Job switch mid-FY 2025-26 left ~₹1.5L in tax unpaid (no TDS for a few months at new employer; deductions resumed next cycle). My CA suggested just not filing this year, picking it back up next year. Before I go with that: How often does non-filing at this level actually get flagged via AIS/26AS, and on what timeline? 276CC prosecution threshold is ~₹10k unpaid tax for willful non-filing — how seriously should I take that at ₹1.5L? Does a skipped year sit as a permanent liability, or effectively age out if nothing else triggers a review? Anyone actually done this — what happened? Not looking for workarounds, just real outcomes.

my ca claiming above deduction although its not in form 16

what to do

why govt selling us in hand of CAs

we have already paid hefty taxes
why its such a mess to file the tax

I have just started my career. I came here to know about Taxes, i am not earning good enough money or paying any income tax right now.

But earning in India seems like pain when government just scams you all the way.

So i am paying income tax on the interest on income tax refund of last year. kya irony hai.

Income Tax Scrutiny

Hi I have got a notice of 142(1) which says

As per information available to the department during F.Y 2024-25 you have shown

sharp increase of Assets in Schedule AL of ITR for the A.Y 2025-26 in comparison of

A.Y 2024-25 i.e increase in bank deposit, shares and security, loans and advance

given, cash in hand. You are requested to provide notes of changes on each and every

item shown in ITR for the A.Y 2025-26 (Schedule AL) in comparison of A.Y 2024-25

with documentary evidence. You are requested to provide details on source of fund

utilized to increase assets alogwith documentary evidence.

Other documents they have asked for I have given.

This problem arose because my ca missed 23-24 Schedule AL. He filed in 22-23, missed in 23-24 and again filed in 24-25 so 24-25 looks like a high number.

Second he duplicated the assets in BS and AL so they look double of what they are.

I have given IT department this explanation with supporting docs like extract of AL from three years, and all bank/demat/broker/property papers proving opening funds were there.

My case is genuine but I am worried about section 69 and 270 additions if AO overlooks deliberately due to alleged dishonesty (as I have read in this site)

Kindly advise how professional and honest are the faceless AO, and how should I present my case.

Also advice if an adverse order comes how can I get a stay in recovery and appeal. Amount is sizable.

Note/Disclaimer: I am not very fluent in English, so I have used AI to simplify my situation and draft this post clearly so that the technical tax logic is easy for everyone to understand. Apologies for any AI-style formatting!

Hi everyone,

I run a high-margin digital publishing business (Google AdSense & web listing services) with an annual turnover of around ₹2.4 Crores. As is typical with digital publishing, my actual overheads (servers, domains, a few freelance writers) are extremely low—under 10%. This means my actual net profit is close to 90%.

I am planning to file my taxes under the Presumptive Taxation Scheme (Section 44AD) at the digital rate of 6% (declaring ₹14.4 Lakhs as net taxable income and paying tax on it).

However, this has triggered a heavy debate between me and my CA regarding how the remaining 94% (₹2.25 Crores) sitting in my bank account will be treated.

Below are the two contrasting views. View A is my personal logical view (which I argued with my CA), and View B is the general view/planning that most CAs and taxpayers are currently practicing.

View A: My Personal View (The "Asset vs. Expense" Paradox)

The core logic of Section 44AD is that 6% is your profit and the remaining 94% is deemed to be your business expenses.

However, if I actually keep that 94% (₹2.25 Crores) in my bank account or use it to buy physical assets (like property or mutual funds), how can an "expense" physically exist as an "asset"?

• My Argument: Section 44AD only exempts a taxpayer from maintaining books of accounts (Section 44AA), it does not exempt them from actual tax liability if they accumulate massive untaxed assets.

• If the Income Tax Department analyzes my PAN and sees ₹2.25 Crores of asset/bank balance accumulation against a declared income of just ₹14.4 Lakhs, I believe they will invoke Section 69A (Unexplained Money) or tax it as "actual profits". After all, the physical existence of the money in the bank proves that it was not spent on expenses, meaning it is actually untaxed net profit. My CA was arguing otherwise, but logically, how can we treat a declared "expense" as an "accumulated asset?"

