COURT: | Supreme Court |
CORAM: | Navin Sinha J, R.F. Nariman J |
SECTION(S): | 28(va), 4 |
GENRE: | Domestic Tax |
CATCH WORDS: | non-compete fee |
COUNSEL: | Ajay Vohra, Arijit Prasad, Arvind Datar |
DATE: | July 22, 2020 (Date of pronouncement) |
DATE: | July 23, 2020 (Date of publication) |
AY: | 1995-96 |
FILE: | Click here to view full post with file download link |
CITATION: | |
S. 28(v-a): There is a dichotomy between receipt of compensation by an assessee for the loss of agency and receipt of compensation attributable to the negative/restrictive covenant. The compensation received for the loss of agency is a revenue receipt whereas the compensation attributable to a negative/ restrictive covenant is a capital receipt. Payment received as non-competition fee under a negative covenant was always treated as a capital receipt till AY 2003-2004. It is only w.e.f. 1-4-2003 that the said capital receipt is now made taxable u/s 28(v-a). It is well settled that a liability cannot be created retrospectively (All imp judgements referred) |
The revenue has no business to second guess commercial or business expediency of what parties at arms-length decide for each other. For example, stating that there was no rationale behind the payment of INR 6.6 crores and that the assessee was not a probable or perceptible threat or competitor to the SWC group is the perception of the Assessing Officer, which cannot take the place of business reality from the point of view of the assessee, as has been pointed out by us hereinabove. The fact that M/s Maltings Ltd. had incurred a loss in the previous year is again neither here nor there. It may in future be a direct threat to the SWC group and may turn around and make profits in future years. Besides, M/s Maltings Ltd. is only one concern of the assessee – it is the assessee’s expertise in this field on all counts that was the threat perception of the SWC group which cannot be second guessed by the revenue
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