“How are you Herambha ?” asked I, looking at the ‘books’ in
his armpit.
“Very fine !” replied Herambha.
Before I posed the next question, Herambha began to smile.
” What happened my dear friend ?” asked I.
” I suspect you are going to ask about these books” said
Herambha.
“That’s true” said I.
“Believe me there is very close connection between income-tax
practice and astrology” — Herambha.
“Something amazing, tell me how ?” I exclaimed.
“How ! My dear friend, at times, our clients pose questions
which could be answered only with the help of astrology. I can cite innumerable
questions of that kind. I hope you have time, listen.
“When will I get my refund order ?” most favourite question
of the salaried class.
“Whether search or survey can be conducted on me ?” question
by a person having done everything to dodge taxes.
“Whether my case will be selected for scrutiny ?” question by
a person complying provisions of tax laws partially or wholly, but camouflaging
irregularities.
“Whether in coming budget the threshold limit will be
increased ?” question by a person always showing his income below threshold
limit.
“What if I show bogus income in my wife’s name to take
advantage of the threshold limit for female assessee. Will it be checked or
detected ?” a question by a romantic assessee.
“Will it be detected if I purchase any property out of
Maharashtra ?” question by an assessee having national network.
“What questions the Assessing Officer will raise in
connection with my scrutiny ?” first timer of scrutiny assessment.
“Whether the Assessing Officer will accept our submission ?”
assessee facing scrutiny.
“How much expenditure the Assessing Officer will disallow ?”
“What irregularities the AO will detect in my case ?”
“How much the AO will demand ?”
“Can we win in the appeal ?”
“When will the order be passed ?”
“When will I get PAN number or TAN number ?”
“Can there be amendment as to so and so Section ?”
You see, there are many more questions apart from the ones I
just listed. You may also be facing them in your practice, all hypothetical or
requiring ‘detection’ by the Income-tax Department, and mostly dependent on the
vagaries and exercise of discretionary powers of the AO, at times rubbish, which
our clients pose to us, we have no favorable answers within legal framework at
all; still we somehow answer or avoid them, not up to the mark. Finally the
clients having heard those unsavory answers from you, they open their general
knowledge, obviously about the working of the Income-tax Department :
“So and so person got his refund order within one month;”
“so and so person never caught by the Income-tax Department,
who is a non-filer or stop-filer;”
“so and so person showing his income in his wife’s name but
no enquiry for last twenty years;”
“so and so paper or TV channel says that threshold limit will
be increased;”
“so and so person shows bogus expenses not detected during
the course of scrutiny;”
so on and so forth . . . . . . You are floored flat.
