S. 11 : Property held for charitable purposes – Expenditure incurred for renovation of school building and payment of taxes – Allowable as application of income though the assessee is not owner of the building. [S. 11(1)(a)]
The appellant had incurred an expenditure on repairs/renovation of the school building and towards payment of property taxes. The Assessing Officer (AO) disallowed the expenditure towards repairs of the building and the property taxes on the ground that the building in respect of which such expenditure was incurred does not belong to the appellant-society. CIT(A) confirmed the disallowances . On appeal it is submitted that the nature of expenditure, being capital expenditure or otherwise is not relevant in the context of section 11(1)(a) of the said Act. On appeal the Tribunal held that renovation / repairs of the school building are essential for the security of children and others who are using the building for running of the school and thus would be in consonance with the objects of the trust and consequently the expenditure incurred on such repairs and obviously the payment of taxes can be said to be application of the income towards charitable purpose. Accordingly the appeal of the assessee was allowed. (ITA No. 2920/Mum/2023 dt. 12-12-2023) (AY. 2016-17)
The Bombay Society of the Salesian Sisters India, v. ITO (Mum.)(Trib.) www.itatonline.org.
[Coram : Hon’ble Justice (Retd.) Shri C. V. Bhadang, President & Hon’ble Shri B R Baskaran, A.M.]