Annie Joseph Vs ITO (ITAT Cochin)
The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) Cochin heard an appeal by Annie Joseph against the order of the Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals)-1, Ludhiana, concerning the Assessment Year 2021-22. Joseph had filed her income tax return, declaring an income of Rs. 12,40,090 and opted for the new taxation regime under Section 115BAC of the Income Tax Act, 1961. The Centralized Processing Centre (CPC) processed the return under Section 143(1) but denied the benefit of the new tax regime because of a delay in filing Form 10IE, which is required to opt for this regime. The Commissioner of Income Tax (Appeals) upheld the CPC’s decision, stating that both the return and Form 10IE were not filed within the stipulated time.
During the appeal before the ITAT Cochin, the counsel for Annie Joseph argued that the filing of Form 10IE was a directive and that the form was indeed filed along with the return of income, making it available to the CPC during processing. The counsel cited several decisions from other ITAT benches supporting the view that the requirement for filing Form 10IE is directory. The Senior Departmental Representative (Sr.DR) contended that from Assessment Year 2023-24 onwards, the new tax regime became optional, and prior to that, filing Form 10IE before filing the income tax return was necessary. In this case, Form 10IE was filed on January 10, 2024, after the return filing deadline, leading to the CPC’s correct denial of the new tax regime benefit.