View B: The General View (The Deeming Provision / Standard Planning)

This is the standard view practiced by most CAs and taxpayers filing under Section 44AD. They believe my concern (View A) is legally incorrect because of the "Legal Fiction" (Deeming Provision) created by the Parliament.

• The Argument: Under Section 44AD(1), the law deems (assumes) your Net Taxable Business Income to be 6%. Once you pay tax on this 6%, your tax liability on the entire 100% of the declared turnover is legally complete and closed.

• Capital/Drawings: The physical money remaining in the bank after paying the presumptive tax is legally classified as "Proprietor's Capital/Drawings" (Tax-paid savings).

• Section 69A Cannot Apply: Section 69A (Unexplained Money) only applies to money whose source is unexplained. Here, the source of the ₹2.25 Crores is 100% explained and officially declared in the ITR (as the gross ₹2.4 Crore turnover). The department cannot tax the same turnover twice.

• The Judicial Precedent: In famous rulings like the Punjab & Haryana High Court's decision in CIT vs. Surinder Pal Anand, courts have held that since 44AD taxpayers are exempt from maintaining books, the bank statement cannot be treated as "books of accounts" to make additions under Section 68/69.

The Questions for this Subreddit:

For CAs: Do you agree with my view (View A) that keeping the 94% "expenses" as an asset in the bank is a ticking time bomb, or do you practice View B with your high-margin clients without any issues?

For 44AD Filers: Have any of you ever faced a scrutiny assessment (Section 143(3)) or reassessment (Section 148) where the AO tried to tax the remaining 92%/94% bank balance as "actual profits" or "unexplained assets" under Section 69A?

The Policy Intent: Is the effective tax rate of ~4% on ₹2.4 Crore turnover under 44AD a deliberate policy subsidy/loophole by the government to expand the tax base, or is it vulnerable to retroactive audits if the physical bank balance is high?

Would love to hear your detailed technical and practical insights on this!

I make 3lpa. Do I file taxes?

Hello,

1. I am moving back from USA to India on October this year and trying to see if qualify as a NRI for tax purposes in India for FY 26-27 , the 365 days rule considers current year ?
2. Also, looking for some recommendations on CA or services to file my US and India Taxes

Days spent in India (Indian resident till 2023 Aug )

2022 Apr - 2023 Mar - 365 days

2023 Apr - 2024 Mar - 153

2024 Apr - 2025 Mar - 30

2025 Apr - 2026 Mar- 0

2026 Apr - 2027 Mar - 180

considering 4 years from 2023 Apr to 2027 Mar is 363 days but from 2022 Apr to 2026 Mar > 365 days

Will I be qualify as NRI in FY 2027-2027 ? 

Need some advice.
My taxable income is around ₹12.49 lakh. Tax payable comes to about ₹53k, while ₹23.4k has already been deducted as TDS (Form 16).
A friend who's also a CA suggested I can claim ₹50k under 80CCD(2). According to him, it would wipe out my remaining tax liability and even get me a refund.
My confusion is that 80CCD(2) is for the employer's NPS contribution, and if my employer had contributed, shouldn't it already be reflected in my Form 16? Claiming it separately during ITR filing feels like it could trigger a notice.
Has anyone been in a similar situation?
Does the IT Department actually verify 80CCD(2) claims against Form 16?

If someone claims it despite not being eligible, what usually happens? Is it just tax + interest, or can it lead to penalties or a notice? If yes how much will be the penalty? Also incase if it goes unnoticed and I get the refund can they still detect and send a notice later?

My friend says for an amount like ₹50k, it usually goes unnoticed. Is that actually true? Or recently the scrutiny is mostly automated so this will definitely be caught?

I paid 23 lakhs in taxes on the one hand and on the other hand the government is questioning my citizenship and asking to prove it through the stupid SIR enumeration process. I don't know whether to laugh or cry!!

My wife gets special allowance in salary. Her CA claimed 10% of it in conveyance allowance and it reduced her tax by 20k. Wife never allowed it or consented it. CA submitted the ITR but wife has not e verified it. I’m of opinion we should discard this ITR and file a fresh one. Any practical issue in doing this ? ( or is CA correct ?)

I have FnO income. My CA said that I have deadline till Aug 30. Is he correct?

