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2015 (1) TMI 1381

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..... - Dated:- 9-1-2015 - Shri A. Mohan Alankamony, Accountant Member And Shri V. Durga Rao, Judicial Member Appellant by : Shri P. Radhakrishnan, JCIT Respondent by : Shri D. Anand , Advocate ORDER V. Durga Rao, Judicial Member: This appeal filed by the Revenue is directed against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) VII, Chennai, dated 16.09.2013 relevant to the assessment year 2010-11. 2. Brief facts of the case are that the assessee is a public charitable trust and filed its income by declaring NIL income. The case of the assessee was selected for scrutiny and the Assessing Officer computed the taxable income of .95,95,600/- by rejecting the claim of the assessee of exemption under section 11 of the Income Tax Act on the ground that the assessee was running a Kalyana Mandapam, which is according to the Assessing Officer is a business as it was violation of provisions of section 2(15) of the Act. In the assessment order the Assessing Officer has observed that the object of the will of the testator amongst other objects is to run Kalyana Mandapam. Therefore, the object of the trust by itself constitutes running of Kalyana Mandapam a .....

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..... ing the various charitable activities. The Assessing Officer has not disproved the above facts. Further, the ld. CIT(A) has observed that if a practical view is taken, it is to be understand that the marriage hall is an immovable property belonging to the trust, which it lets out on nominal rental charges for the purpose of augmenting its resources required for carrying out the primary and dominant object of running charitable activities and also to meet maintenance, repairs and renovation expenses of the various properties owned by the trust. The Assessing officer seems to have not appreciated these facts by artificially isolating the running of the marriage hall from the main frame work of the dominant object of the trust by branding it as a business endeavour with profit motive. By observing the above facts and also by following the decision of the Tribunal in assessee s own case in I.T.A. No. 103/Mds/1998 dated 27.12.2004 for the assessment year 1995- 96, held that letting out of marriage hall and other immovable properties is not the main activity of the trust but subordinate activity to the main activity of the charitable trust. The primary and dominant purpose would not prev .....

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..... funds of the trust would be distributed in any manner to the trustees or persons defined in section 13(1)(c) of the Income Tax Act. It is also a fact that based on Form No. 10A filed by the assessee on 02.05.1973, the DIT(E) has granted registration on 30.06.2000 under section 12A of the Act with effect from 02.05.1973. In so far as charitable activities carried out by the trust are concerned, from paper book page No. 39 to 41, it is very clear that the assessee is carrying charitable activities such as relief to poor, education, medical aid, etc. Even in the assessment year under consideration, the assessee had spent nearly about .35,49,082/- for charitable purpose. Therefore, the main object of the assessee trust is to carry charitable activities. 8. In so far as invoking section 2(15) of the Act is concerned, the relevant provisions of the above section, as substituted by the Finance Act 2008 (18 of 2008) [w.e.f. 01.04.2009], is extracted as under: [(15) charitable purpose includes relief of the poor, education, medical relief, [preservation of environment (including watersheds, forests and wildlife) and preservation of monuments or places or objects of artistic or histo .....

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..... eived from the Kalyana Mandapam are utilized. Thus, the proviso to section 2(15) has no application to assessee s case. 12. The Hon ble Madras High Court has also considered similar issue in assessee s own case [(2010) 326 ITR 662] for earlier assessment year and dismissed the appeal filed by the Revenue by observing as under: 5. For the earlier assessment year, which is the subject-matter of ITA No. 103/Mad/1998, the Tribunal has held as follows : The assessee referred to cl. 92 of the will left behind by Shri Narayana Guruviah Chetty. It was submitted that the deceased desired that gifts and charities should be continued permanently and powers have been given to the trustees in the manner they thought proper in carrying out the will of the deceased. The CIT(A) noted that cl. 9 of the said will permitted carrying out improvements to land and property. It allowed lending of money on interest and developing of the estate. He considered the provisions of cls. 8, 92, 20 to 63 and other clauses of the will. One of the objects pertained to the Kalyanamandapam and giving the same on rent with the sole object that rental income from the Kalyanamandapam should be applied to char .....

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