accounts are audited, stock records maintained and no specific defect identified, rejection needs reasons that survive scrutiny. Once books go, the assessment becomes an estimate — and estimates are contestable on rate and on base.
Sections 43CA, 50C and 56(2)(x)
Differences between stamp duty value and actual consideration, the tolerance band, the date-of-agreement proviso, and reference to the Valuation Officer where the circle rate does not reflect the property.
Revenue recognition and project completion
Percentage-of-completion disputes, timing of recognition, allocation of common costs and treatment of work-in-progress — ordinarily a timing question, though the demand it produces is not.
Sections 68, 69 and 69C
Unsecured loans, share capital and premium, capital introduced by partners, and expenditure treated as unexplained — where the burden lies, when it shifts, and what discharging it requires in practice.
Land transactions and capital gains
Characterisation as capital asset or stock-in-trade, development agreements and the year of transfer, section 45(5A), and exemptions under sections 54, 54F and 54EC.
CIT(A) · ITAT · Faceless
Appellate Practice.
Drafting is the substance of appellate work. A ground that is not properly framed cannot be argued; a submission that is not anchored to the record cannot be accepted.
Grounds of appeal and statement of facts
Grounds framed to be capable of argument — specific, severable, and matched to the additions actually made. The statement of facts carries the narrative the grounds rely on.
Additional grounds under section 250(5)
Where a point was omitted at filing — frequently a jurisdictional one — it is brought in by a proper application for admission, with the revised grounds read in supersession, rather than argued without foundation.
Written submissions and paper books
Submissions structured contention by contention, every assertion tied to an enclosure, authorities tabulated rather than narrated, and a paper book indexed so the bench can reach the document while the point is still live.
Faceless appeals and video hearing
The faceless regime rewards completeness on the file, since there may be no second chance to explain. Submissions are prepared to be read without oral gloss, and personal hearing is requested and used where it is available.
Second appeal before the Tribunal
Appeals and cross-objections before the ITAT, condonation where required, rectification under section 254(2), and stay applications pending disposal.
Sections 147 · 148 · 148A
Reassessment.
Reassessment is a jurisdiction, not a preference. Whether it was validly assumed is a question that can be taken at every stage, and one that is frequently decisive without reaching the merits at all.
- The show-cause notice under section 148A(1) — 148A(b) in the text in force to 31 August 2024 — and the reply to it
- Whether the order under section 148A(3) — 148A(d) in the earlier text — deals with the objections raised
- Sanction of the specified authority — who gave it, and on what
- Search-origin notices for searches between 1 April 2021 and 31 August 2024, where section 148A as it then stood did not apply and section 152(3) keeps the pre-September 2024 provisions in force
- Information said to suggest escapement, and its source
- Limitation, including the extended period and monetary thresholds
- Change of opinion, and reassessment on material already examined
- Service of notice, and on whom it was served
Penalty & prosecution
The proceeding after the proceeding.
Penalty is a separate proceeding with its own burden. An addition sustained on estimate does not automatically carry a penalty, and a notice that does not specify its limb is vulnerable on that ground alone.
Section 270A
Under-reporting and misreporting
The distinction between the two, the exclusions in section 270A(6), and immunity under section 270AA where the conditions are met.
Section 271AAB
Penalty in search cases
Whether the income is undisclosed income as defined, whether it was admitted in the statement, and whether the manner of its derivation was substantiated.
Sections 271D · 271E
Cash loans and repayments
Contraventions of sections 269SS and 269T, and reasonable cause under section 273B — frequently significant in real estate and closely-held businesses.
Chapter XXII
Prosecution and compounding
Proceedings for wilful attempt to evade and for failure to file, and applications for compounding under the prevailing guidelines.
Section 276B
TDS defaults
Failure to deposit tax deducted, the defences available, and the treatment of delay distinguished from default.
Section 273B
Reasonable cause
The statutory relief that runs across several penalty provisions, and what establishing it requires on the record.
Recovery, stay & grievance
Holding the demand while the appeal runs.
A pending appeal does not by itself stop recovery. Applications for stay, treatment as an assessee not in default, and grievance against adjustment of refunds are part of running a dispute rather than incidental to it.
- Stay applications under section 220(6) before the Assessing Officer and above
- Stay before the Tribunal pending disposal of appeal
- Adjustment of refunds under section 245, and objection to it
- Interest under sections 234A to 234C and 220(2)
- Rectification under section 154 and orders giving effect to appellate directions
- Grievance escalation on refunds and appeal effect not given
Adjacent practice
Related matters we take up.
Benami & Black Money
Proceedings under the Prohibition of Benami Property Transactions Act and the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) Act, which frequently travel alongside a search.
International tax & FEMA
Residential status and its consequences, treaty positions, withholding on cross-border payments, and compliance under the Foreign Exchange Management Act.
NRI taxation
Taxation of Indian income and assets of non-residents, repatriation, and disputes arising from property transactions and capital gains.
Business restructuring
Reorganisation, conversion and succession, examined for the tax exposure they create and the positions they will have to defend.
Corporate & startup advisory
Structuring, valuation and share issue questions, with attention to the provisions that most often generate later assessment disputes.
Second opinions
A discrete view on a pending matter for a professional or a business already represented — on the strength of grounds, the merit of an appeal, or the position to take on a specific addition.