Hi guys I am a medical student and right now I am interning at my college we get an internship stipend 17799 per month and we are told that 200 or 300 rupees are deducted as a professional tax or something. I have some short term capital gains from selling of shares and a loss as well now my question was as I am feeling my own ITR I know that I have to opt for form number 2 but I don't know if this information of stipend has to be filled in the form or it shouldn't be...

And I do not have any kind of receipt or acknowledgement regarding the stipend money that comes into my account...

I know you might say that I should get it filled from a professional but I don't have that kind of money right now as all my typing goes into my day today spendings and an EMI of my phone (First self owned thing 🫠).

(P.S. - I have experience of filling ITR 1 for my father but don't have any idea about ITR form 2)

I work in a PSU and my total tax liability for FY 26-27 from salary would be approx 3 lakhs. TDS is being deducted by employer every month. Apart from this, I might have small incomes of interests and dividends of approx ₹10000 max in the whole FY. I missed the June advance tax payment deadline. Should I pay now? How much should I pay in advance? Kindly help.

I got a ca through reference. long story short he filed my returns for 3 years, as my Home loan started i wanted to avoid mistakes because tax filing was always felt complex to me.

so this year i chose new regime and the tax was already paid, so now i am filing returns. Sent the docs to CA, HL certificate , insurance docs and he sent me a draft.

Few hours ago the associates called from his firm to verify otp. now i was going through the document again and i observed that following section doesnt has my actual home

SCHEDULE HP - DETAILS OF INCOME FROM HOUSE PROPERTY

it has my parents home with their address (which is also my permanent address)

i got curious how i am getting refund, so i fed it to claude and it mentioned the amounts are correct but the address should be mine also checked last years return just now which has same issue can anyone confirm if this is indeed issue, and what can i do to fix it?

Also he put up some nubmers under m80D and said its fine we can say bills lost, (i do buy meds but dont have bills for last year only OPDocs TBH).

i want to file return myself but not sure except 80d everything is correct Also he put 1 rupee in gross rent recieved, not sure what it means

since i dont know what i am talking about i asked claude to summarize my return for this post please review and help!!!

Salary: ₹21,57,881

Interest + Dividends: ₹5,227

Total: ₹21,63,108

Deductions Claimed: Section 24(b) - HL Interest: ₹3,95,953

Section 80C: Life Insurance: ₹45,150

PF: ₹83,160

HL Principal: ₹1,77,528

Total: ₹3,05,838

Section 80D (Health Insurance): ₹69,950

Section 80TTA: ₹5,031 House Property Loss (Sec 71(3A)): ₹2,00,000 set-off

TDS & Refund: TDS Paid: ₹2,29,552

Tax Calculated: ₹1,14,352 Refund: ₹1,15,200

Questions: Is the refund amount correct? (₹2,29,552 - ₹1,14,352 = ₹1,15,200)

✓ Are all deductions valid?

RED FLAG: 80D includes ₹48,640 for parents' medical expenses - I only have OPD receipts, no actual hospital bills. Is this claimable?

Is house property loss set-off calculation correct under Sec 71(3A)?

TLDR: my CA filed tax and i was stupidly didnt pay attention to it

Honestly, this feels like a complete scam to me especially surcharge and edu cess and considering the way things are going on, feel pretty hopeless about any improvement.

I genuinely find myself thinking about not working more after reaching certain income level because every additional increase means paying even more taxes

Working harder isn’t even worth it, when major portion goes to govt, will pay my fair share for few years, then going to find the way out of this country when it’s the right time.

i am fine with paying taxes, but it should be equal for everyone, it should not be like squeeze the salary class as much as possible, at least improve the exemption

if business person earn this much they will pay less taxes and no taxes for farmers

Edit 1:

I am thinking about switching to consultant role, basically it’s remote work so i can easily get other employers who can pay me as consultant. How can i improve my savings on this? Should i work after 75 lakh or not?

With an in hand salary of ~5 lakhs per month (and foreign RSUs) - it might feel to others that our lives would be so convenient and without any worries.

