Section 200 of the Income Tax Act
Income-tax Act, 2025: s.397
Section 200 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 corresponds to section 397 (Compliance and reporting) of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Read section 397 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 200 is Sodex SVC India (P) Ltd. v. DCIT (TDS) 2(2) (92 Taxmann.com 260), cited in 86 of the 92 judgments on BharatTax that turn on this section.
Leading authorities on Section 200
A statutory provision is not construed to have retrospective operation unless such a construction is explicitly stated in the Act or arises by necessary and distinct implication.
Once tax has been deducted at source (TDS), the bar of section 205 applies, preventing the deductee from being asked to pay the tax again, even if the deductor fails to deposit the tax or issue TDS certificates.
An assessee is required to deduct tax at source on reimbursements, even if the assessee acted under a bona fide belief that such reimbursements were exempt.
An order under section 201(1) of the Income Tax Act for Assessment Year 2009-10 can be passed when the TDS statement is required to be filed.
The tax department cannot speculate to deny the benefit of tax deducted at source by the employer to the petitioner.
If a deductor deducts TDS but does not deposit it into the government account, the assessee is not liable for that TDS.
An assessee cannot be denied the credit of tax deducted at source (TDS) if they produce Form 16A, and any demand notice issued under Section 221(1) for non-payment of tax, when TDS credit is due, cannot be sustained.
Orders passed under section 201(1)/201(1A) of the Income-tax Act are only applicable for financial year 2014-15 onwards and not for any prior financial year, as they are time-barred. Consequently, proceedings flowing from invalid orders are annulled.
Section 205 of the Income Tax Act prevents the tax department from demanding tax from an assessee who has already suffered TDS when the liability has shifted to another entity, such as a liquidator.
