TMI Blog1943 (4) TMI 10X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y an assessee under that head in respect of the bona fide annual value of property consisting of any buildings or lands appurtenant thereto of which he is the owner, subject to certain allowances. The only allowance, which, it is suggested, applies to this case, arises under sub-clause (iv) , which was amended in the year 1939. The sub-clause reads : Where the property is subject to a mortgage or other capital charge, the amount of any interest on such mortgage or charge . Then the following words were added in 1939 : Where the property is subject to an annual charge not being a capital charge, the amount of such charge.'' Now, the question is whether any municipal taxes payable under the City of Bombay Municipal A ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ce in half-yearly instalments on each first day of April and each first day of October. Then comes Section 212, which is the section creating a charge, and that provides, so far as material, that property taxes due under the Act in respect of any building or land shall, subject to the prior payment of the land revenue due to Government, be a first charge upon the building or land and upon the goods and chattels found within or upon such building or land and belonging to the person liable for such taxes. So that the property tax is leviable in respect of a year, is payable in advance half-yearly on April 1, and October 1, and when in arrear, the tax becomes charge on the property. The question is whether that tax can be said to be an annual ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... LR 60 Cal 1029; 1 ITR 135; but if that be so, I think the Legislature must have misunderstood that decision. All that the Privy Council decided in that case was that where a person was entitled to income, and had to pay out of that income an annuity to his father's widow, that annuity was a charge on income, which had in effect priority to his own title and, therefore, income which was payable to the father's widow never became the income of the assessee liable to assessment under the Act. That case was not dealing with allowances. The question whether municipal taxes ought to be made the subject of an allowance can hardly have been absent from the minds of the Legislature when they amended Section 9 (1) (iv), Income-tax Act, bec ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... by the Municipality, they would have to be provided in many cases by the owner, and there is no heading under which such payments could be claimed as deductions in respect of income-tax. Therefore, if the Legislature were minded to authorise a deduction in respect of municipal taxes, I should have expected them to say so in clear language, and there would be no difficulty in drafting a sub-section covering the point. I find it impossible to suppose that the Legislature, whatever they may have intended the words to cover, can have intended to include municipal taxes in such an expression as an annual charge not being a capital charge . It is not necessary for us to consider what the exact meaning of those words is. It is sufficient to say t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e Municipality fixing the sum of the tax before April 1 in a year, the landlord wrote to the Municipality to appropriate what he had paid in advance against the tax for the whole year, there will be no charge at all. The fact that the tax can be paid in two instalments makes the position peculiar. After the tax is fixed for the year suppose a payment is made for the first half-year, but not for the second half; under Section 212 of the Municipal Act it is clear that there is a charge on the property for what remains due for the second half. Still, it will not be for the annual payment and therefore not an annual charge. One of the recognised meanings of the word annual is anything that lasts for a year . In my opinion, therefore, the nat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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