Form 146 — Authorised Representative — representation before tax authorities, properly authorised.

Form 146 is the authorisation form under Section 288 of the Income Tax Act through which a taxpayer — whether an individual, company, firm, or any other person — appoints an authorised representative to appear before income tax authorities on their behalf. This includes appearances before the Assessing Officer during assessment proceedings, before the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) in appeal hearings, before the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, and in response to notices and inquiries from the tax department.

The scope of representation under Section 288 is broad. A Chartered Accountant, a legal practitioner, a company secretary, a relative of the assessee, an officer of a scheduled bank, or any person holding a specified qualification can be appointed as an authorised representative. The authorisation must be in writing and, depending on the authority before whom the representative is to appear, it may need to be in a prescribed form. Form 146 is the prescribed form for this purpose — it grants the named representative the power to attend hearings, present documents, make submissions, and receive notices on behalf of the taxpayer.

NDS Advisors routinely appears as authorised representative before Assessing Officers, CIT(A), and the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal for our clients. We prepare Form 146 as the formal authorisation document, attend assessment hearings, respond to notices, prepare submissions and written statements, and manage the full representation process so that the taxpayer does not need to personally attend proceedings — a significant benefit when proceedings are at a distant station or when the technical complexity requires professional handling.