Category: Tribunal

Archive for the ‘Tribunal’ Category


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DATE: December 15, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: December 16, 2015 (Date of publication)
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S. 268A: In view of CBDT's Circular no. 21/ 2015 dated 10.12.2015 appeals of the department where the monetary limit does not exceed Rs. 10 lakh have to be dismissed as a legal nullity. CBDT's decision termed as "paradigm shift", "unprecedented" and "possibly a game changing initiative heralding a new era in thoughtful litigation management"

We need to take note of a very pragmatic initiative, taken by the Central Board of Direct Taxes last week, for reducing litigation in direct taxes. Vide circular no. 21/ 2015 dated 10th December 2015, the Central Board of Direct Taxes has, inter alia, announced that, subject to certain exceptions- which are not relevant in the present context, henceforth, no departmental appeals will be filed against relief given by the CIT(A), before this Tribunal, unless the tax effect, excluding interest, exceeds Rs 10,00,000. What is even more important is that not only that such a taxpayer friendly measure will be implemented in all future tax litigation, even the pending appeals, wherever the tax involved in the appeals does not exceed Rs 10,00,000, shall not be pressed or withdrawn. In effect thus, irrespective of the year to which the departmental appeal before the Tribunal pertains, as long as such an appeal is pending before the Tribunal, this will be a legal nullity

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DATE: November 6, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: December 3, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2006-07
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S. 271(1)(c): A penalty notice u/s 274 which does not strike out the irrelevant portion & which does not specify whether the penalty is for “concealment” or for “furnishing inaccurate particulars” renders the penalty order void

The next argument that the show cause notice u/s.274 of the Act which is in a printed form does not strike out as to whether the penalty is sought to be levied on the for “furnishing inaccurate particulars of income” or “concealing particulars of such income”. On this aspect we find that in the show cause notice u/s.274 of the Act the AO has not struck out the irrelevant part. It is therefore not spelt out as to whether the penalty proceedings are sought to be levied for “furnishing inaccurate particulars of income” or “concealing particulars of such income”

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DATE: November 27, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: December 3, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2006-07
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Entire law on transfer pricing implications of (i) allowing excess credit to AE's on account of sale of goods and (ii) issue of corporate guarantee to AEs (after insertion of Explanation i(c) to s. 92B by FA 2012) explained

If the international transaction of exports of goods which has been benchmarked on TNMM basis is duly accepted by the TPO, making an adjustment for interest on excess credit allowed on sales to AEs will vitiate the picture, inasmuch as what has already been factored in the TNMM analysis, by taking operating profit figure which incorporate financial impact of the excess credit period allowed, will be adjusted again separately as well because the interest levy for late realization of debtors is inextricably connected with the sales and is also part of operating income. When such an interest is includible in operating income and the operating income itself has been accepted as reasonable under the TNMM, there cannot be an occasion to make adjustment for notional interest on delayed realization of debtors

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DATE: November 30, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: December 3, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2007-08
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S. 68 (bogus share capital): Despite statement of Mukesh C. Choksi & Jayesh Sampat admitting bogus share capital, addition cannot be made in assessee-company's hands

If the share application money is received by the assessee company from alleged bogus share holders who’s name are given to the AO then the department is free to proceed to reopen their individual assessments in accordance with law but it cannot be regarded as undisclosed income of assessee company

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DATE: August 31, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 27, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2009-10
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S. 11/ 12AA: Mere non-intimation of amendments to trust deed cannot ipso facto result in cancellation of registration if there is no change in tone and tenor of objects

Mere non-intimation of the amendments in the Trust Deed to the Department cannot ipso-facto lead to cancellation of registration because the statutory requirement of cancellation of registration contained in section 12AA(3) of the Act prescribe that the cancellation of registration cannot be effectuated unless a case is made out that the new objects do not fit-in with the existing objects (i.e. new objects are ‘non-charitable’ in nature) or that the activities are in-genuine

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DATE: October 30, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 27, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2009-10
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S. 43B/ 145A: Taxes collected by the assessee, which remain unpaid, have to be added to the income even if the same are not debited to the P&L A/c and claimed as a deduction

