Tax Updates - Daily Update

Import duty on gold and silver was increased to 15 per cent by raising the social welfare surcharge and agriculture infrastructure and development cess, effective 13 May 2026. The measure was intended to curb non-essential imports of precious metals and conserve foreign exchange amid a rising import bill and balance of payments stress. It reversed the earlier reduction in custom...

The Appellate Tribunal held that flats purchased with consideration paid by the appellant, but registered in the names of others who did not pay for them, fell within the statutory definition of benami transaction. It further held that the amended definition under Section 2(9)(A) covered property still held in benamidars' names after the 2016 amendment, so the challenge based on...

Unreliable salary records justified rejection of the books of account where discrepancies in wage and salary registers remained unexplained, including mismatches with profit and loss account entries, inconsistent signatures, missing names and addresses, and unsupported cash payments. Once the books were rejected, profit had to be estimated on a rational basis; an 8 per cent net ...

A public charitable trust is treated as irrevocable by operation of law unless the trust deed expressly reserves a power of revocation, so the absence of an explicit irrevocability or dissolution clause cannot by itself justify denial of registration or renewal under section 12AB. The Tribunal also held that answering "Yes" in row 6 of Form 10AB, despite the absence of such a cl...

Section 50C applies only to transfers of capital assets and not to sale of stock-in-trade assessed as business income. Where real estate plots are claimed to form business inventory, the decisive question is whether the assessee was carrying on a real estate business and held the lands as stock-in-trade; the Tribunal remitted that limited factual issue to the Assessing Officer f...