Introduction

Is it possible to get to grips with tax litigation, gain an in-depth understanding of what is at the base of taxation disputes and proceedings and find a way out of the phobia that surrounds taxation litigation in general?

That’s right. It’s a phobia - dictionary meaning:  fear which is unreal or irrational. 

And it’s quite widespread. Not just law students, but most practicing lawyers who are looking to develop a full-service practice and chartered accountants who work in the area of taxation compliance also stay away from tax litigation believing it to be a domain of only specialists. 

However, consider this: if something is considered to be extremely complex and technical, it has few takers. Tax litigation services therefore, tend to be in short supply. 

Now let’s look at the demand: companies which earn thousands of crores have to pay taxes in hundreds of crores. They will go to great lengths to legally reduce their tax burden, which straight on adds to their profits. Naturally, they are looking out for good tax lawyers. Let alone large companies, even high networth individuals or medium to large sized businesses are looking to find their way out of the maze of tax legislations. 

Taxation is actually a service that every business requires. Therefore, the sheer quantity of work in tax litigation is worth considering. From matters like refunds which are stuck, right up to dealing with imminent arrests (GST provides for non-bailable offences), you can find cases at all levels in this domain. Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries and Lawyers with good understanding of litigation aspects and functioning of courts are highly demanded in the industry due to the plethora of pending litigation before various Courts and tribunals.

When you’re not helping businesses with their existing taxation proceedings, which in itself is likely to be on rare occasions, you can be challenging new laws or amendments and their applicability on these businesses. 

Certainly therefore, a foray in tax litigation, if keenly pursued, can not only be highly rewarding, but can often be a key differentiator specially for the practitioners who have recently started or who are looking to develop a full-service practice for their clients. This is also demonstrable as some of India’s most famous lawyers such as Nani Palkhivala, Harish Salve, Arvind Datar, etc. started as tax lawyers, and eventually became the most illustrious constitutional lawyers.

What do you need to get there?

Unlike compliances and drafting legal opinions, a lot of success in tax litigation is a matter of good strategy and your understanding of how courts work and appeals and replies are drafted. It takes immense skill and sound understanding of procedure to corner your opponents who are generally panel lawyers with taxation departments having decades of experience. A mistake in drafting scope of appeal or grounds can lead to loss in an easily winnable case.

To be a good taxation lawyer and arguing counsel, you have to learn a lot of basic ground work, from drafting reply to notices, to drafting plaints, written statements, applications, appeals and even how to handle the court clerks. Regardless of the forums, these are the skills that lawyers always have upper hands on and other professionals thus struggle to get their foothold irrespective of the breadth of knowledge.

These skills are highly valuable, but they are either not taught or taught in a very limited manner in law school, or indeed, in chartered accountancy or company secretaryship courses. 

Although we have a course focusing on corporate taxation dealing specifically with the conceptual clarity and discussion that is imperative for a tax lawyer to understand the proceedings, over the past few years many learners have asked us for inclusion of litigation & drafting aspects in the courses which enables them to start practicing before various courts and tribunals.

We have decided to launch this course keeping in mind such requests.
Learning how to draft grounds of appeals, prayers, reply to notices, compile paper books, writing statements of facts etc. will be the main focus of this course. This will enable you to have a preliminary sense of how to provide a service to a client and appear before courts and tribunals.

How long will it take to learn these skills?

Many tax lawyers currently spend several years working under a Senior Lawyer to understand the practical aspects and legal drafting, not taught in any law school. Often, it seems to be the only available way to gain these skills. 

With our unique methodology, we are going to bet that you can learn them in six weeks.
 
It’s not that you’ll never find a matter not taught in this course - of course, you will. No course in the world can claim that it will teach you all that you will encounter with the businesses. But what it will do is that it will prepare you to deal with whatever comes your way. It will help you build the necessary muscle with your drafting skills - just so that thereafter, you will be able to find your way out in various litigation matters. 

You just need to give us approximately an hour of study per day at your own time, and 2 hours of online classes with us per week.

Who should take this course?

