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Theory paper

Law of Taxation

Examined on Income-tax Act 2025, Central Goods and Services Tax Act 2017; Integrated Goods and Services Tax Act 2017; Maharashtra Goods and Services Tax Act 2017, Maharashtra State Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings and Employments Act 1975. IMPORTANT: the Income-tax Act 2025 replaced the Income-tax Act 1961 from 1 April 2026, and this subject teaches the 2025 Act as the law in force. The 2025 Act replaces "previous year" and "assessment year" with a single "tax year". Old 1961 section numbers are given in brackets because judgments and past papers use them. Rates and slabs are set by each year’s Finance Act — check the current one.

This page is the map of the paper: every syllabus unit, the leading cases with full summaries, and the exam questions the paper actually sets.

Units

  1. Unit 1 · Foundations of Indian Tax Law — Module 1 — history of tax law in India, constitutional provisions on taxation, the nature and scope of tax, and the basic definitions: person, assessee, tax year, income, total income, agricultural income, tax evasion and tax avoidance
  2. Unit 2 · Residence, Heads of Income and Computation — Module 2 — residential status, exemptions, deductions and rebate, clubbing, set-off and carry forward of losses, the five heads of income, computing total income and tax liability, mergers and acquisitions, and TDS, TCS and advance tax
  3. Unit 3 · Assessment, Authorities, Appeals and Penalties — Module 3 — assessment procedure and its kinds, income-tax authorities and their powers, appeals and revision, offences, penalties and prosecution, advance rulings, and faceless assessment
  4. Unit 4 · GST and Maharashtra Profession Tax — Module 4 — GST law and procedure under the CGST Act 2017, the IGST Act 2017 and the Maharashtra GST Act 2017, assessment and advance rulings, and the Maharashtra State Tax on Professions, Trades, Callings and Employments Act 1975

Exam questions

Where it sits

Statutes