10 October 2009
I am a salaried person and my income was less than 5 lacs.
For the assessment year 2008-09, i filed return in the month of july 2008.
On 5/10/09 i was issued a notice under section 143(2)to attend the IT office on 12/10/09. Unfortunately i attended on 7/10/09 and meet the ITO. I was asked about my bank accounts and i told her(ito).
She taken my signature where it was written that " told to have bank accounts in HDFC, ICICI, SBH and ANDHRA BANK and to come with all the statements and movable immovable assets on 7/11/09".
Q1) Whether Notice under section 143(2) should be issued within 12 months or not? In my case is it valid or not?
Q2) Even though i attended (only once) can i claim it invalid now?
Q3) For what amounts we have to prove the source? morethan 10000/- or 20000/-?
10 October 2009
1.WEF 1/4/2008 Last date for the notice to be served on the assessee for sec 143(2) whos return is filed in the month of July 08 , should be 30/9/2009.
It should be noted that the word used is "served" and not issued .
Proper service of notice is a mandatory requirement to assume jurisdiction u/s 143(2) to make a valid assessment order u/s 143(3)
In your case , if the notice was not sent earlier (& returned) , i think the notice is not served properly and hence becomes void . Any assessment there after u/s 143(3) would be void ab initio.
Just check with the AO/ postal dept whether the notice was served and returned before 30/9/09
Hence i think , first file an affidavit stating that no notice is served on you . Once the affidavit is filed , the onus is on the AO to prove that notice is served properly . Just make sure that the affidavit is taken on record , also send a registered AD of the same to the AO . Pls make sure you sign on the AO's proceeding sheet that affidavit is submitted .
2.Just by attending once , the notice doesnt become "good in law " . I think theres no problem with regards to sec 292BB which has given the assessee a right to challenge a notice before completion of the assessment .
3.There is no threshold limit for source of income . The normal procedure of assessment follows and the AO is given wide powers to ask for any source .
Dont be worried , Just file the affidavit , rest will be sorted out . In almost all the cases where i have filed an affidavit , there was no problem
11 October 2009
In view of the provisions of section 292BB(b),w.e.f 01/04/2008 ,the assessee cannot challenge the validity of service of notice since his appearance is recorded on 07/10/2009 by the ITO.
In my opinion , the intention of 292BB is not to handicap the assessee , he can definitely challenge the service of notice before the completion of assessment , provided his challenge is on record .
proviso is added to 292BB where an assessee is well within his rights to challenge the service of notice before completion of assessment or reassessment .
One more advice(to the querist) , in case if you feel you should be attending the proceedings , dont disclose more than you are asked for . I am not sure what u mean by keeping 2L cash at home .
CAclubindia
