Loading judgment…
Facts
The assessee, a charitable trust, had corpus donations treated as income by the Assessing Officer. The additions were confirmed by the NFAC, leading to the present appeal. The assessee's counsel argued for a fresh opportunity for assessment due to the assessment order being a best judgment assessment and prior non-compliance.
Held
The Tribunal noted the assessee's prayer for another opportunity and, without dwelling on merits, remitted the issues back to the Jurisdictional Assessing Officer for a denovo assessment, allowing the appeal for statistical purposes.
Key Issues
Whether corpus donations are capital receipts and not taxable, and whether the assessee should be granted another opportunity for a denovo assessment.
Sections Cited
144, 250, 142(1)
AI-generated summary — verify with the full judgment below
Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, PUNE BENCHES “SMC”, PUNE
Before: DR.MANISH BORAD
आदेश / ORDER
PER DR. MANISH BORAD, ACCOUNTANT MEMBER :
The captioned appeal at the instance of assessee pertaining to A.Y. 2017-18 is directed against the order dated 03.03.2025 of National Faceless Appeal Centre (NFAC), Delhi passed u/s.250 of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (hereinafter also called ‘the Act’) arising out of Assessment Order dated 01.11.2019 passed u/s.144 of the Act.
2. Assessee has raised following grounds of appeal :
“1. On the facts and in the circumstances of the case and in law, the Honourable Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) has erred in confirming the addition of Rs. 75,27,115/- to the income of the appellant by treating the corpus donation as income of the appellant without appreciating the fact that the corpus donations are capital receipts and not taxable. Hence the appellant hereby prays that the addition of Rs 75,27,115/- may please be deleted.
The appellant hereby reserves the right to add, amend, alter, or raise any additional ground or grounds of appeal or delete or withdraw any of the grounds of appeal.”
Shri Sevagiri Maharaj Deosthan 3. At the outset, ld. Counsel for the assessee submitted that since the order of ld. Assessing Officer is best judgment assessment framed u/s.144 of the Act and secondly assessee failed to comply with the notices of hearing issued by ld.CIT(A), prayer has been made to provide one more opportunity for going before ld.Jurisdictional Assessing Officer for adjudication of the issue and to frame denovo assessment.
Ld. DR on the other hand supported the orders of the lower authorities.
I have heard the rival contentions and perused the record placed before me. Admittedly, the assessee which is a charitable trust and on the basis of information about cash deposits in Specified Bank Notes (SBNs) during the demonetization period in the bank account maintained with Bank of Maharashtra , Pusegaon branch ld. Assessing Officer (AO) carried out the assessment proceedings and issued notice u/s.142(1) of the Act. Due to partial compliance, ld. AO concluded the proceedings by making addition of Rs.29,85,490/-. Aggrieved assessee preferred appeal before ld.CIT(A) but then for lack of proper submissions assessee failed to succeed.
Under the given facts and circumstances and the prayer made by ld. Counsel for the assessee, I hereby deem it proper to afford one more opportunity to the assessee. In view thereof, without dwelling into merits of the issues, the issues are remitted back to the file of ld. Jurisdictional Assessing Officer for for denovo assessment. Needless to mention that ld.JAO in the set aside proceedings shall afford reasonable opportunity of hearing to the assessee. Assessee is directed to update latest Shri Sevagiri Maharaj Deosthan email id and contact detail on ITBA portal. Assessee is also directed to remain vigilant and not to take adjournment unless otherwise required for reasonable cause. Impugned order is hereby set aside and effective grounds of appeal raised by the appellant are allowed for statistical purposes.
In the result, appeal of the assessee is allowed for statistical purposes.
Order pronounced on this 03rd day of September, 2025.