Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income & Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act, 2015.

S. 43 : Penalty for failure to furnish return of income an information, or furnish inaccurate particulars about an asset (including interest in any entity) located outside India- Foreign Bank Account-Signatory for late Mother-Amount was donated to the Charity-Not beneficial owner-Mere no disclosure is not valid ground for levy of penalty-Deletion of penalty was affirmed. [S. 10(3), Income-tax Act, 1961, 132(4) 139, 153A]

The assessee was signatory in a foreign the Bank Account held by the mother . Amount in the said bank account was belong to mother. The Assessing Officer levied the penalty u/s. 43A of the BMA for not disclosing the bank account in return of income. CIT(A) deleted the penalty . On appeal by the revenue the Tribunal held that, the amount held in bank account was not taxed in the hands of the assessee. The Assessee was only a signatory and held in a fiduciary capacity and was never operated by her. On account of search provisions of section. 153A had come to play and in the said return the account was disclosed. The non disclosure of account in the original return got substituted by return u/s. 153A of the Act, which is advantage of the assessee . For non disclosure in previous years, the BMA Act was not in force and hence no lapses. The Non inclusion of account in its return is only technical or venial breach of law. The Order of CIT(A) deleting the penalty was affirmed. (BMA No. 1/Mum/2022 dt. 29-3-2022) (AY. 2017-18)

Addl. CIT v. Leena Gandhi Tiwari (Mum.)(Trib.) www.itatonline.org

(Coram : Hon’ble Shri Pramod Kumar, VP, Hon’ble Shri Rahul Chadhury, JM)