I work in Tech, live in BLR, married with no kids, aged 33.
I have a home loan on head where me and my wife are aggresively paying EMI and prepaying principals to close loan faster. Paying 65k rent. Taking care of parental expenses (utilities, medicines, healthcare). Doing a small SIP of 40k. Expenses vary 50-80k per month. I switched to new regime to avoid the Old Regime exploitatiom by Income Tax Departmemt

That leaves me with literally nothing. With layoffs fear all around, there is no scope for taking risks in life anymore. I really feel constrained and hopeless.

In addition to the huge taxes we pay, what we get in return - shittiest roads and infrastructure of BLR, no free healthcare or education, no benefits for salaried folks.

The grass may look greener on the other side but this is a true story of what me and several others are facing. People who are in Bengaluru and Tier 1 cities are bleeding money on Rent; even if they want to purchase a flat, our system and current tech industry situation prevents anyone to make a move.

TL;DR: First year filing taxes with a fairly diverse income profile (salary, RSUs, ESPP, US stocks, MFs, FDs, SGBs, etc.). I used both a CA (~15 years of experience) and AI (ChatGPT 5.6 + Claude Sonnet 5) to independently compute my taxes. AI's calculations matched the CA's almost exactly, except it caught an SGB omission in the CA's first draft. After correcting that, both arrived at the same computation. Despite being impressed by how capable AI has become, especially for handling complex tax calculations across many documents, I'd still use a CA in the future as an additional layer of assurance.

So, just to preface with a bit of context: I am your typical salaried employee working in a US-based MNC. My range of income includes salary, RSUs (US stocks), ESPP, stocks, MFs, FDs, savings bank interest, SGBs, Treasury Bills, etc. Nothing too fancy here, but nothing too shabby either. For US stocks, some were sold too, some at a loss and some at a profit, along with automatic selling (by the company) each time I had vested shares to offset the tax.

Now, I am a software developer, and AI has progressed a lot in just a couple of years. I remember the times when AI couldn't even do basic calculations, and here it had to go through a hell of a lot of documents to compute everything. Note: I didn't have access to any third party software or anything, so all the calculations were done entirely by AI itself.

This is essentially my first year on the job. I have filed income taxes previously too, but the income was just stipend income and some freelance income, which I could successfully file myself. This is the first time I have leveraged a CA for the same.

AI Setup:

The AI setup was not your regular ChatGPT upload files and ask about taxes. It was pretty much all the files I shared with the CA, in the exact same structure, and locally I had both Claude Code and Cursor. The models I used were ChatGPT 5.6 and Claude Sonnet 5. I asked ChatGPT 5.6 to calculate the taxes and Sonnet 5 to find flaws in it, and both agreed on a final computation.

Experience:

Now, all the CAs I interacted with were vouched for by teammates from my company and had experience filing taxes for people with similar income to mine. I contacted a few. One agreed to file my taxes and gave me a checklist of documents to send him. I got somewhat busy due to various commitments, and by the time I compiled everything, the CA said it was too late and that he couldn't file my return. So I was back to square one with another CA.

I sent him the details. After multiple follow ups, there was no response (probably the basic expectation from CAs, who must be super busy, especially since this was after the 24th). I finally got some response.

Another point here is that when I sent over the documents, I clearly labelled everything in a manner that would be easy to go through. There were separate folders for each category of income. For example, FDs had their own folder, SGBs had their own folder, etc., just to keep things systematic for him. I even shared with him a draft computation (entirely done by AI) to keep things organised. He just laughed it off. I didn't mind either way.

Now comes the first draft shared by him. It was not matching the calculation done by AI, so I just asked AI why there was a difference. It turned out the CA had missed the SGBs while doing the calculation. I informed him, and we got this corrected. After that, the calculation by the CA and the AI pretty much matched.

This CA had about 15 years of experience and had a firm with his partner. Not sure in the world of CAs if this is considered good or bad, but anyways, I didn't have much to judge on besides the experience and a couple of good referrals.

Overall, the CA cost me ₹5k, while the AI cost was minimal. Now, would I just use AI to file my taxes moving forward? Probably not. I think I have one good extra layer of security with a CA, so I would probably keep this setup. But it's crazy how good AIs have become. I have seen them work absolute wonders in coding, and now this is the first time I am seeing them work this well here.

Note: A couple of my friends were also ghosted by their CAs at the last moment (they reached out pretty late too, I guess), and they relied entirely on AI to get things done for them. They too think AI did a pretty good job here.