In view of the provisions of the Act i.e. section 145A of the Act, we find no merit in the plea of the assessee in not recognizing the VAT attributable to its sales as part of the sale consideration of the goods while computing its Profit & Loss Account. The mandatory provisions of Central Act i.e. section 145A of the Act supersedes the provisions of any State Act i.e. Maharashtra Value Added Tax Act, 2002. Once the assessee recognized the VAT amount as part of the sale consideration, it tantamount to the said entry being routed through the Profit & Loss Account, especially in the cases where the assessee is following mercantile system of accounting

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DATE: September 1, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 26, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2009-10
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S. 14A/ Rule 8D: The AO must give reasons before rejecting the assessee's claim. He must establish nexus between the expenditure & the exempt income. The disallowance cannot exceed the exempt income

The AO has neither recorded his satisfaction nor given reasons as to how the claim of expenditure in relation to tax free income has not been correctly made by the assessee as envisaged under section 14A(2). The AO has mechanically invoked Rule 8D. The AO has not established any nexus between the investments made and the expenditure incurred under the head interest expenditure and administrative expenses, before disregarding the disallowance suo moto made by the assessee. disallowance u/s.14A cannot exceed the amount of exempt income

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DATE: February 18, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 23, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2008-09
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The object of introduction of Securities Transaction Tax (STT) was to end litigation on the issue of whether profit earned from delivery based sale of shares is capital gains or business profit. Merely because the assessee liquidates its investment within a short span of time, which had given better overall earning to the assessee, would not lead to the conclusion that the assessee had no intention to keep on the funds as investor in equity shares, but was actually intended to trade in shares

The idea behind introduction of security transaction tax is to end the litigation on the issue, whether the profit earned from delivery based sale of shares is capital gains for business profit. Thus, w.e.f. 01.10.2004; on the share transactions subjected to STT; concessional tax rate of 10% (which has been increased to 15% from AY 2009-10) are applicable in respect of STCG whereas no tax is chargeable in respect of LTCG. It is also noted that the CBDT vide its Circular no.4/2007, dated 15.06.2007 has also recognized possibility of two portfolios, i.e. one ‘Investment portfolio’ comprising of securities which are to be treated as capital assets and the other ‘Trading portfolio’ comprising of stock in trade which are to be treated as trading assets. In view of these facts, profit arose on shares in respect of delivery based transaction are liable to be taxed as capital gain and not as business income.

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DATE: October 21, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 20, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2008-09
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S. 271B: The requirement in s. 44AB that the the tax audit report has to be obtained "before" the specified date has to be interpreted to mean "on or before" the specified date. So, even if the audit report is obtained "on" the specified date, there is no default

The term “before” specified date in section 44AB means “on or before” the specified date. Therefore, though audit report is signed on 30th September 2008 and the requirement of law is to be construed as tax audit report required to be obtained on or before 30th September 2008. Hence, the assessee has obtained tax audit report in time and there is no default u/s 271B. In Prem Chand Nathmal Kothari vs. Kishanlal Bachharaj Vyas & Ors dated 5th April 1975 reported in AIR 1976 Bombay 82 the Bombay High Court, relying on the Chambers Dictionary, held that word ‘before’ means ‘previous to the expiration of’. Therefore, before 30th September, 2008 means before the end of 30th September 2008

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DATE: October 28, 2015 (Date of pronouncement)
DATE: November 20, 2015 (Date of publication)
AY: 2006-07
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S. 147: Reopening solely on the basis of information received from another AO that the assessee has booked bogus bills but without independent application of mind to the information renders the reopening void

At the time of recording of the reasons the Assessing Officer apparently was not having any idea about the nature of the transactions entered into by the assessee. In the reasons recorded there is no mention about the nature of the transactions. As per provision of section 147 the reasons to believe has to be that of the Assessing Officer and further there have to be application of mind by the Assessing Officer. The Assessing Officer was also not aware of the nature of the accommodation entries. In the reasons recorded he has simply mentioned the names of the party and the amount and nowhere has stated the nature of such entry. This also shows that the Assessing Officer has made no effort to look into the return of the assessee which was available with him