• Young tax lawyers who want to be introduced to various aspects of tax litigation so that they can later leverage this to develop a full-service practice along with their area of interest.
• Chartered Accountants who want to leverage their knowledge and appear independently before various Income Tax Tribunals
• Chartered Accountants and Company Secretaries who want to develop a full-service practice and reduce their dependence on the lawyers.
• Lawyers who want to handle high ticket advanced taxation litigation.
• Tax Lawyers who want exposure to International Tax Litigation & Corporate Taxation.
• Chartered Accountants, Cost Accountants, Company Secretaries and others who want to move or develop  litigation based practice from an auditing / compliance based practice and
• Last but not the least, all past and present students of LawSikho’s [Executive Certificate Course in Advanced Corporate Taxation]
• This is an Advanced Certificate Course & it will not delve into the conceptual understanding of taxation laws and thus, it is strongly recommended that you take our Executive Certificate Course in Advance Corporate Taxation before enrolling in this course.

Potential employers

• Law chambers
• Law firms
• In house legal departments
• NBFCs
• Government
• Self-employment
• Big 4 Tax Consultancy Firms

What is unique about this course?

• Apart from practical lessons, you will have access to numerous templates.
• The faculties in this course would be experts having years of experience of practice before the High Court / Tribunals and would be extremely practice oriented. You would be taught by some of the most experienced lawyers in the country having decades of experience in litigation, drafting and advising in the field of both domestic and international taxation. Thus, we promise you an unparalleled learning experience.
• This is an advanced course for all lawyers and non-lawyers wanting an insight into tax litigation and a sense of the work performed by arguing counsels when they serve clients, whether they are working independently or for law firms and companies.
• You will learn about the nature of work performed by tax lawyers, whether they work for organizations in the manufacturing, trading, services sector, or represent individuals for both direct and indirect taxation matters.
• You will learn through Lawsikho’s unique teaching methodology, comprising classes, exercises and in-line feedback on your submissions. You will have 1 weekly class of 2 hour each and perform 2 exercises in each class. In a week, you will perform 2 exercises, that is, acquire four skills.
• You will be given an opportunity to work on one writing assignment during the term of the course that shall be published either on the iPleaders blog if it is publishable.
• You will get personal attention and coaching from the trainers, and any doubt regarding a topic shall be addressed within 24 hours.
• In the span of the course, you will need to perform 10 simulation exercises relating to different petitions, applications and appeals, including drafting statement of facts, grounds of appeal, prayers, compiling paper books, etc. 
• The course is tough and intensive, you will not be awarded the certificate unless you complete at least 50% of the exercises and the writing assignment. You will also need to attempt an MCQ test to pass. Average study time required is about 2 hours per day, at your own pace. If you miss a class, you can watch a recording.

Money-back guarantee

If you take this course, follow it diligently for a month, do all the exercises but still do not find value in it, or not able to understand or follow it or not find it good for any reason, we will refund the entire course fee to you. It is a 100% money-back guarantee with only one condition, you must pursue it properly for a month. If you don’t find it valuable after that, get your entire money back. Refer to our refund policy here.

View Refund Policy

Training Methodology

Online 24/7 access

Access to basic study material through online learning management system, Android and iOS app

Hard Copy Study Material

Hard copy study material modules to be couriered to your address

Practical Exercises

2 practical exercises every week, followed by written feedback

Live Online Classes

Based on the exercises, there will be a live video based online class. You can ask questions, share your screen, get personal feedback in this class.

Convenient Class timings

Classes are held after regular work hours. Typically classes are kept on Sunday afternoon or 8-9 pm on other days.

Live Doubt Clearing

You can ask questions, get your doubt cleared live as well as through online forums

What will you learn?

• Get exposure to strategic and drafting work in connection with tax cases.
• Learn how to handle the entire process from replying to a notice from tax authorities right up to filing appeals before various courts and tribunals.
• Learn how to compile documentation and precedents for your case and how to present them correctly.
• Learn how to draft synopsis and written submissions before a court.
• Learn about new and emerging areas in Tax Litigation.
• Understand various aspects of client and case management.
• Get comprehensive practical knowledge of tax law from experienced tax lawyers.
• Learn how to act on behalf of large corporations in taxation matters.
• Learn how to set up and manage your own tax litigation practice.
• Apart from statutory knowledge, develop strategic thinking
• Draft various applications, petitions, appeals, reply to notices until you are conversant with each.
• Step-by step walkthrough of proceedings before various courts and tribunals under both direct and indirect tax laws.
• Learn about important tax tribunals, special courts and proceedings before high court and supreme courts.
• New amendments, cases and ongoing controversies.
• Learn how to structure, write and publish an original article. This is the first step to start building your portfolio of work and demonstrate expertise.