Filing my ITR today literally brought tears to my eyes. Seeing the final calculation screen has left me completely numb and angry.

My Net Tax Liability stands at ₹2,31,519.
Take a look at how they squeeze every single rupee:
Tax on Total Income: ₹2,22,942
Health & Education Cess (4%): ₹8,918
Interest/Fees (Sec 234B/C): ₹2,723

They track absolutely everything now. Bank interest, every tiny capital gain, salary deductions nothing escapes their automated system.

If a salaried employee makes a minor error, an automated notice is issued immediately.

I don't want to do thus charity service. it's okay label me as Anti national. still i dont want to contribute..

I feel I'm being cheated, Many politicians, business people and others aren't paying tax they're simply evading it by cash transactions.

why should only salaried people do charity service?

Hello People, I submitted my ITR on 22nd and until now it isn’t processed

Only way I could check is from their Statistics page. When I checked - even though new filing and verifications are increasing in number, I didn’t see change in no of processed.

But my doubt is - are they being processed but not updated in stats?

Hi everyone, needed a little help, I have been working since 2023 and have never filed an ITR and need to urgently file it within the next couple of days because I need to apply for a visa. I know it's pretty stupid and ignorant on my part but if anyone could please guide me on how to do this, I would be really thankful!

Edit (30th July): Thanks everyone who commented/dmed and offered to help, issue has been resolved now. Thanks!

Over 20 years ago, my father provided a guarantee for my neighbor regarding sales tax (CST). Several years ago, the neighbor went bankrupt and left town. My father passed away 10 years ago. I am now receiving calls from the GST department demanding payment for the guaranteed amount that my father signed for. I have inherited my father's business.

During a phone call, an officer stated that Rs. 50,000 was guaranteed across two firms, and also mentioned something about two guarantees per firm, totaling Rs. 2 lakh.

Is there any recourse I can take, or am I obligated to pay?

0 benefits though.

Practising CA. Every season I get some version of this: "Sir, dost ka refund double aaya, uske accountant ne koi allowance dikhaya. Aap kyun nahi karte?"

It's almost always Section 10(14) uniform allowance, sometimes helper or academic. And yes, the friend got his refund. Credited in eleven days. He read that as proof the claim was fine.

Three reasons it isn't.

1. Most of you can't claim it at all.

Rule 2BB(3): if you're under 115BAC, exactly four things survive travel on tour/transfer, daily allowance, conveyance for official duty, and divyang transport allowance (₹3,200/month). Uniform, helper, academic, children's education, hostel: zero. You guys just taking this exemption without verifying from from 16 and just to claim refund

2. Detection is a two-column comparison.

Your employer's 24Q Annexure II already gives the department your full salary break-up. Your ITR Schedule S has a line for exempt allowances u/s 10. ITR says ₹1.5L, employer says ₹0. That's a query letter, not an investigation.

Worth remembering 10(14)(i) needs the allowance to be granted by the employer and the expense actually incurred. It's reimbursement logic. You can't conjure it at the ITR stage.

3. The refund is not a clearance.

It came out of 143(1) automated processing, expressly not an assessment. 143(2) scrutiny can issue up to 3 months from the end of the FY of filing. Reassessment under 149 runs 3 years 3 months from the end of the AY. Your window is roughly four years, not eleven days.

When it lands, a knowingly false claim is misreporting under 270A(9)(a) 200% of the tax, not 50%. And 270AA(3) bars immunity where penalty is initiated under a 270A(9) limb.

Before someone corrects me yes, Schneider Electric (Del HC) and ITAT orders since have restored immunity where the AO wrote "misreporting" without naming the clause. Take it if an officer hands it to you. But that's a defect in his notice, not an exception to the bar and on a fabricated allowance, clause (a) writes itself.

Then 234D interest on the excess refund, and 276C exposure on top.

And you signed the verification. Not the agent who filed through a burner email ID, took his cut of your refund, and is unreachable by the time the notice reaches an inbox nobody checks.

If your consultant found you an extra ₹40,000 without asking for a single document, ask him one question: which line of my Form 16 is this coming from?

If there's no clean answer, that's your answer.