Can a CA Represent His Employer in Tax Proceedings Without a Certificate of Practice?

The law regarding representation under the Income Tax Act ( the Act ) for any person is provided under section 288, which provides that an “accountant “ specified in the said provision itself is allowed to represent an assessee in a tax proceeding.

A Chartered Accountant who holds a certificate of practice is considered an accountant as per the Explanation under section 288 of the Income Tax Act. Refer below :

Explanation.—In this section, “accountant” means a chartered accountant as defined in clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 (38 of 1949) who holds a valid certificate of practice under sub-section (1) of section 6 of that Act,

So, it is clear that a CA having a certificate of practice can represent anyone before Income Tax Authority

What if He/she is an employee of a company who does not hold a certificate of practice?

The answer to this question ( or situation) lies in section 288 itself, wherein the legislature has defined “authorised representative” to include an employee of a company ( whether or not a qualified CA ). The relevant part of subsection 2 is extracted below :

(2) For the purposes of this section, “authorised representative” means a person authorised by the assessee in writing to appear on his behalf, being—
(i) a person related to the assessee in any manner, or a person regularly employed by the assessee; or
(ii) any officer of a Scheduled Bank with which the assessee maintains a current account or has other regular dealings; or
(iii) any legal practitioner who is entitled to practise in any civil court in India; or
(iv) an accountant; or

So , 2(i) provides that a person regularly employed by the assessee can be an authorised representative. The accountant is separately provided under 288(2)(iv) .

So, a chartered accountant having no certificate of practice can be an authorised representative for his employer company only by virtue of section 288(2)(i) of the Act.

The final answer to the main question is Yes , a CA who does not hold CoP can represent his employer company in tax proceedings. When the employee CA is authorised by his employer company, he or she is not appear before the tax authorities as an ” accountant “, but as an authorised employee of the company under sec. 288(2)(1) of the Income Tax Act ..