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2018 (4) TMI 796

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..... who is a retired cricketer of international repute. This type of receipts has specifically been exempted by the CBDT circular No. 477 [F. No. 199/86-IT(A-1)] dtd. 22.01.1986, which states that the amount paid to amateur sportsman who is not a professional will not be liable to tax in his hands as it would not be in the nature of income. The assessee was an amateur cricketer and his profession is employment with Air India from where he is getting salary. He played the game of cricket for India as his passion and the receipts of the net proceeds for the benefit match was only in the nature of appreciation of his personal achievements and talent and thus, cannot be brought to tax by invoking the provisions of section 56(2)(vii)(a) of the Act. This proceeds from benefit match received by assessee is in appreciation of his past achievements in the International Cricket arena and such type of receipt cannot be taxed because these type of receipts are specifically exempted. Accordingly, we are of the view that the CIT(A) has rightly deleted the addition and we confirm the order of CIT(A). - Decided against revenue - ITA No. 1327/Mum/2016 - - - Dated:- 13-4-2018 - Sri Mahavir Singh, JM .....

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..... to 6.11 as under: - 6.7 I have carefully considered the rival contentions on the issue of treating the amount of ₹ 50,44,000/- received from conducting the benefit match as income and assessing the same in the hands of the assesse and also the documents submitted by the appellant in support of his arguments. The appellant treated the same as capital receipt and credited to the capital account without offering the same for tax. Whereas the AO, on the basis of the statement recorded by the Addl. DIT(Inv.), Pune from the MD of the company which organized the match wherein it was stated that the tax implications were borne by the appellant, and stating that the appellant has not played for the country and the amount received is from conducting a benefit match and is not a capital receipt as claimed by him, since a profit and loss account is drawn by the organizers, it is a revenue receipt and is taxable u/s 56(vii) of the Act. Accordingly, the AO assessed the same as 'Income from Other Sources'. 6.8 The appellant is an employee of Air India and represented team India at international level and team Mumbai at the national level as wicket keeper. In view of the fa .....

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..... eptable in the case of the appellant as the receipt is in the nature of revenue whereas the fact is that the same cannot be linked to any source and is received by organizing a benefit match and definitely falls into the category of capital receipt. In view of the same the AO treating the amount received by the appellant from the benefit match as income is not a correct proposition. 6.11 The judicial pronouncements referred, supports the case of the appellant. In the case of G. R. Viswanath vs. ITO 29 lTD 142 Hon'ble ITAT, Bengaluru held that the assesse being full time employee of SBI and not a professional cricketer, the amount given by admirers or lovers of cricketer in token of appreciation of qualities possessed by assesse- such amounts are not liable to tax. In the present case also the appellant is working with Air India and not a professional cricketer and the amounts are given by the admirers from the benefit match and therefore the logic applied by the Hon'ble ITAT in the case of G.R. Viswanath clearly applies to the appellant case. The decision arrived by the Hon'ble ITAT in the case of Kapil Dev and Abhinav Bindra also supports the case of the Appellant .....

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..... 7 runs and finished season with 440 runs in 6 innings at an average of 73.33 with one half-century and two hundreds. He played 58 matches for Mumbai cricket team in which he took 176 catches and did 23 stumping's and scored 3,054 runs. He was also captain for 1999 00 Ranji Trophy. International Career On the final day of the Third Test against Australia in Chennai, Dighe made an unbeaten 22 on debut, after a collapse during the run-chase, guiding the Indians securing a historic 2-1 series win. Sourav Ganguly later said that Dighe was to become the first-choice wicket-keeper for the country, but numerous wicket-keeping errors lead to his replacement. Coaching Career Dighe later entered coaching, serving as head coach of Hong Kong at the 2007 ICC World Cricket League Division Three tournament replacing Robin Singh. He was coach of Tripura cricket team from 2006 to 2008 as well as fielding coach of Mumbai Indians during 2008 Indian Premier League but was replaced by Jonty Rhodes. Later, he was named as selector of Mumbai cricket team in 2009. 7. We have heard rival contentions and gone through facts and circumstances of the case. The facts available i .....

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..... sional musician. 10. The case of the assessee before us is on a better footing. He is not a professional cricketer. The amounts were given to him by the admirers or lovers of cricket in token of their appreciation of the qualities possessed by the assessee as a cricketer. In the circumstances, we are of the view that the amount of ₹ 4,75,000 received abroad is not includible in the taxable income. 8. Similarly, the co-ordinate Bench of Delhi Tribunal in the case of Abhinav Bindra vs. DCIT (2013) 28 ITR (Trib) 0376 (Delhi) has considered the identical issue and also considered the amendment provisions of section 56(2)(v) of the Act and held as under:- 13. Thus, Section 14 provides the various heads under which income has to be computed and Item No. F which is 'income from other sources' is a residuary head i.e. the income which is not assessable under any of the other heads, viz., salary, income from house property and gains from business or profession and capital gains is to be assessed under the head 'income from other sources'. However, for applicability of Section 14 and thereafter Section 56, what is required is the receipt in the nature of .....

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..... alue of such sum; 10. The AO assessed the proceeds of benefit match of the assessee under section 56(2)(vii)(a) of the Act, which is brought in the statue book with effect from 01.10.2009. But we find that this amount represents the gratitude from the fans and followers by attending the benefit match conducting in honor of the assessee, who is a retired cricketer of international repute. This type of receipts has specifically been exempted by the CBDT circular No. 477 [F. No. 199/86-IT(A-1)] dtd. 22.01.1986, which states that the amount paid to amateur sportsman who is not a professional will not be liable to tax in his hands as it would not be in the nature of income. The assessee was an amateur cricketer and his profession is employment with Air India from where he is getting salary. He played the game of cricket for India as his passion and the receipts of the net proceeds for the benefit match was only in the nature of appreciation of his personal achievements and talent and thus, cannot be brought to tax by invoking the provisions of section 56(2)(vii)(a) of the Act. This proceeds from benefit match received by assessee is in appreciation of his past achievements in the I .....

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