| COURT: | P&H High Court |
| CORAM: | Ajay Kumar Mittal J, Raj Rahul Garg J |
| SECTION(S): | 14A, Rule 8D |
| GENRE: | Domestic Tax |
| CATCH WORDS: | Disallowance u/s 14 & Rule 8D, exempt income |
| COUNSEL: | Urvashi Dhugga |
| DATE: | January 12, 2016 (Date of pronouncement) |
| DATE: | February 28, 2016 (Date of publication) |
| AY: | 2009-10 |
| FILE: | Click here to download the file in pdf format |
| CITATION: | |
| S. 14A/ Rule 8D: The disallowance of expenditure cannot exceed the amount of tax-free dividend | |
Disallowance under Section 14A of the Act requires finding of incurring of expenditure in respect of exempted income and where it is found that for earning exempted income, no expenditure has been incurred, disallowance under section 14A of the Act cannot stand. In the present case, when the assessee claimed that it had not made any expenditure on earning exempt income, the Assessing Officer in terms of sub section (2) of Section 14A of the Act was required to collect such material evidence to determine expenditure if any incurred by the assessee in relation to earning of exempt income. The income from dividend had been shown at Rs. 1,11,564/- whereas disallowance under Section 14A read with Rule 8D of the Rules worked out by the Assessing Officer came to Rs. 4,09,675/-. Thus, the Assessing Officer disallowed the entire tax exempt income which is not permissible as per settled position of law. The window for disallowance is indicated in section 14A, and is only to the extent of disallowing expenditure “incurred by the assessee in relation to the tax exempt income”. The disallowance under section 14A read with Rule 8D as worked out by the Assessing officer is not in accordance with law and as such working is not sustainable. The view adopted by the Tribunal being a plausible view based on factual position and the relevant case law on the point, does not warrant any interference by this Court
These are the days when senior officers do our in their mind (and fingers) in every possible assessment made.It would be interesting to know what ACTION the CBDT IS GOING take and how it is proposing to fix the responsibility.The budget of 2016 has not shown the IT department is good light .the PM has also made a critical observation.