Direct Tax
Direct tax compliance and advisory requires continuous attention across planning, computation, filing, and dispute resolution. We provide end-to-end direct tax services for individuals, businesses, HUFs, and other entities - from return preparation to representation before appellate authorities, backed by a team that stays current with the Income-tax Act, 2025 and its evolving rules.
Income Tax Return: Computation & Filing
We prepare and file income tax returns for individuals, Hindu Undivided Families, partnership firms, LLPs, companies, and trusts across all applicable ITR forms - ensuring that income under every head is correctly classified, deductions and exemptions are properly claimed, and returns are filed within applicable due dates. Our scope covers salaried individuals, professionals and businesses under presumptive taxation, entities requiring tax audit, and clients with foreign assets or income requiring Schedule FA disclosures. We also handle belated and revised returns, respond to defective return notices, and manage advance tax computation and payment schedules across all four instalments to prevent interest exposure under the relevant provisions of the Income-tax Act, 2025.
Accurate computation of taxable income lies at the foundation of every return filed and every advisory opinion given. We compute income under all heads - salary, house property, business and profession, capital gains, and other sources - after correctly applying deductions, exemptions, clubbing provisions, and set-off/carry-forward of losses. Our computations cover capital gains across asset classes (equity, property, unlisted shares, and other capital assets), presumptive income workings, advance tax liability across quarterly instalments, interest exposure, and MAT/AMT working where applicable - ensuring the final tax position is accurate and defensible before it is reported or acted upon.
Income Tax Advisory Services
Sound tax planning begins before a transaction is entered into, not after. We advise businesses and individuals on structuring transactions, investments, and corporate events in a tax-efficient and legally defensible manner. Our consultancy practice extends to business restructuring - mergers, demergers, slump sales, and group reorganisations - succession and family arrangement planning, HUF structuring, tax due diligence for acquisitions and investments, applications for advance rulings before the Board for Advance Rulings, and written opinions on complex or contested questions of direct tax law that support the reasonable cause defence in penalty proceedings.
Litigation
Litigation in direct tax proceeds through distinct stages, each with its own procedure, timeline, and governing section - from the first notice, through the specific type of assessment framed, to penalty and recovery proceedings that may follow. We handle every stage of this cycle, ensuring the correct procedure is followed and the client's position is protected throughout.
- Notices and Departmental Communications
Litigation most commonly begins with a notice. Whether it is a scrutiny notice under Section 170(2), a reopening notice under Section 188 or 188A, a query letter under Section 168(1), or a summons under Section 247 - each communication carries specific procedural obligations and timelines. We review every notice, assess its implications, and prepare responses that are legally precise, factually complete, and submitted within the time allowed.
- Regular / Scrutiny Assessment - Section 270
Where a return is picked up for detailed scrutiny following a notice issued under Section 270(8), the Assessing Officer examines the return in depth before passing an assessment order under Section 270(10), determining the final income and tax payable. We manage the complete scrutiny process - organising documentation, drafting written submissions, attending hearings or e-proceedings, and ensuring that every query on income, deductions, and claims is addressed with clarity and evidentiary support, with the objective of preventing unjustified additions before they crystallise into a demand.
- Best Judgment Assessment - Section 271
Where a taxpayer fails to file a return, or does not comply with notices issued during scrutiny, the Assessing Officer is empowered under Section 271 to complete the assessment on a best judgment basis using the information available on record - an outcome that typically results in a higher tax demand than a cooperative assessment would. We assist clients in avoiding this outcome by ensuring timely compliance, and where a best judgment order has already been passed, in challenging it on the ground that the officer's estimate is arbitrary or unsupported by material on record.
- Reassessment / Income Escaping Assessment - Sections 279 to 282
Where the Assessing Officer has information suggesting that income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment, proceedings can be reopened under Section 279, subject to the pre-notice show-cause procedure under Section 281, the notice for reassessment under Section 280, and the time limits prescribed under Section 282. We evaluate the validity of the reopening itself - including whether the information relied upon and the order under Section 281 justify reopening - before addressing the reassessment on merits, and challenge reassessment proceedings that do not meet the statutory threshold.
- Faceless Assessment Scheme - Section 273
The majority of assessments today are conducted under the faceless assessment scheme provided for under Section 273, with all notices, submissions, and orders exchanged electronically without direct interaction with the Assessing Officer. We manage the complete e-proceedings workflow - timely upload of submissions and evidence, requesting video-conference hearings where the facts warrant a personal explanation, and ensuring procedural safeguards under the faceless scheme are followed before an adverse order is passed.
- Search, Survey, and Post-Search (Block) Assessment - Sections 292 to 294
Assessments arising from a search or requisition are assessed as undisclosed income of the block period under Section 292, following the procedure for block assessment set out in Section 294 - a materially different process and a wider scope of enquiry than a regular assessment, covering undisclosed income, unexplained assets, and seized material across the block period. We assist clients from the point of the search or survey itself - advising on rights and obligations during the action - through to managing the post-search assessment, addressing additions based on seized documents, and representing clients at every stage of these proceedings.
- Penalty, Prosecution, and Compounding
We handle penalty proceedings arising from assessment and reassessment orders - contesting penalties wherever the facts and law support it, filing applications for immunity where available, and responding to prosecution notices and compounding applications where they arise.
- Refund Disputes, Recovery, and Rectification
We pursue refund claims that are delayed or rejected by the department, file appeals against such rejections, and represent clients in recovery proceedings to ensure coercive action is stayed pending resolution of a dispute. We also file rectification applications for apparent errors in an order and revision petitions before the Commissioner where the order is prejudicial to the client but not appealable.
Appeal before Commissioner (Appeals) & ITAT
Where assessments result in additions or demands that are not sustainable, we prepare and file appeals before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) or Joint Commissioner (Appeals), including under the faceless appeal scheme, building a strong factual and legal case supported by judicial precedents, CBDT circulars, and Tribunal decisions. Wherever an appeal is filed, we simultaneously pursue applications for stay of demand before the Assessing Officer or the appellate authority to protect clients from coercive recovery while the appeal is pending, and separately handle appeals against penalty orders, ensuring quantum and penalty proceedings are argued in a coordinated and consistent manner. For matters that proceed further, we represent clients before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) - preparing detailed paper books, written submissions, cross-objections, and stay applications, and presenting arguments before the Bench. Where a substantial question of law arises, we also assist in briefing counsel for further appeal before the High Court.
Transfer Pricing
Transfer pricing regulations require that international transactions and specified domestic transactions between associated enterprises be conducted at arm's length and supported by robust documentation. We carry out functional, asset, and risk (FAR) analysis, select the most appropriate pricing method, and undertake benchmarking studies using recognised comparable databases to arrive at a defensible arm's length price. Our services cover preparation of transfer pricing documentation and Form 3CEB certification, Master File and Country-by-Country Reporting (CbCR) compliance for groups above the prescribed thresholds, and representation during assessments before the Transfer Pricing Officer and objections before the Dispute Resolution Panel. For businesses seeking long-term certainty, we also assist with Advance Pricing Agreements (APAs) and Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) applications.