Home Case Index All Cases Income Tax Income Tax + AT Income Tax - 2024 (1) TMI AT This
Forgot password New User/ Regiser ⇒ Register to get Live Demo
2024 (1) TMI 205 - AT - Income TaxReopening of assessment u/s 147 - addition u/s 68 - information received from Investigation Wing, Kolkata that the assessee is a beneficiary of circuitous transaction of cash deposits through various layers and bank accounts and has received unaccounted money after layering of funds through bank channels of various non-existing and shell companies - HELD THAT:- It is undisputed that the original return of income filed by the assessee was merely processed under section 143(1) of the Act and there was no scrutiny assessment of the return filed by the assessee and its books of accounts. Further, the only data available with the AO was the data provided along with the income tax return. Therefore, we are of the considered view that the information received subsequently from the Investigation Wing, Kolkata constitutes new and tangible material for initiating the reassessment proceedings in the case of the assessee, and on the basis of the aforesaid information, the AO initiated proceedings under section 147 of the Act and issued a notice under section 148 Therefore, if there is relevant material on the basis of which a reasonable person can form a requisite belief that income chargeable to tax has escaped assessment, then proceedings under section 147 of the Act can be validly initiated. In the present case, as noted above, on the basis of information received from the Investigation Wing, reassessment proceedings in the case of the assessee were initiated. Further, it is also well settled that the sufficiency or correctness of the material is not a thing to be considered at the stage of recording the reasons. As a result, we find no infirmity in the reassessment proceedings initiated by the AO under section 147 of the Act, and the same are upheld. Addition u/s 68 - Unaccounted money through various layers and bank accounts of non-existing and shell companies -We find that additions on the basis of similar allegations also came for consideration in another decision in ITO v/s Supergold Properties Private Limited [2020 (11) TMI 46 - ITAT MUMBAI] wherein the addition made under section 68 was deleted by the coordinate bench of the Tribunal - We also find that in ITO v/s Nextgen Construction Private Limited [2020 (6) TMI 634 - ITAT MUMBAI] assessee has discharged the primary onus to demonstrate fulfilment of primary ingredients of Sec.68 and it was incumbent upon revenue to dislodge the assessee’s claim by bringing on record, cogent material to establish that the assessee’s unaccounted money was routed in its books of account in the garb of unsecured loans. However, we are unable to find any such material except for the fact that additions were made merely on suspicious, conjectures and surmises. Therefore, no infirmity could be found, in the impugned order, in this regard. DR could neither bring any material on record to controvert the findings of the coordinate bench of the Tribunal rendered in a similar factual matrix in Nextgen Construction Private Limited (supra) and Supergold Properties Private Limited (supra) nor could bring any material on record to controvert the aforesaid distinction drawn by the assessee. Thus the impugned order passed by the learned CIT(A) is set aside and the addition made under section 68 of the Act is directed to be deleted. Assessee appeal is partly allowed.
|