Compoundable Offences under Direct Tax Laws | 15 Jun 2019

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has issued the guidelines for compoundable offences under Direct Tax Laws, 2019.

  • Compoundable offences are those which can be conciliated by the parties under dispute, without the requirement of the permission of the court.

Guidelines

Guidelines have classified offences into three categories.

  • The first category of offences open to compounding include:
    • Defaults under tax deducted or collected at source.
    • Failure to file return.
  • The second category of offences, for which compounding will not be allowed, deal with:
    • Willful evasion of tax.
    • Removal or concealment or transfer or delivery of property to thwart tax recovery in a search operation.
  • The third category of offences that "shall normally not be compounded" includes:
    • Offences committed by a person for which he was convicted by a court of law under direct tax laws.
    • Enabling others to evade taxes.
    • Money laundering (launder money by generating bogus invoices).
    • Offences relating to undisclosed foreign bank account or assets under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets).
    • Imposition of Tax Act, 2015 or under the Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Act, 1988.