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2017 (8) TMI 921 - AT - Income TaxGift receipt - accessibility of income - unilateral gratuitous act without consideration out of natural love and affection or received by the assessee in exchange of brand endorsement / advertisement for the donor - revenue’s main contention that the assessee has indulged in brand endorsement for the donor and in return, received the said Villa and therefore, taxable in the hands of the assessee, being arising out of exercise of profession - Held that:- Upon perusal of chain of events leading to execution of gift as enumerated in Para 7.2, we have already reached an inevitable conclusion that all events /actions were interlinked and part and parcel of the same gift transaction and therefore, gift deed was executed by the Nakheel at the behest of Sultan only in view of the fact that ownership was vested with the company. Finally, it is well settled law that no addition could be made merely on the basis of mere suspicion, conjectures or surmises. The assessee has therefore, in our opinion, discharged the onus of proving the gift transaction being unilateral gratuitous act of the donor company and the onus was on revenue to establish the contrary, which, in our opinion, has remained undischarged. Lastly, so far as taxability of gift in kind is concerned, we find that the gift of immovable property on or after 01/10/2009 has been brought to tax by Finance Act, 2009 vide amendment to Section 56(2)(vii)(b). Before this amendment, any sum of money exceeding ₹ 50,000/- received by an individual / HUF without consideration could be brought to tax vide Section 56(2)(vii)(a). Since we are dealing with AY 2008-09 about taxability of an immovable property, the said amendment does not apply to the case of the assessee and therefore could not help the revenue in any manner. In view of the above we find that the contention / conduct of the assessee outweigh the revenue’s contention. Therefore, we are inclined to hold that the said Villa was received in gift by the assessee and not out of exercise of profession and therefore, not taxable in assessee’s hands - Decided in favour of assessee.
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