Specific Learning Objectives

• Learn what are the various stages of proceedings under Income Tax and GST laws before different tribunals and courts.
• Learn basics about legal notices by various tax authorities.
• Learn how to draft replies to legal notices.
• Learn about the functioning of various tax authorities, tribunals, courts and their machinery.
• Learn how to identify jurisdiction of the tribunals and courts to try specific matters along with applicable limitation periods under the law.
• Learn how to establish cause of action, appeal and grounds.
• Learn how to read various abbreviations, tagging and nomenclature of various appeals, petitions, etc. by the courts.
• Learn about procedure of the High Court, statutory appeal and writ petitions.
• Learn how to save your client in different kinds of situations and strategies to deploy in different litigation cases.
• Learn how to draft petitions, applications and appeals.
• Learn how to calculate court fees.
• Learn all you need to know about reliefs you can claim in your appeals, applications and petitions.
• Learn all you need to know about formatting principles and rules for appeals, applications, replies and rejoinders.
• Learn how different tax authorities are appointed and composition of different tribunals and how it is relevant to litigation.
• How to draft statements of facts, reliefs and grounds under different appeals & applications.
• Learn how to draft responses to scrutiny/assessment notice under Section 143(2) and 142(1) of Income Tax Act, 1961.
• Learn how to draft responses to details called for by the assessing officer under Section 142(1) of the Act vide a show cause notice.
• Learn how to draft an appeal before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) along with applicable fees and supporting documents.
• Learn how to draft an appeal to be filed before the Commissioner of Income Tax against the assessment order of the assessing officer.
• Learn the content of an appeal set before the Commissioner of Income Tax along with supporting documents.
• Learn how to draft an appeal before the Dispute Resolution Panel for a potential transfer pricing dispute.
• Learn how to draft objections to be filed before the Dispute Resolution Panel.
• Learn how to draft an appeal to be filed before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
• Learn how to draft a rectification application to be filed before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
• Learn how to draft an appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals).
• Learn to draft an application before the Authority for Advance Ruling under different taxation laws.
• Learn to draft an application before the Anti-profiteering authority under Indirect Tax laws.
• Learn how to draft a writ petition before the High Court and the matters that can be challenged under the ambit of writ petition.
• Learn how to draft an Income Tax Appeal under section 260A of Income Tax Act, 1961 against the order of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
• Learn how to draft a special leave petition to be filed before Supreme Court dismissal of appeal by the High Court.

Client Opportunities & Recruitment Support

• Our team helps our students in building their profile on LinkedIn to increase their reach to the potential recruiters.
• Our expert guides the students on how to crack any interview.
• On demand, we provide mock interviews for our students looking for jobs.
• We share multiple Internship/recruitment opportunities every week on our Whatsapp group.
• We help our students to get internships not only at law firms and chambers, but also with rising startups in diverse sectors.
• Our mentorship helps students to avoid running the rat race behind the regular job openings; rather we help them design their own path based on their personal interests.
• We share multiple and diverse client opportunities with our pool of practicing advocates on a daily basis. Our references have helped several advocates really scale up their practice. The opportunities range from contract drafting to complex import-export matters. 

List of Weekly Exercises

• Formulate a litigation strategy and draft statements of facts, reliefs and grounds for a specific appeal or application.
• Draft response to scrutiny/assessment notice under Section 143(2) and 142(1) of Income Tax Act, 1961.
• Draft a response to details called for by the assessing officer under Section 142(1) of the Act vide a show cause notice.
• Draft an appeal to be filed before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) along with applicable fees and supporting documents.
• Draft an appeal to be filed before the Commissioner of Income Tax against the assessment order of the assessing officer.
• Draft an appeal before the Dispute Resolution Panel for a potential transfer pricing dispute.
• Draft an appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal / Central Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal.
• Draft a rectification application to be filed before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal.
• Draft an appeal before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals).
• Draft an application before the Authority for Advance Ruling under different taxation laws.