Income Tax Appellate Tribunal Sets Aside Penalty on 83-Year-Old Woman for Not Filing Tax Return
The Delhi Bench of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) has set aside a penalty imposed on an 83-year old woman for not filing her Income Tax Return.
based super senior citizen, who had never filed an I-T Return as she was a According to a report by TOI, the Gurgaon homemaker and did not have taxable income, was shocked when she received a demand of Rs 5,000 – a penalty imposed under (erstwhile) section 271F of the IT Act for not filing the tax return within due date.
The penalty was levied for the year 2011 12. However, no proper direction was provided on the matter by the commissioner (appeals) regarding this penalty.
She had filed an appeal against this order and submitted that she was not liable to file a return for the financial year in dispute, the Commissioner (Appeals) under the faceless appeal mechanism, did not consider this fact. She then submitted to the ITAT that this order was bad in law on various grounds, the TOI report mentioned.
In her appeal, the octogenarian pointed out that the penalty under section 271F is directory and not mandatory as she had a ‘reasonable cause’ for not filing the IT return. She also termed the order arbitrary, illegal and without jurisdiction.
It is to be noted that the provisions of Section 271F have been substituted with section 234F from April 1, 2018.
In her submission before the ITAT, she said that the Income Tax Officer made an error in framing the assessment order under section 144 read with section 147 of the IT Act and a proper procedure was not followed. Her submission also said that orders passed under this section are ex parte, and the assessment is carried out according to the ‘best judgement’ of the IT office based on the available material, TOI reported.
The two member ITAT bench composed of C M Garg, judicial member and BRR Kumar, accountant member, reviewed the wording of the order issued by the Commissioner (Appeals) and quashed the penalty of Rs 5,000 in their order.