Section 129 of the Income Tax Act
Income-tax Act, 2025: s.244
Section 129 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 corresponds to section 244 (Change of incumbent of an office) of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Read section 244 of the 2025 Act
Correspondence checked against the ICAI tabular mapping of the two Acts and the BharatTax.co section commentary.
The decision most relied on for Section 129 is Canara Housing Development Co. v. DCIT (49 Taxmann.com 98), cited in 283 of the 148 judgments on BharatTax that turn on this section.
Leading authorities on Section 129
Proceedings under Section 153A of the Income Tax Act are not confined solely to incriminating material found during a search, and the Assessing Officer can assess total income for the relevant years.
The assessee bears the onus to prove the genuineness and voluntary nature of donations received, including corpus donations. Failure to discharge this burden allows the Assessing Officer to treat such donations as non-genuine or accommodation entries.
The assessing officer can proceed with a search and seizure assessment under section 153A even if the original return was filed in response to a notice under section 142(1). Surrender of income during a search is a key factor in such assessments.
Club membership fees paid by a company for its employees are considered pure business expenses, allowable under Section 37 of the Income Tax Act.
The assessee is entitled to a deduction of interest under Section 36(1)(iii) on borrowed funds utilized for acquiring shares, provided the shares are held as stock-in-trade as part of a share trading business.
For an addition under Section 68, the assessee must satisfactorily explain the source of depositors and their creditworthiness; mere receipt of funds via banking channels or furnishing particulars is not conclusive proof of genuineness.
A bank passbook alone does not constitute the books of account of an assessee for the purpose of the Income Tax Act.
For banking companies, the machinery provisions of Section 115JB(2) of the Income Tax Act are unworkable due to a legal dichotomy created by the first proviso.
A claim for exemption from taxability must be made in the original return under section 139(1) or a revised return under section 139(5). Any claim made outside these mandatory time limits, including during a section 153A assessment, is not allowable.
